Saturday, December 10, 2011

Entertainer, producer and presenter Said Aghassaiy joins Life!tv

First "media-transfer" for Life!tv.
Said Aghassaiy, beter known as "Pita Said", joins Life!tv as of this week.

Friday, December 09, 2011

Life!tv zendt TEDx-conferenties uit

Vanaf zaterdag 10 december zendt Life!tv telkens vijf TEDx-sprekers uit. De specialisten ter zake deden hun visie over de toekomst uit de doeken tijdens de TEDx-conferenties die in Brussel werden georganiseerd de laatste jaren.

TEDx is een spinoff van TED, de grote Amerikaanse broer waarmee alles begon. TED ontstond in 1984 en had de bedoeling om via conferenties de werelden van de technologie, entertainment en design dichter bij elkaar te brengen. Ondertussen worden overal ter wereld TEDx-conferenties gehouden. TEDx is een afkorting. De T staat voor technologie. De E staat voor entertainment. De D staat voor design. De x betekent dat het om een onafhankelijke lokale conferentie gaat gebaseerd op de principes van de grote TED-conferenties in Amerika.

Gert Van Mol, CEO Life!tv: “Het DNA van onze zender is erg mannelijk. Je hebt natuurlijk mannen en mannen. Naast auto’s, games, sport en babes, maken we in ons programma-aanbod met plezier plaats voor een reeks TEDx-conferenties. We zijn er ons bewust van dat dat geen vrijblijvende televisie is. Maar in plaats van te spreken in termen van moeilijke of gemakkelijke televisie, geloven we eerder in niches en doelgroepen. De TEDx-conferenties slagen er telkens in om het kruim van de hedendaagse denkers en doeners naar België te halen. De tickets daarvoor zijn in een mum van tijd de deur uit. Dus daar is duidelijk een publiek voor. Ook televisie mag zo nu en dan wel een punt maken. Life!tv maakt dat punt graag de komende weekends tussen 22u en 23u.”

In het komende weekend (10 en 11 december) brengt Life!tv de volgende TEDx-presentaties:

Tan Le een dame die erin geslaagd is om via denkpatronen objecten te doen bewegen op een computerscherm
Stromae de bekende muzikant en artist die muziek gebruikt in digitale leerprocessen
Dries Buytaert de man achter Drupal, het website platform dat tot in het Witte Huis gebruikt wordt
Nicolas Negroponte de bezieler achter One Laptop Per Child, of de 100-dollar-laptop voor de derde wereld
Mary Lou Jepsen dankzij haar innovaties bij de ontwikkeling van computerschermen uitgeroepen door Time Magazine tot een van de meest invloedrijke vrouwen ter wereld (2008)

Voor meer informatie:
Sven Verresen, sverresen@thinkmedia.be
Gert Van Mol, gvanmol@thinkmedia.be

Friday, November 11, 2011

Looking for quotes you like

I am producing a billboard program for a Belgian tv channel (Life!tv) highlighting quotes from people you like or follow. Especially quotes that relate well to a young male audience. Please keep sending them.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

TODAY: Start of "Dakar Legends Trail"

Thursday 13-10: noon:
Thierry Sarasyn, the chief editor of MotorWereld Magazine, will leave with 3 friends for Dakar in the "Dakar Legends Trail", a new tv documentary to be broadcasted on Life!tv as of end of December 2011.

Thierry and his group will leave from the offices of MotorWereld Magazine, Keetberglaan 1b, Melsele, near Antwerp.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Corporate Communication versus Journalism

First read the message (1) Corporate Communications Director Kate Dobbin from The Wall Street Journal Europe is sending to all her press contacts regarding the resignation of WSJE Publisher Andrew Langhoff.
Then read what WSJ journalists (2) found out about the resignation, and what happened in reality.

(1)********************
The Wall Street Journal Europe Announces Management Change

Dow Jones & Company
11.10.2011 18:33
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LONDON, 2011-10-11 18:32 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Wall Street Journal Europe today announced the resignation of its publisher, Andrew Langhoff.

A search will begin for a successor. In the interim, Kelly Leach, senior vice president and head of strategy for Dow Jones, will oversee EMEA operations.

''Andrew has played a number of important roles at Dow Jones since 2003 and has been instrumental in successfully growing our businesses in Europe over the past several years. He has built a strong team and leaves the Journal franchise with strong momentum in Europe, with more initiatives in the pipeline. We thank him for his many important contributions to the company,'' said Todd Larsen, president of Dow Jones & Company.

As publisher of The Wall Street Journal Europe and managing director for EMEA, Mr. Langhoff had been responsible for Dow Jones'' consumer and enterprise businesses in the region since January 2009. Prior to his European role, he served with distinction as the CEO of Ottaway Newspapers, which since has been renamed the Dow Jones Local Media Group. Mr. Langhoff joined Dow Jones in 2003 as general counsel for Ottaway and later led that unit''s digital development operations.

About The Wall Street Journal Europe
Founded in 1983, The Wall Street Journal Europe forms part of the world''s leading business publication franchise, which also includes The Wall Street Journal and The Wall Street Journal Asia with a combined global audience of 3.5 million. The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com is the leading provider of business and financial news and analysis on the Web with more than one million subscribers and 32 million visitors per month worldwide. The Wall Street Journal Europe draws on the Dow Jones global network of 2,100 business and financial news staff, including more than 440 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Its website, europe.WSJ.com, offers relevant, reliable breaking news and analysis, opinion, market data and multimedia features tailored for a European audience.

CONTACT: Media Contact: Kate Dobbin Dow Jones & Company +44 (203) 426 1164 Kate.Dobbin@dowjones.com
Dow Jones & Company Admiral House 66-68 East Smithfield London E1W 1AW News Source: NASDAQ OMX
11.10.2011 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
DGAP''s Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and http://www.dgap.de/


(2)**************
Now read what journalists report on the issue:

Publisher of WSJ Europe Resigns
By PAUL SONNE And BRUCE ORWALL


LONDON—Dow Jones & Co.'s top European executive resigned Tuesday following an internal investigation into two articles published in The Wall Street Journal Europe that featured a company with a contractual link to the paper's circulation department.

Andrew Langhoff, managing director of Dow Jones & Co. in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and publisher of The Wall Street Journal Europe, stepped down after an internal probe showed two articles in the paper's Special Reports section had been prompted by an agreement the circulation department struck with Executive Learning Partnership, or ELP, a Netherlands-based consulting firm.

"That relationship, overseen by a now-former employee, is no longer in place," Mr. Langhoff said in an internal email to employees. "Because the agreement could leave the impression that news coverage can be influenced by commercial relationships, as publisher with executive oversight, I believe that my resignation is now the most honorable course," Mr. Langhoff said.

Dow Jones is a unit of News Corp., which owns all editions of The Wall Street Journal.

According to people familiar with the matter, an internal investigation at Dow Jones showed that Mr. Langhoff personally pressured two reporters into writing articles featuring ELP. Mr. Langhoff declined to be interviewed Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal Europe has appended disclaimers to two articles featuring ELP that ran in the paper's Special Reports section on Oct. 14, 2010, and Mar. 14, 2011. The disclaimer says the "impetus" for the stories was an agreement between The Wall Street Journal Europe's circulation department and ELP. It says "the reporting and writing were solely the responsibility of the News Department" and were not subject to review by the paper's circulation department or the firm. "However, any action that creates an impression that news coverage can be influenced by commercial interests is a breach of the ethical standards of Dow Jones & Co.," the disclaimer says.


