Saturday, 27 November 2010

Making Money From the Internet


Jimbo3 on November 19, 2010 at 1:26 PM


Let’s address your feeble strands.


Secondly, let’s remember the macro issues of ideology and of who values free speech and who vitiates it. The history of the Left is one of hostility to dissent. This is evident through every leftist movement, is plainly observable to any person with an able political consciousness walking the earth, and has been manifested in every Leftist regime in history through their inevitable criminalizations of dissent, from post-Revolution France to Soviet Russia to communist China to Cuba to Venezuela. Do you plan on contesting this?


Rove and Bush/Cheney essentially said that anyone in the US that didn’t support the war with Iraq was unpatriotic and a dangerous fool.


False. Here is what Cheney said:


“The suggestions that’s been made by some U.S. Senators that the President of the United States or any member of this administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city.”


Here is what Bush said:


“It’s irresponsible to use politics. This is serious business making, winning this war, but it’s irresponsible to do what they’ve done.”


But what were “they” doing? They were alleging calculated lies to engage a war — to put US soldiers at risk for political purposes.


Why isn’t it within the president’s rights when accused of lying (directly accused by Howard Dean and Al Gore) to defend himself and his administration from lying? That’s also part of free speech.


He did not attempt to delegimitize the dissenters, but to counter the charges they made.


And even though he said this ONCE, even though he never accused critics of being unpatriotic, he took pains after his deliberately misinterpreted comments to qualify every speech on the war, and every point of exception to the criticism he received, to reaffirm the right of dissent. This rhetorical reaffirmation became a mantra by Bush for the rest of his presidency. Because he believed it. It is not something I’ve ever heard from Barack Obama. I have never heard him make a point to accept the legitimacy of dissent. Because he doesn’t. He doesn’t respect it or appreciate it as fundamental to freedom. He never has.


Furthermore, Bush consistently demonstrated decency in discourse and respect for his opponents, e.g., lavishing praise on Nancy Pelosi when she became House speaker, and refraining during his entire administration of singling out or even making an issue of his numberless slanderers. Bush served eight years under the most withering siege of personal attacks directed at any president in our history, including 78 studio-distributed anti-Bush and anti-war “documentaries” (the greatest flowering of dissent in American history) and also including several feature films calling for his assassination, along with a booming hate-Bush cottage industry on colleges and in the fringe media, but never reduced himself or the presidency to attacks against anybody or against the right of dissent. He never attacked MSNBC or Air America.


Rove played favorites with news reporters and television stations and newspapers, depending on whether he liked what they were writing.


So what?


Bush didn’t allow dissenters to attend many of his rallies when he was running for re-election.


Who does? Has any president in modern times invited hecklers to campaign rallies? This does not signifiy hostility to free speech, just an appreciation a certain campaign orderliness. The fact is, every time Bush addressed the media he was facing “dissenters.” Who among them was ever singled out had their taxes audited? Who among them, like Joe the Plumber, had their personal lives laid open on the op-ed pages of major newspapers just for asking an inconvenient question?


Cheney personally attacked several of his critics.


Name them. How were they “attacked”? But if so, good for him, because most were filthy liars like Joe Wilson and deserved being called out for who they were. That’s called free speech and the marketplace of competing speech. He never tried to SHUT THEM DOWN.


Cheney would not allow access to the records of people he met with to determine his proposed Energy Policies.


Cheney was vindicated on this as appropriate under Executive Privilege (which by the way, Obama has invoked more times now in two years than Bush-Cheney did in 8). Hillary Clinton, let’s remember, was fined $200,000 by Judge Lamberth for NEVER revealing the names from her Healthcare meetings.


Again, none of this has ANYTHING to do with suppressing the right to dissent.


Some of Bush’s early records have disappeared, including some of his arrest and service records. Shall I go on?


What? Yeah, sure, go on. If they’re as lame as these, we can all share a laugh.


Oh, and I didn’t see alot of people on the right defending the comments of Rick Sanchez of CNN. He said, correctly, that Jews “control” the networks (or something very similar).