Between May 2009 and April 2011, ELP was a lead sponsor of the "Future Leadership Institute," an initiative of The Wall Street Journal Europe's circulation department, Nick Van Heck, a partner at ELP, said in an interview Tuesday.

Both Mr. Van Heck and a spokeswoman for Dow Jones & Co. declined to comment on the specifics of the contract. According to a person familiar with the matter, the agreement was a bulk-circulation deal in which discounted papers were sold to ELP for distribution to students and others, boosting the Journal's circulation in Europe.

People familiar with the matter said the contract included language suggesting ELP could receive some coverage in the pages of The Wall Street Journal Europe. A paragraph in the agreement gave the paper's news department final control over any article, including the possibility that no story at all would appear, one of the people said.

"It was made very clear to us that the editorial freedom, or the editorial independence, was not being infringed by this," Mr. Van Heck said. He said if executives from ELP were interviewed or included in the paper, that was the editorial staff's choice. Mr. Van Heck says ELP terminated the relationship earlier this year.

Still, last fall, Mr. Langhoff personally, and through people who worked with him, pressed for an article featuring ELP to fulfill the contractual obligation, people familiar with the matter said. A Special Reports reporter alerted the paper's then-editor, Patience Wheatcroft, who people familiar with the matter say reviewed the contractual language about editorial control. The article went forward and was published.

Ms. Wheatcroft left The Wall Street Journal Europe in late 2010 to join the U.K. House of Lords. She declined to commentTuesday.

The following spring, Mr. Langhoff and others pressed for ELP to again be featured in an article, according to people familiar with the matter. The reporter didn't flag the assignment because he believed the practice was established policy, people familiar with the matter said.

The issue came to light after a former Dow Jones circulation employee in Europe lodged complaints about Mr. Langhoff and the ELP contract, people familiar with the matter said. An internal investigation was launched, leading top editors in New York to discover the editorial component of the deal and the two stories produced, according to the people familiar with the situation.

The Wall Street Journal Europe has a circulation of about 73,250. The paper runs themed Special Reports regularly.

New York-based News Corp. has been reeling from a scandal at News of the World, its now-closed British tabloid that intercepted voice-mail messages in pursuit of scoops and allegedly paid bribes to police.

Mr. Langhoff is the second top Dow Jones executive to depart in recent months. Les Hinton, chief executive of Dow Jones and before that executive chairman of News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper unit, resigned in July amid the backlash over the voice-mail hacking scandal. Mr. Hinton said he didn't know about the phone hacking but resigned because it occurred on his watch. Mr. Hinton is scheduled to appear before a parliamentary committee via video link Oct. 24.

Dow Jones said it will begin a search for Mr. Langhoff's successor. Kelly Leach, senior vice president and head of strategy for the company, will oversee Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the interim.

"Andrew has played a number of important roles at Dow Jones since 2003 and has been instrumental in successfully growing our businesses in Europe over the past several years," Todd Larsen, president of Dow Jones, said in a statement. Mr. Larsen said Mr. Langhoff built a strong team and left the paper with strong momentum in Europe.

Write to Paul Sonne at paul.sonne@wsj.com and Bruce Orwall at bruce.orwall@wsj.com

Monday, October 10, 2011

Start of Music 41

Today the new music program Music 41 will start in Belgium. It will be broadcasted on Life!tv. I named the program Music 41 because Life!tv occupies channel nr 41 operated by Belgium's  largest digital telecom operator Telenet.

Monday 10-10-2011 Music 41 will start with a daily clip show. The clips are collected by Moyo Records and Showarma Records.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Program Life!tv Tuesday 27-9-2011

06:00:00 11:00:00 Teleshop
11:00:00 13:00:00 Astro
13:00:00 15:00:00 Teleshop
15:00:00 17:00:00 Astro
17:00:00 17:30:00 TVCC
17:30:00 18:00:00 World of Freesports
18:00:00 18:30:00 Inside Racing
18:30:00 19:00:00 Game Generation
19:00:00 20:00:00 PitStop
20:00:00 20:30:00 Alloo Live! Jukebox
20:30:00 21:00:00 TVCC
21:00:00 21:30:00 World of Freesports
21:30:00 22:00:00 Inside Racing
22:00:00 22:30:00 Game Generation
22:30:00 23:30:00 PitStop
23:30:00 00:00:00 Alloo Live! Jukebox
00:00:00 06:00:00 Night Club

Friday, September 23, 2011

Iedereen electrisch



Verzonden van mijn HTC

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Monday, September 19, 2011

Waar kan je Life!tv vinden ?

Via Telenet Digital TV kan je Life!tv 24 uur op 24 ontvangen via kanaal 41 (basispakket).

Op het ex-INDI-netwerk (Interelectra, WVEM, Integan, PBE) kan je Life!tv 24 op 24 digitaal bekijken op kanaal nummer 9 met een iN-Di settopbox.

In Limburg (kabelmaatschappij Interelectra) is Life!tv dagelijks analoog te bekijken van 9 tot 13 uur en van 21 tot 01 uur in timesharing met Actua-TV (kanaal E45).

Life!TV is via het UPC-netwerk in Leuven 24 op 24 analoog te bekijken op kanaal E28 (527.25 MHz). In Brussel kan je via Coditel Digitaal 24 op 24 naar Life!tv kijken via kanaal 53 (basispakket).

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The 5 'R'-s of Brother


Refuse
Reduce
Reuse
Reform
Recycle

Saviors of the world


6 boys.

They decided to clean the streets in our neighborhood.
They named themselves “Saviors of the World”.

Friday, September 09, 2011

New function: CEO of Life!tv

I accepted to become CEO of Life!tv, a Belgian digital tv channel (Telenet nr 41).. I will be reaching out to the nxt generation tv makers, young wolves with camera's and editing skills.

Thursday, September 08, 2011

Monday, September 05, 2011

Belgische Kranten verdwijnen tegen 2026

Kranten doen het in het algemeen steeds slechter. In Amerika zijn de inkomsten van kranten voor het 20ste kwartaal op rij gedaald. Online inkomsten stegen wel 25 % gedurende dezelfde periode, maar dat is lang niet genoeg om de daling in reclame- en retail inkomsten te compenseren, aldus een raport van paidcontent.

Futuroloog Ross Dawson voorspelt dat kranten in de US tegen 2017 zullen verdwenen zijn. Zijn "Extinction Timeline" suggereert dat Belgie tegen 2026 geen kranten meer zal kennen. De meeste van de ons omrigende landen zullen het nog iets langer met kranten kunnen stellen, nl. tot tegen 2040.

Nu is het zo dat niet alle nieuws uit krantenland slecht is: 'content' of 'inhoud' zal in de toekomst beschikbaar zijn op de nieuwste modellen van iPad, waarbij een iPad niet meer zal kosten dan ca 9 Euro, of in de meeste gevallen zelfs helemaal gratis worden weggeschonken. De meeste inhoud zal automatisch gegenereerd worden door crowdsourcing; gecontroleerd door professionals, een structuur die de redactie kosten laag houdt.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Redders van de Aarde



Verzonden van mijn HTC

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Beste en Slechtste Journalistiek in Vlaanderen deze week

Het Beste: Gisterenavond 22 Augustus op Canvas een gesprek met Aziz Albishari en Ziyad Aboushia, Libiërs in België. Fantastisch interview, twee welbespraakte, innemende Libiërs die met zachte stem vertelden over hun oorspronkelijke moederland en de gebeurtenissen rond Moammar al-Qadhafi. Bovendien spraken deze mannen beter Nederlands dan de meeste Franstalige politici. Voorbeeld van geslaagde immigratie uit een land dat al 40 jaar geleid wordt door een dictator en integratie in ons land. De vraag van de interviewster of ze nu terug zouden gaan naar hun land werd dan ook door een van de mannen prachtig beantwoord: "Ik ben Belg nu."

Het Slechtste: Het ontslag van een journalist (Peter Dupont) die een opiniestuk over Pukkelpop schrijft voor Het Nieuwsblad en die NA de publicatie ervan in de gedrukte krant en on-line 'op staande voet' PUBLIEKELIJK ontslagen wordt door zijn hoofdredacteur. Dit is een voorbeeld van een krant die bezwijkt onder het oprukkende schisma tussen on- en offline. De krant meent het bikkelharde snelle online mediaspel te moeten meespelen door het plaatsen van goedkoop betaalde opinies in haar gedrukte editie, opinies die perfect passen in commentaar en 'like' rubrieken op online fora, veelal tekststormen die ontstaan in de hoofden van betrokken en gepassioneerde aan- of tegenhangers van bepaalde opinies in de maatschappij. Opinies die van tel zijn zolang de storm duurt en dan onherroepelijk belanden in digitale obscure vergeetputten  waar geen mens ze nog gaat zoeken.  Als puntje dan bij paaltje komt en de opinie veel reacties veroorzaakt, oogsten wat men zaait heet dat dan, dan is er geen wredere, geen koelere benadering van journalistiek om de opinieschrijver te beschuldigen van het schrijven van een gedrocht, daar waar men in de wereld van de gedrukte media vergeet het onderscheid te maken tussen het schrijven van een gedrocht, een recht dat iedereen heeft, en het publiceren van een gedrocht, een recht dat alleen de hoofdrecateur toekomt.

Monday, August 08, 2011

"Tweets on Yuri Milner"

Yesterday the Russian investor Yuri Milner and his venture group Digital Sky Technologies have been throwing a ton of money behind Twitter. Bloomberg reports that Milner’s investment will make up about half the funding round of $800 million Twitter is aiming at, valuing the company at $8 billion.

Digital Sky Technologies (DST) has been backing Facebook since May 2009, when it paid $200 million for a 1.96% stake (according to a source close to the company this is now close to 10% ). Digital Sky Technologies has also invested about $150 million in Groupon, a similar amount in Zynga, Spotify and Airbnb.

In a quote, DST’s Yuri Milner said: “Twitter is one of the few companies that has truly changed the world. Twitter’s astonishing growth is a testament to how important it is becoming to more people every day, and why we couldn’t pass up the chance to be a bigger part of its future.”

by Marc Van Steyvoort, Guest Author, http://www.mediaconversations.be/

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Wikipedia - Kingdom of Anonymous Assassins

I have never been involved in Wikipedia. I got a call from a friend today about his experience in trying to become a "Wikipedian". He also sent me a list of comments he received by so called high level Wikipedia administrators who apparently have been busy deleting his entrees on Wikipedia. I was quite surprised to read the harsh and abrasive language that is being used behind the Wikipedia wall to attack, kill, assassinate, destroy and terminate lower ranked Wikipedia authors or at least their entrees. Most of the higher ranked administrators seem to spend many hours per day deleting other peoples articles. Most of them do this anonymously. Most of them seem to hide behind an almost incomprehensible vocabulary, justifying their military-like actions in the virtual world. It is as if Wikipedia is organized like a virtual medieval European kingdom, with a group of Americans playing dictator instead of king. How revealing. How strange.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

The Cloud Car

The app landscape is getting a new playground: the car industry.
More and more car brands are launching apps to become social (BMW, Toyota, Ford ...), mainly driven by alternate modes of transportation that customers are looking at. Connectivity, convergence and media should keep the customers happy and in the car. On short-term opportunities apps in mobile phones with car control, entertainment and communication systems are the most logical market, where after years of security and system trials, the roll-out has started :
BMW has invested $100 million in BMW iVentures, where the first investment is a startup called MyCityWay. Other connected car projects, like Toyota Friends and Ford’s American Journey are ongoing. Long-term opportunities for car brands will have a stronger impact on the mobility topic in general, as also the connected trains are moving forward with several new projects in 2011-2012, where they all try to keep us on the move, happy and connected.

by Marc Van Steyvoort, Guest Author http://www.mediaconversations.be/

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Murdoch and the American Public School System

ANDY JAMES (Spokesman Review): Amy Goodman’s column (“News Corp. merits scrutiny”) exposes Rupert Murdoch’s intent to cash in on the selling of America’s public schools. Joel Klein, former chancellor of the New York City schools, was recently hired by Murdoch to develop “business strategies for the emerging educational marketplace.” To this end, the NYC public schools granted News Corp. a $2.7 million contract and the New York State Education Department is close to granting a News Corp. subsidiary, Wireless Generation, a $27 million no-bid contract.

In Murdoch’s own words, “When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone.”
The No Child Left Behind bill will facilitate this sellout. In 2014, NCLB requires every student in every public school that receives federal, Title I money, to meet all the standards of their state’s exams in order to avoid being taken over, either by the state, a private business or a charter school (many of which are for-profit businesses). To get 100 percent of any student body to this level is likely impossible. But then, maybe that was the point.

AMY GOODMAN (Democracy Now): There are some very interesting figures on News Corp.’s board that are based right here in the United States. For example, Joel Klein, well known to New Yorkers, he was the former schools chancellor. And interestingly, the New York Daily News reports that a business News Corp. acquired just after Klein joined the board is now facing scrutiny, since it deals with schoolchildren’s personal data, New York state awarding Wireless Generation a no-bid, $27 million contract. Now parents are questioning whether News Corp. should have access like that to their children. And you also have a familiar name in national politics on the board, Viet Dinh, who is a power attorney here, assistant attorney general under George W. Bush, principal author of the USA PATRIOT Act, the law that, among other things, prompted an unprecedented expansion of government eavesdropping.

Voormalig medewerker The Wall Street Journal Europe inspiratiebron voor Breivik

Paul Belien, voormalig medewerker The Wall Street Journal Europe, startte in 2005 met The Brussels Journal, met als slagzin "the voice of conservatism in Europe". Schrijfwijze van de titel "The Brussels Journal" en "The Wall Street Journal Europe" lijken erg veel op elkaar. Belien zou als inspiratiebron gediend hebben voor de Noorse moordenaar Breivik. Hij zou 80 maal met naam genoemd zijn in het manifest "2038 A European Declaration of Independence" samengesteld en geschreven door Breivik.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Blood & Roses. The Song of Joan and Gilles. Festival d'Avignon.