Rick Sanchez is an idiot and made defamatory statements even he admitted. If people didn’t line up to defend idiocy they can hardly be accused of suppressing the right to speech or supporting institutional barriers and arbitrary authoritarian control over speech like the bill in question does. Sanchez can go write a book.


I’ll overlook your ugly comments about the “Jews.” The antisemitism of the Left is a whole other chapter in its sick history.


I don’t pat myself on the back. But you can take your “we’re equally guilty” charge and eat it. I’m not equally guilty. I’ve gone to the streets for freedom of speech, for Michael Moore and for Pat Robertson. I understand Voltaire’s maxim that mine is tied into yours (something the Left can’t understand simply because it cannot afford to — it cannot survive true “equality”).


The Left wears the blood of millions of deaths from the suppression of freedom, the blood of millions of dissenters who challenged that suppression. It seeks the same suppression now as it has throughout history. In America, its path is legislation. The police state follows.


Your sorry examples don’t come close to addressing the larger issues raised, and the great ideological Leftist drift toward the eclipse of freedom.


As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Must-Follow Personality.” Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

In a world where social media and pop culture collide, 2009 might’ve been most remembered for a certain race to 1 million followers. While 2010 has had its share of popularity contests too, we’ve also seen a myriad of innovative uses of digital media that have both catapulted some previously unknowns to “must follow” status and re-invented the careers of others.

Whether it was playing a key role in shaping the news, creating online personas that went viral and became much more, or using the class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet to connect with fans in new ways, several personalities stood out in terms of leveraging social media in irresistibly catchy ways.

Below, we take a look at some of those people who have made a major splash in the online world in the past year.

1. Ben Folds

While it looks like Chatroulette’s 15 minutes of fame might be up, no one was a bigger part of that 15 minutes than musician Ben Folds.

Inspired by chatroulette improv piano guy “Merton,” the singer-songwriter began broadcasting improv piano tunes from his concerts onto the random video chat site, and quickly saw himself become a big part of one of the year’s top memes.

Because Merton rather closely resembled Folds, speculation ran rampant that the two were actually the same guy. Numerous YouTube videos — some of them originating here on Mashable — added fuel to the fire, though the fable was ultimately disproved once and for all (we think) in a video that the two created together last month.

What started as a clever play on a pop culture phenomenon ultimately became a blueprint for sustaining social media buzz.

2. Conan O’Brien

When Conan O’Brien took over as host of The Tonight Show in mid-2009, one of his first sketches poked fun at Twitter for its banality. Little did he know at the time that mere months later, he’d become the center of a massive user-created digital movement (“Team Coco”) as NBC pivoted to shift Tonight Show hosting responsibilities back to Jay Leno.

Following his ouster, Conan quickly moved to capitalize on his Internet momentum, establishing a Twitter account that would serve as his comedic outlet while he sorted out his next career move, which he ultimately decided would be a new show on TBS.

Whereas Conan’s Tonight Show played the traditional willfully ignorant-of-technology card, Conan’s new show has made social media the centerpiece of a campaign to try and get the masses to shift their late night viewing habits to cable. As a result, we’ll soon find out if digital loyalty translates to television ratings.

3. BPGlobalPR

This year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was one of the biggest environmental catastrophes in recent times, and the company’s much-maligned handling of it had some speculating that bankruptcy might be imminent for the petroleum giant.

Providing comic relief through the whole ordeal, however, was @BPGlobalPR, a satirical Twitter account pretending to be BP’s public relations department. With updates like “Sadly we can no longer certify our oil as Dolphin Safe,” the account quickly amassed tens of thousands of followers.

As for his inspiration, the man behind the account, “Terry,” told Mashable in an interview that “They pay people like me a TON of money to make it look like they’re doing stuff, but really we don’t have to do much except talk. Our talking buys them time to figure out how they are going to sweep it all under the rug and go back to making lots of money.”

While BP eventually closed the oil leak and activity on the @BPGlobalPR account has slowed, the feed served the dual role of both entertaining and reminding the world that BP was not doing a very good job at either closing the leak or communicating effectively with the public.