Magnificent. Flemish talent at the Festival d'Avignon. Blood and Roses, a theather show directed by Guy Cassiers, and written by Tom Lanoye. Great performance by Johan Leysen as Gilles de Rais.

director: Guy Cassiers
text: Tom Lanoye
dramaturg: Erwin Jans
music: Dominique Pauwels
scenography: Guy Cassiers, Enrico Bagnoli, Ief Spincemaille vidéo Ief Spincemaille
lighting: Enrico Bagnoli
sound: Diederik De Cock
costumes: Tim Van Steenbergen
direction and musical repetition: Frank Agsteribbe

with Katelijne Damen, Stefaan Degand, Abke Haring, Han Kerckhoffs, Johan Leysen, Johan Van Assche, Jos Verbist
and Collegium Vocale Gent singers Sylvia Broeckaert, João Cabral, Jonathan De Ceuster, Emilie De Voght, Stefan Drexlmeier, Joachim Höchbauer, Vincent Lesage, Katherine Nicholson, Louise Wayman.

Avignon

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Hackers post 'Murdoch dead' story on Sun site


The website of British tabloid The Sun has been hacked by internet pranksters.
The homepage of the News International newspaper, www.thesun.co.uk, was this morning redirecting readers to a page announcing the false death of Rupert Murdoch.
The hoax story said the Australian-born media mogul had been found dead in his garden after an overdose of palladium, a poisonous chemical.
Hacking group LulzSec used its Twitter account to claim responsibility for the attack.

"Can you spell success, gentlemen?" the group tweeted.

The hoax story reported an "officer" as saying: "We found the chemicals sitting beside a kitchen table, recently cooked. From what we can gather, Murdoch melted and consumed large quantities of it before exiting into his garden".

The bogus story is also peppered with hactivist references.

It claimed the 80-year-old Murdoch ingested palladium before "stumbling into his famous topiary garden" — "Topiary" is the pseudonym for a member of LulzSec who reportedly runs the group's Twitter account.
The story also contains the LulzSec mascot — a top hat and monocle-clad stick figure.
"Officers on the scene report a broken glass, a box of vintage wine, and what seems to be a family album strewn across the floor, containing images from days gone by; some containing handpainted portraits of Murdoch in his early days, donning a top hat and monocle," it read.
LulzSec has previously claimed responsibility for hacking the websites of the CIA, Sony Pictures, and TV network PBS. But the six-member group announced late last month it was disbanding.
The re-direct to the false Murdoch death story was first noticed by ninemsn at 7.30am AEST.
At around 8.15am AEST the homepage began re-directing readers to LulzSec's Twitter page.
Shortly after 9am AEST The Sun homepage address, one of the best-rating news sites in Britain, stopped linking to the Twitter page and simply recorded an error message.
The hactivist group claimed the hoax story is "simply phase 1 - expect the lulz to flow in coming days".

Source: 9News

"Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius"

"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."

Example of what kind of emotions Murdoch triggers in UK society



Murdoch Protest tomorrow at Parliament
1.30pm, Tuesday 19 July, Portcullis House, Parliament
Protest against the Murdoch empire, its corruption of our democracy, and its relentless attacks on working people, public services, and the welfare state.

Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch, and Rebekah Brooks will be questioned in Parliament this Tuesday. The people of Britain should be there to let them know what we think of their contempt for our democracy.

Murdoch uses his News International media empire to routinely abuse the poor and powerless in the interests of the rich. He has sunk tentacles of corruption deep into British public life.

Police officers have sold information, and other police officers have covered up for them. Politicians have fawned on Murdoch – allowing the democracy they are supposed to represent to be undermined by unaccountable media power.

Andy Coulson, a corrupt NI executive, had access to the innermost corridors of power in the entourage of Tory Prime Minister David Cameron.

Press, police, and politicians are in the dock.

That’s why the Coalition of Resistance is calling on all its supporters who can get there to join the protest against the Murdoch empire, its corruption of our democracy, and its relentless attacks on working people, public services, and the welfare state

Clean up the press
Clean up the police
Clean up Parliament

Contact us
Email coalitionofresistance@mail.com
Call 07913 643485

Monday, July 18, 2011

Larsen to Be Next Dow Jones CEO?

Todd Larsen
President
Dow Jones
Dow Jones is without a CEO following the resignation last week of Les Hinton who had been sucked back into the phone hacking issues which happened on his watch in his previous job as head of News International. When News Corp bought Dow Jones in 2007 Chairman Rupert Mudoch flew his loyal lieutenant of 48 years to New York to take charge and to begin a transformation of the company. Together with editor Robert Thompson, Hinton brought the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) more into the mainstream. In Dow Jones he'd inherited a company divided - the Enterprise Media Group (EMG), including news aggregator Factiva and news service Dow Jones Newswires, at times competed with the so-called Consumer Media Group (CMG) which included WSJ, Barron's, Marketwatch and Financial News. In 2010 those two groups were merged under the leadership of the President of CMG Todd Larsen, who was appointed President of Dow Jones. That move put Clare Hart, head of EMG, out of a job.

Larsen, who looks about 16, is now the most likely internal candidate to fill the void left by Hinton. He has worked for Dow Jones since 1999 and is widely credited as being key to the success of WSJ's pay wall strategies. As a potential figure-head of the business he perhaps lacks the confidence and easy-going charm of Hinton and has been ruthless at times when it comes to axing long-term staffers but he has a sharp business brain.

But Murdoch often favours journalists to head up his newspaper companies and Larsen doesn't come from that background. Robert Thompson may be a potential candidate but his connections with News International could create a PR problem if he were appointed, although there has been no suggestion that Thompson is implicated in the phone hacking affair. The only other likely internal candidates have both left the company: Paul Bascobert, the former Chief Marketing Officer left to head up Bloomberg BusinessWeek and CFO Stephen Daintith, who Hinton brought with him from News International, returned to his homeland this year as Finance Director of DGMT, publisher of the Daily Mail.

It's unlikely that this time Murdoch will bring across a News International person to head up Dow Jones (certainly not CEO Rebekah Brooks who has resigned and been arrested) so he'll either have to poach from another News Corp property or look outside. in the meantime, Todd Larsen is apparently acting as CEO, reporting to News Corp COO Chase Carey.

The Wall Street Journal prides itself on balanced and fact-based reporting but the Opinion and Editorial pages (OpEd) have free rein to air controversial views, often quite right wing. In the opinion section of the website today there's a stout defence of Les Hinton's record adding that "We shudder to think what the paper would look like today without the sale to News Corp." The unsigned piece then goes on to rant about News Corp's "competitor critics" saying "The Schadenfreude is so thick you can't cut it with a chainsaw." The article has prompted 139 comments so far, mostly negative. "A masterpiece of bootlicking of your Murdochian overlord," wrote Jean King. "Apparently you do not realise how bad this Rupert-serving, Rupert-exculpatory screed looks. Another exercise in poor judgment."

Source: www.mediaconversations.be

Amazing, Fox News in the US presents News of the World almost as a victim of the hacking problem, rather than as a perpetrator.

Fox News is also owned by Murdoch. Watch how the 'journalist' defends Murdoch (his boss) with the help of a so called expert, Bob Dilenschneider, who states that it's terrible that the mainstream media are wasting so much time on this old-news London hacking story rather than paying attention to what really matters.

The Journal Becomes Fox-ified

Op-Ed Columnist
The Journal Becomes Fox-ified
The New York Times
By JOE NOCERA

It took Rupert Murdoch only three and a half years to get there, starting with the moment he acquired the paper from the dysfunctional Bancroft family in December 2007, a purchase that was completed after he vowed to protect The Journal’s editorial integrity and agreed to a (toothless) board that was supposed to make sure he kept that promise.

Fat chance of that. Within five months, Murdoch had fired the editor and installed his close friend Robert Thomson, fresh from a stint Fox-ifying The Times of London. The new publisher was Leslie Hinton, former boss of the division that published Murdoch’s British newspapers, including The News of the World. (He resigned on Friday.) Soon came the changes, swift and sure: shorter articles, less depth, an increased emphasis on politics and, weirdly, sometimes surprisingly unsophisticated coverage of business.

Along with the transformation of a great paper into a mediocre one came a change that was both more subtle and more insidious. The political articles grew more and more slanted toward the Republican party line. The Journal sometimes took to using the word “Democrat” as an adjective instead of a noun, a usage favored by the right wing. In her book, “War at The Wall Street Journal,” Sarah Ellison recounts how editors inserted the phrase “assault on business” in an article about corporate taxes under President Obama. The Journal was turned into a propaganda vehicle for its owner’s conservative views. That’s half the definition of Fox-ification.

The other half is that Murdoch’s media outlets must shill for his business interests. With the News of the World scandal, The Journal has now shown itself willing to do that, too.

As a business story, the News of the World scandal isn’t just about phone hacking and police bribery. It is about Murdoch’s media empire, the News Corporation, being at risk — along with his family’s once unshakable hold on it. The old Wall Street Journal would have been leading the pack in pursuit of that story.

Now? At first, The Journal ignored the scandal, even though, as the Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff pointed out in Adweek, it was front-page news all across Britain. Then, when the scandal was no longer avoidable, The Journal did just enough to avoid being accused of looking the other way. Blogging for Columbia Journalism Review, Dean Starkman, the media critic, described The Journal’s coverage as “obviously hamstrung, and far, far below the paper’s true capacity.”

On Friday, however, the coverage went all the way to craven. The paper published an interview with Murdoch that might as well have been dictated by the News Corporation public relations department. He was going to testify before Parliament next week, he told the Journal reporter, because “it’s important to absolutely establish our integrity.” Some of the accusations made in Parliament were “total lies.” The News Corporation had handled the scandal “extremely well in every way possible.” So had his son James, a top company executive. “When I hear something going wrong, I insist on it being put right,” he said. He was “getting annoyed” by the scandal. And “tired.” And so on.

In the article containing the interview, there was no pushback against any of these statements, even though several of them bordered on the delusional. The two most obvious questions — When did Murdoch first learn of the phone hacking at The News of the World? And when did he learn that reporters were bribing police officers for information? — went unasked. The Journal reporter had either been told not to ask those questions, or instinctively knew that he shouldn’t. It is hard to know which is worse. The dwindling handful of great journalists who remain at the paper — Mark Maremont, Alan Murray and Alix Freedman among them — must be hanging their heads in shame.

To tell you the truth, I’m hanging my head in shame too. Four years ago, when Murdoch was battling recalcitrant members of the Bancroft family to gain control of The Journal, which he had long lusted after and which he viewed as the vehicle that would finally allow him to go head-to-head against The New York Times, I wrote several columns saying that he would be a better owner than the Bancrofts.

The Bancrofts’ history of mismanagement had made The Journal vulnerable in the first place. I thought that Murdoch’s resources would stop the financial bleeding, and that his desire for a decent legacy would keep him from destroying a great newspaper.

After the family agreed to sell to him, Elisabeth Goth, the brave Bancroft heir who had long tried to get her family to fix the company, told me, “He has a tremendous opportunity, and I don’t think he’s going to blow it.” In that same column, I wrote, “The chances of Mr. Murdoch wrecking The Journal are lower than you’d think.”

Mea culpa.



A version of this op-ed appeared in print on July 16, 2011, on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: The Journal Becomes Fox-ified.

Ex-Murdoch aide Rebekah Brooks bailed

British police have released Rebekah Brooks, the former head of Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper wing, Rebekah Brookson bail following her arrest over the phone-hacking scandal.

"I can confirm that she (Brooks) was released earlier this evening and has been bailed until late October," her spokesman David Wilson said.

Grassroot movements in the US to confront Murdoch

ColorOfChange will confront Rupert Murdoch at his NYC home on 7/14.
http://bit.ly/qYOO9I

A Public Message from James Murdoch on the News Corp. Scandal.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

WikiLeaks (temporary?) out of business

At the moment WikiLeaks is not accepting new submissions due to re-engineering improvements the site to make it both more secure and more user-friendly. Since WikiLeaks is not currently accepting submissions during the re-engineering, they have also temporarily closed their online chat support for how to make a submission.

Our opinion: If WikiLeaks wants to remain a believable news source it has to remove the Homepage ad, featuring Julian Assange asking the public 'to keep us stong'. Who is 'us' in the ad ? It is not clear any more if donations are used to help finance the defence of Assange's personal court case, or the further development of WikiLeaks as a news site.

Former CEO News International Rebekah Brooks arrested in London

Secret Sound Recording Rebekah Brooks speaking to News of the World staff July 8, 2011

Rebekah Brooks tells around 200 journalists, all of whom have been told that they will lose their jobs, that the paper's brand had become "toxic" and there was no way it could recover from the damage of the phone hacking scandal.



An unknown staff member confronts the News International chief executive in front of colleagues, demanding to know why staff would want to continue to work for News International, saying she had "toxified" the brand. Staff at the Wapping office said they were being "hung out to dry" after security guards appeared on the doors of the newsroom and their internet access was blocked.