4. Dan Savage

In recent months, one of the most prominent social issues in America has been the bullying of gay teenagers. In response, sex advice columnist and gay rights activist Dan Savage launched the “Its Get Better” YouTube channel, where everyday people have uploaded hundreds of videos providing encouragement and inspiration to gay teens, telling them they have much to look forward to.

It didn’t take long for the channel to go viral with openly gay celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris and Ellen DeGeneres contributing video messages. Within about a month of launching, the channel attracted a video from President Obama broadcasting the “It Gets Better” message.

The campaign has been nothing short of inspiring, and we will be following Savage to see how he uses his various social media channels –- which also include a popular blog, Twitter feed, and podcast –- to raise awareness for important LGBT issues going forward.

5. Darren Rovell

It’s been a spectacular year for stories about the business of sports, and sitting at the center of it has been CNBC’s sports business reporter Darren Rovell.

There was simply no better feed to follow on Twitter than Rovell’s as the world of Tiger Woods came crashing down following a car-accident-turned-sex-scandal turned tens of millions of dollars in lost endorsement deals.

Then, when LeBron James made the universally mocked decision of broadcasting “The Decision” on ESPN, Rovell again was the point man for assessing brand and consumer response as one of the world’s most highly paid and previously admired athletes suddenly became one of the sporting world’s biggest villains.

In between, Rovell’s Twitter feed and blog has broken news on everything from TV ratings to jersey sales to free agency moves. To an extent, he’s also made the business of reporting on sports sexy, as evidenced by some of the competitors he’s now attracting.

What’s Your Take?

Which personalities do you follow via social media? Let us know in the comments or nominate them for the Mashable Awards.

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)/>

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)/> Time: 7:00 – 10:00 pm PT/> Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas/> Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations/> Socialize: Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, Foursquareclass="blippr-nobr">Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

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Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to nearly 100 million spectators in 300 cities on five continents. In 2010 Cirque du Soleil, will present 21 shows simultaneously throughout the world, including seven in Las Vegas.

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Jimbo3 on November 19, 2010 at 1:26 PM


Let’s address your feeble strands.


Secondly, let’s remember the macro issues of ideology and of who values free speech and who vitiates it. The history of the Left is one of hostility to dissent. This is evident through every leftist movement, is plainly observable to any person with an able political consciousness walking the earth, and has been manifested in every Leftist regime in history through their inevitable criminalizations of dissent, from post-Revolution France to Soviet Russia to communist China to Cuba to Venezuela. Do you plan on contesting this?


Rove and Bush/Cheney essentially said that anyone in the US that didn’t support the war with Iraq was unpatriotic and a dangerous fool.


False. Here is what Cheney said:


“The suggestions that’s been made by some U.S. Senators that the President of the United States or any member of this administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city.”


Here is what Bush said:


“It’s irresponsible to use politics. This is serious business making, winning this war, but it’s irresponsible to do what they’ve done.”


But what were “they” doing? They were alleging calculated lies to engage a war — to put US soldiers at risk for political purposes.


Why isn’t it within the president’s rights when accused of lying (directly accused by Howard Dean and Al Gore) to defend himself and his administration from lying? That’s also part of free speech.


He did not attempt to delegimitize the dissenters, but to counter the charges they made.


And even though he said this ONCE, even though he never accused critics of being unpatriotic, he took pains after his deliberately misinterpreted comments to qualify every speech on the war, and every point of exception to the criticism he received, to reaffirm the right of dissent. This rhetorical reaffirmation became a mantra by Bush for the rest of his presidency. Because he believed it. It is not something I’ve ever heard from Barack Obama. I have never heard him make a point to accept the legitimacy of dissent. Because he doesn’t. He doesn’t respect it or appreciate it as fundamental to freedom. He never has.


Furthermore, Bush consistently demonstrated decency in discourse and respect for his opponents, e.g., lavishing praise on Nancy Pelosi when she became House speaker, and refraining during his entire administration of singling out or even making an issue of his numberless slanderers. Bush served eight years under the most withering siege of personal attacks directed at any president in our history, including 78 studio-distributed anti-Bush and anti-war “documentaries” (the greatest flowering of dissent in American history) and also including several feature films calling for his assassination, along with a booming hate-Bush cottage industry on colleges and in the fringe media, but never reduced himself or the presidency to attacks against anybody or against the right of dissent. He never attacked MSNBC or Air America.