2009: Murdoch cuts off Fox News anchor who asks about News of the World scandal

"No Worries, Mr Chairman"
Rupert Murdoch stops Fox News anchor Stuart Varney for mentioning hacking scandal back in 2009.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Resignation letter Les Hinton, CEO Dow Jones, News Corp, nr 1 The Wall Street Journal

In his resignation letter to Mr. Murdoch, Mr. Hinton wrote:

Dear Rupert,
I have watched with sorrow from New York as the News of the World story has unfolded. I have seen hundreds of news reports of both actual and alleged misconduct during the time I was executive chairman of News International and responsible for the company. The pain caused to innocent people is unimaginable. That I was ignorant of what apparently happened is irrelevant and in the circumstances I feel it is proper for me to resign from News Corp, and apologize to those hurt by the actions of the News of the World.
When I left News International in December 2007, I believed that the rotten element at the News of the World had been eliminated; that important lessons had been learned; and that journalistic integrity was restored.
My testimonies before the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee were given honestly. When I appeared before the Committee in March 2007, I expressed the belief that Clive Goodman had acted alone, but made clear our investigation was continuing.
In September 2009, I told the Committee there had never been any evidence delivered to me that suggested the conduct had spread beyond one journalist. If others had evidence that wrongdoing went further, I was not told about it.
Finally, I want to express my gratitude to you for a wonderful working life. My admiration and respect for you are unbounded. You have built a magnificent business since I first joined 52 years ago and it has been an honor making my contribution.
With my warmest best wishes,
Les

Resignation Letter Les Hinton to Wall Street Journal Staff

In a letter to the staff of the Wall Street Journal, Hinton said:

Dear all,
Many of you will be aware by now that I resigned today from Dow Jones and News Corp. I attach below my resignation letter to Rupert Murdoch.
It is a deeply, deeply sad day for me.
I want you all to know the pride and pleasure I have taken working at Dow Jones for the past three-and-a-half years. I have never been with better, more dedicated people, or had more fun in a job.
News Corp under Rupert’s brilliant leadership has proved a fitting parent of Dow Jones, allowing us to invest and expand as other media companies slashed costs. This support enabled us together to strengthen the company during a brutal economic downturn, developing fine new products – not to mention one of the world’s great newspapers led by one of the world’s great editors, my dear friend and colleague Robert Thomson.
However difficult this moment is for me, I depart with the certain knowledge that we have built the momentum to take Dow Jones on to ever greater things.
Good luck to you all and thank you.
Les

Les Hinton, CEO News Corp, resigns!

Is Murdoch bad for Britain ?

Click the title and read the article.
Source: www.mediaconversations.be

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

4th of July Washington



Most impressive fireworks I have ever seen.

Monday, July 04, 2011

Opening Seauton Iberia


I met Jan Samyn when I was a student leader at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. I was a last year student, heading Apolloon, and he just entered university. Normally first year students do not end up in the organizing committee of a student association. But Jan had something special. You could feel he could make a difference. And he did (his first assignment in our student association was to inflate party balloons). Four years after I left university he became a student leader himself. And twelve years ago he founded his own company, Seauton (Greek for “Know Yourself”) a conference organization. Today Seauton is probably the biggest independent MICE company in Belgium (meetings, incentives, conferences and events). Last year Seauton was chosen by the VBO to organize their European Business Summit. And now Jan opened a Seauton office in Portugal. I was privileged to witness the opening.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Disney's Club Penguin hacked

Parents with children 5 to 12, all over the world, are skyping each other, googling, calling, mailing, looking for a Disney website that has suddenly disappeared. Disney's flagship online game 'Club Penguin' seems to be hacked by a domain name reseller.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Preliminary Knowledge Economy Network or K.E.N. 2011 Resolutions

Human Capital Development for Knowledge Economy: Mobilising Innovation Potential – including Gender Balance

1. Awareness of the importance of knowledge economy in the domains of tertiary education, R&D, innovation, and entrepreneurship is growing, but only some countries and regions have achieved important results. In spite of declarations, most countries and regions fail to confirm their commitment through effective action and necessary reforms creating a growing implementation deficit.

2. Following the evolution of knowledge economy debate, the creation of KEN (successor of EREF) as a global network, was a natural and logical step in the direction of enabling existing and future members to better mobilize their resources for both internal restructuring and for closer international collaboration with the aim of strengthening knowledge-based competitiveness.

3. Scope of changes required to achieve smart, inclusive and sustainable development demand a new paradigm and an important shift in our mindsets. Modern democracies leave very limited space for political voluntarism. More active involvement of civil society, including experts and professional public will contribute to better quality of legislation and decision-making in general.

4. Intensified global competition requires that organizations permanently use peer review and benchmarking through objective, scientifically verified criteria and indicators.

5. Corporate Social Responsibility is not only a moral category but an imperative for sustainable development and economically viable corporate governance - not only in the long run, but even in short-term business perspective. Besides responsible performance of managers, it is important that regulatory framework and policy instruments effectively reward proper conduct and penalize those who disregard vital interests of their immediate and broader societal environment.

6. Risk and venture capital are essential instruments of supporting early stage innovative enterprises and they depend primarily on general investment conditions and entrepreneurial culture. Regional and national authorities have to create measures stimulating capital formation and readiness to invest, as well as to nurture risk taking, and destigmatize business failure.

7. A large part of present day tertiary education does not fully reflect the current and future needs of labor markets, let alone human capital requirements of knowledge economy. The urgently needed changes can be achieved only through open dialogue and closer collaboration among universities, business and other social actors and authorities. Cooperation among universities at macroregional level on designing and implemented EU wide area strategies in the EU 2020 perspective can also play a pivotal role.

8. Regional innovation policy has to be an organic part of development strategy, corresponding to specific conditions and opportunities, paying particular attention to human capital. Due to their proximity to key stakeholders, the regions are in an advantageous position to mobilize and involve them in formulating and implementing instruments of innovation policy, thanks to EU cohesion policy made available for all European regions in the next programming period. These instruments have to be consistent with EU and national framework policies (namely EU 2020) and regulations, but should also provide additional specific measures to respond to particular needs and conditions in the respective region.

9. Gender equality is not only a question of fundamental rights, but an economic necessity. In the decision-making processes women are highly underrepresented and this certainly does not contribute to the quality of decisions, be it in politics, business or other domains of public life. Knowledge Economy Network endorses the “Women on the Board Pledge for Europe” and recommends companies to follow this important initiative of Vice President of the European Commission Viviane Reding.

10. The process of gradual integration of Southeastern Europe into the EU is very incremental, and orientation towards knowledge economy carries double benefits: it facilitates economic integration, and contributes to making a stronger, more competitive Europe. Additional efforts on both sides are urgently needed. Regional development agencies in the area have an important role in this process.

11. Diminishing European competitiveness is partly also the consequence of slow pace of integration. By increasing the efficiency of its integration Europe will also regain its attractiveness for future candidates, including those in SE Europe.

12. Forum-2011 participants supported the proposal for the topic of Forum-2012 to be “Building Knowledge Economy through partnerships”. The Forum will take place in Maribor, Slovenia on 11-12 June 2012, while the preparatory workshops should be organized with partners between November 2011 and April 2012.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

"An army of lions commanded by a deer will never be an army of lions."

Napoleon Bonaparte

for more quotes go to:
http://managementquotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/army-of-lions-commanded-by-deer-will.html

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Knowledge Economy Network Forum Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 June in Maribor Slovenia

More info: http://www.knowledge-economy.net/

Boris Cizelj, KEN Chair rallies rapporteurs of thematic tables for a fruitful debate.

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Gert Van Mol in Trends Magazine

43% of Wall Street Journal Europe sold by a Belgian
(translated from Dutch)
The Wall Street Journal Europe, published by Dow Jones & Company, compensates a steep decline of classically sold print copies by having copies sponsored by businesses. The model was developed by Belgian Gert Van Mol (44). Since 2002 Gert Van Mol works for The Wall Street Journal Europe. Two years earlier, in 2000, Mr Van Mol had sold his publishing house “The Publishing Company”, famous for a.o. TEEK and PlayStation Magazine in Belgium. Untill 2007 Mr Van Mol was head of distribution operations of The Wall Street Journal Europe. In 2007 he was asked to change to the marketing circulation department where he detected an opportunity to link industry and WSJE in a new way. Beginning 2007 a series of sponsors had left WSJE and Van Mol came up with an out-of-the-box idea to stop the losses. He invented an Institute, the Wall Street Journal Europe Future Leadership Institute, a virtual institute bridging university and industry. The Institute started organizing seminars and conferences in universities and business schools. Businesses can sponsor these targeted seminars. In return the logos of these businesses are published in a daily quarter page from the Institute in the newspaper. The way the businesses pay for the publicity is unique: they buy newspapers. Van Mol puts these newspapers than for free in universities, business schools, four and five star hotels and private jets. “Every day around 31.000 newspaper copies in 180 universities and business schools, 330 four and five star hotels and some private jets, are sold through the Institute. The Wall Street Journal sells a total of 75.000 copies per day. This means the Institute sells ca 43 % of the total sold WSJE copy volume”, Van Mol explains.

Students are the readers of tomorrow
Students, the WSJE readers of tomorrow, according to Van Mol, meet business executives at a series of high level seminars and networking tables organized by the Institute. “I buy, rent or barter tables at big conferences such as Davos or The European Business Summit. I then invite 5 students and 5 business executives to come together at the table to learn from each other and from the speakers at the conference. Then I ask the students to write a 'student report' of what they learned that day”, says Van Mol. “These student reports are then published at the WSJE education website, http://www.wsje-fli.com/.”

From 3 to 5 November 2010 Van Mol re-launches The International Student Senate, an initiative he developed some 20 years ago when studying at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. The Senate is a platform to bring together democratically elected student leaders and CEO’s. “Every university and business school has student leaders, people who already proved to be able to realize something in their lives, otherwise they wouldn’t have been elected to lead a student association. We will bring these student leaders together with CEO’s during the WSJE Future Leadership Summit in 2 Belgian municipalities, Bree and Schilde to jointly meet thought leaders in the fields of the military, religion, politics, music and sports." Why Bree and Schilde ? “Because it is hard to organize something new in London and get noticed.” Van Mol refers to Davos, a small municipality unknown to the world before the World Economic Forum. “Schilde is the municipality in Belgium with the highest income per capita, Bree is the center of a technological triangle uniting Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany”.

Benny Debruyne
©2010 Roularta Media Group Date publication: 21 October 2010 Source: Trends

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Knowledge Economy Network - K.E.N. Maribor Slovenia next week

I will be speaking at the Knowledge Economy Network Forum in Slovenia nxt week presenting the case of One Laptop Per Child, OLPC.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Presentation at Rotary Aarschot

I received this nice statue from the President of the Rotary Aarschot where I gave a speech on new leadership models based on the innovations of social media. The statue represents the "kassei-enstampers", a nickname for inhabitants of the city of Aarschot.

It was my first time speaking at a Rotary Club. Great people, great environment, great movement. I was surprised to find out they activelly help students find internships worldwide. They not only make the connection with companies overseas, they also sponsor the students while working or studying abroad.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

European Business Summit 2011


The European Business Summit, EBS, new style. Not quantity but quality was the goal this year. Impressive line-up of speakers, smooth organisation. Second edition under general manager Maggy Peeters. New congress partner Seauton, with CEO Jan Samyn, certainly has raised the level of professionalism. Brilliant Scala choir moment during excellent diner (Kolacny brothers).

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School

Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School succeeded in maintaining the 35th position in the Financial Times Ranking 2011 for Executive Education. Quite an achivement for a Belgium business school. More than 6000 business schools are active in the market of Executive Education worldwide. Flanders should support Vlerick in the best possible way to help the school grow a permanent top 10 position in the FT ranking. Although the list was published by The Financial Times, we don't live in 'financial times' (the tagline of the FT) anymore, we live in 'science times'. Flanders needs to be spearheading initiatives, such as creating excellent business schools, ultimately bridging science and industry if we are to compete with the growth countries in the South and the East.

Sunday, May 01, 2011

Belgian Rowing Championships

Successful Belgian Rowing Championships last weekend. About 4000 visitors visited the Championship venue at Hazewinkel. More than 720 atlethes and 500 boats participated during the Championships. A series of new sponsors made the event profitable again since many years: a.o. Presentation sponsor Office Shop, Mudan Rouge, Premier Cercle, Eurobussing, Brother, Province of Antwerp, Youth Sports Foundation Camille Paulus and community sponsor OLPC (One Laptop Per Child).

Pictures:
Above left: Mudan Rouge Dance Performance. During the afternoon break public and atlethes could witness a beautiful dance performance of sponsor Mudan Rouge and three dancers of the Ballet of Flanders. New Chinese-Belgian Lingerie brand Mudan Rouge created an 8 minute dance especially for the Belgian Rowing Championships.
Middle: line up of company cars of presentation sponsor The Office Shop near the arrival tower.
Below: Championship organizor Ronald Janssens and Head of the Jury Mrs De Wispelaere

For more information, click here


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

OLPC CEO Walter De Brouwer organizes World Premier of TEDxKids Conference

Join the world premier of TEDx Kids@Brussels taking place on June 1, 2011 at St John's International School in Waterloo, Belgium!

2 events in 148 kids, all of them born in 2000, are going to get their hands dirty, soldering, tinkering, hacking and composing. A series of hands-on workshops will introduce the kids to a range of skills and methods. At the same time 400 adults will be treated to an all day program of leading thinkers, experts and makers. They'll get regular updates on the workshops from some leading child psychologists throughout the day.

Maker Kids?The future aims of primary education could be a rich mix of learning by doing, hacking the physical world and taking direct control of the technologies around us. Kids could use this knowledge to be more connected to each other and the wider world. We want to give them the tools to directly influence the physical and social ecosphere in the hope that this creates freedom and empowerment for the future.

More info:
www.tedxkids.be

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Think Media nv (noted on Euronext Stockexchange) is looking for a CFO

Functieomschrijving:
Als CFO heeft u de - eindverantwoordelijkheid over het financieel beleid van de organisatie. U brengt de belangrijkste processen (rapportering,
budgettering, controlling, …) in kaart - en streeft actief naar een verdere optimalisatie. Ook heeft u oog voor domeinen zoals kostenbeheersing,
optimalisatie werkkapitaal, cash planning, schuld/cash beheer, … en neemt u daarvoor gerichte initiatieven. Dit alles dient te leiden tot de implementatie
van een strategie die er op gericht is om op duurzame wijze maximalisatie van de aandeelhouderswaarde te bekomen.

Daarnaast houdt u zich bezig met de verplichte communicatie opgelegd door de CBFA.
U rapporteert deels aan de CEO en deels aan de raad van bestuur.
U onderhoudt uitstekende relaties met banken en andere stakeholders.
U maakt deel uit van het managementteam en u leidt een team dat instaat voor finance en accounting.

Profiel:
Voor deze sleutelfunctie kan u een leidinggevende ervaring in financiën en boekhouding voorleggen.
U heeft een sterke affiniteit met de media.
U behaalde een masterniveau of u bent gelijkwaardig door ervaring.
Kennis van IFRS wetgeving is een pluspunt.
U profileert zich als een gedreven, communicatieve en analytisch ingestelde manager.
U bent meertalig (NL/E/F).

Wij bieden:
• Een boeiende job binnen een sterk groeiend mediabedrijf;
• Een aantrekkelijk salarispakket aangevuld met een bonussysteem;
• Gsm, bedrijfswagen, laptop, …

Stuur je CV en motivatiebrief naar cjacobs@thinkmedia.be
Think Media Magazines
Oude Leeuwenrui 8/12, 2000 Antwerpen - Tel. 03/20 20 188

Thursday, April 14, 2011

OLPC in Kigali, Rwanda

Take a look at this CNN video on the development (including OLPC) in Kigali, Rwanda.
This is the second part of the most recent episode of Future Cities from Richard Quest. (minute 2.35) It was screened on CNN international.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

New contactdetails Gert Van Mol

gertvanmol (at) hotmail.com
gert.vanmol (at) groepg.eu
+32 478 882 506

Please do not use gert.vanmol@dowjones.com anymore

Muze after Vepec evening

Interesting technique to enhance footage on your blog

Interesting technique to enhance footage on your blog:
http://mauricedevelder.blogspot.com/2011/03/youtube-buys-green-parrot.html

Monday, March 14, 2011

Austria

Snowboarding is an activity that is very popular with people who do not feel that regular skiing is lethal enough.... I now realize that the small hills you see on ski slopes are formed around the bodies of forty-seven-year-olds who tried to learn snowboarding. ~Dave Barry

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Belgian Army identifies lost helicopter 45 years after missing in action in Congo

More than 45 years ago the military helicopter of Robert 'Bob' Jacobs and 2 colleagues disappeared during a rescue operation in Congo. It took the Belgian Army almost 45 years to find back the helicopter. It was only in 2010, under the leadership of Defense Minister De Crem, that an expedition was organised to investigate what was believed to be the crash site. They found the crash site in the middle of the jungle. Research showed that the remains of the helicopter were part of the lost helicopter of Bob and his comrades. Unfortunately nature destroyed all possible human remains. "Bob" was the brother of my wife's mother. We named our second son after him. We had always told our children we would organise a symbolic expedition to find the helicopter in Africa when they would be around 21 years of age.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Africa

Several students related to the Future Leadership Institute are in Egypt, Tunesia and Libia, doing unimaginable things....

Friday, February 18, 2011

The Belgian Rowing Championships

After organising several "The Business of Rowing Seminars at the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race" I have been asked to join the organising committee of Belgian Rowing Championships, 23 and 24 April 2011. First official sponsorship agreement signed with Office Shop. People interested to help out during the Championships, do not hesitate to contact me.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Gert Van Mol Advising OLPC

As of this week Gert Van Mol will be advising OLPC Europe, One Laptop Per Child Europe, as a Non-Executive Director EU Policies. OLPC Europe is a public ultility foundation, part of OLPC, a project originally developed at MIT by Nicholas Negroponte.

Here are the 5 principles of OLPC:
1. Child Ownership
OLPC has created the XO laptop to be low cost, robust and powerful, beautiful and friendly. It was designed for elementary school children, the first of its kind.
A laptop can be transformed into a mobile school: a portable learning and teaching environment. A connected laptop is more than a tool. It is a new human environment of a digital kind. An essential aspect of OLPC is the free use of the laptop at home, where the child and the family together can greatly increase the practice time normally available at a school lab or library.
The ownership of the XO is a basic right, coupled with new duties and responsibilities: including protecting, caring for, and sharing this creative environment.

2. Low Ages
The XO is designed for the use of children ages 6 to 12 — covering the years of elementary school — but nothing precludes its use earlier or later in life. Children do not need to know how to write or read to enjoy and learn with an XO. Playing is the basis of human learning, and the digital activities on an XO help with acquisition of reading and writing.
Every year a new class of students will be incorporated into the program. The assessment of the OLPC program should be intrinsic to each class, and every student will have an individual portfolio or journal with the history of his or her learning paths in the many disciplines at school. Small children with learning, motor or sensory disabilities may use the computer as a prosthesis to read, write, calculate, and communicate.

3. Saturation
OLPC is committed to elementary education in developing countries. To attain this objective we aim to reach “digital saturation” in a given population. The key point is to choose the best scale in each circumstance. It can be a country, a region, a municipality or a village, in which every child and teacher will own a connected laptop.
As with vaccinations, digital saturation implies a commitment to maintaining these tools as part of primary education over time. With it, the whole community becomes responsible for this focus on shared education, and the children receive support from the many institutions, individuals and groups around them. Universal connectivity helps these different communities grow together and expand in many directions, in both time and space. Over time, the education network becomes solid and robust, without a digital divide.

4. Connection
The XO has been designed to provide an engaging wireless network. The laptops are connected to others nearby automatically. Children in the neighborhood are permanently connected to chat, sharing information on the local network or web, making music together, editing texts, or using collaborative games.
The laptop can be charged by solar or mechanical power, or through special bulk-chargers at school. The unique XO display allows the use of the laptop under a bright sun. All of this makes it easy for children in a community to connect to one another almost anywhere.
This connectivity will be as ubiquitous as a formal or informal learning environment permits. We propose a new kind of school, an “expanded school” which grows beyond the walls of the classroom. Last but not least, this connectivity ensures a dialogue among generations, nations and cultures. The OLPC network will speak every language.

5. Free and Open Source
All children are learners and teachers, and this spirit of collaboration is amplified by free and open source tools.
A child with an XO is not a passive consumer of knowledge, but an active participant in a learning community. As children grow and pursue new ideas, their software, content, resources, and tools should be able to grow with them. The global nature of OLPC requires locally-driven growth, driven in part by the children themselves. Each child with an XO can leverage the learning of other children. They can teach each other, share ideas, and support each other's growth.
There is no inherent external dependency in being able to localize software into their language, fix the software to remove bugs, and repurpose the software to fit their needs. Nor is there any restriction in regard to redistribution; OLPC cannot know and should not control how the tools we create will be re-purposed in the future.
OLPC's goals require a world of great software and content, both open and proprietary. Children need the chance to choose from all of it. In the context of learning, knowledge should be free. Further, every child has something to contribute; we need a free and open framework that supports the human need to express and share.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Gert Van Mol Joins Maurice De Velder's Think Media

Gert Van Mol, former VIP Program Manager The Wall Street Journal Europe, accepted an advisory role at Belgium's fastest growing digital publishing house Think Media nv. CEO Think Media Maurice De Velder founded Think Media nv, formerly known as Fabrieken der Gebroeders de Beukelaar, in 1991. Think Media publishes brands such as P-Magazine, Che Magazine, MotorWereld, Motoren & Toerisme, Moto & Loisirs, Spoorweg Journaal, Modelspoor Magazine, Clint portal, 4Gamers portal, Menzo Magazine, Chief Magazine and Official PlayStation Magazine. Think Media is also involved in Life!Tv, Outdoor billboarding and radio. Clint.be is currently the largest infotainment portal in Flanders.