Rove played favorites with news reporters and television stations and newspapers, depending on whether he liked what they were writing.


So what?


Bush didn’t allow dissenters to attend many of his rallies when he was running for re-election.


Who does? Has any president in modern times invited hecklers to campaign rallies? This does not signifiy hostility to free speech, just an appreciation a certain campaign orderliness. The fact is, every time Bush addressed the media he was facing “dissenters.” Who among them was ever singled out had their taxes audited? Who among them, like Joe the Plumber, had their personal lives laid open on the op-ed pages of major newspapers just for asking an inconvenient question?


Cheney personally attacked several of his critics.


Name them. How were they “attacked”? But if so, good for him, because most were filthy liars like Joe Wilson and deserved being called out for who they were. That’s called free speech and the marketplace of competing speech. He never tried to SHUT THEM DOWN.


Cheney would not allow access to the records of people he met with to determine his proposed Energy Policies.


Cheney was vindicated on this as appropriate under Executive Privilege (which by the way, Obama has invoked more times now in two years than Bush-Cheney did in 8). Hillary Clinton, let’s remember, was fined $200,000 by Judge Lamberth for NEVER revealing the names from her Healthcare meetings.


Again, none of this has ANYTHING to do with suppressing the right to dissent.


Some of Bush’s early records have disappeared, including some of his arrest and service records. Shall I go on?


What? Yeah, sure, go on. If they’re as lame as these, we can all share a laugh.


Oh, and I didn’t see alot of people on the right defending the comments of Rick Sanchez of CNN. He said, correctly, that Jews “control” the networks (or something very similar).


Rick Sanchez is an idiot and made defamatory statements even he admitted. If people didn’t line up to defend idiocy they can hardly be accused of suppressing the right to speech or supporting institutional barriers and arbitrary authoritarian control over speech like the bill in question does. Sanchez can go write a book.


I’ll overlook your ugly comments about the “Jews.” The antisemitism of the Left is a whole other chapter in its sick history.


I don’t pat myself on the back. But you can take your “we’re equally guilty” charge and eat it. I’m not equally guilty. I’ve gone to the streets for freedom of speech, for Michael Moore and for Pat Robertson. I understand Voltaire’s maxim that mine is tied into yours (something the Left can’t understand simply because it cannot afford to — it cannot survive true “equality”).


The Left wears the blood of millions of deaths from the suppression of freedom, the blood of millions of dissenters who challenged that suppression. It seeks the same suppression now as it has throughout history. In America, its path is legislation. The police state follows.


Your sorry examples don’t come close to addressing the larger issues raised, and the great ideological Leftist drift toward the eclipse of freedom.


As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Must-Follow Personality.” Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

In a world where social media and pop culture collide, 2009 might’ve been most remembered for a certain race to 1 million followers. While 2010 has had its share of popularity contests too, we’ve also seen a myriad of innovative uses of digital media that have both catapulted some previously unknowns to “must follow” status and re-invented the careers of others.

Whether it was playing a key role in shaping the news, creating online personas that went viral and became much more, or using the class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet to connect with fans in new ways, several personalities stood out in terms of leveraging social media in irresistibly catchy ways.

Below, we take a look at some of those people who have made a major splash in the online world in the past year.

1. Ben Folds

While it looks like Chatroulette’s 15 minutes of fame might be up, no one was a bigger part of that 15 minutes than musician Ben Folds.

Inspired by chatroulette improv piano guy “Merton,” the singer-songwriter began broadcasting improv piano tunes from his concerts onto the random video chat site, and quickly saw himself become a big part of one of the year’s top memes.

Because Merton rather closely resembled Folds, speculation ran rampant that the two were actually the same guy. Numerous YouTube videos — some of them originating here on Mashable — added fuel to the fire, though the fable was ultimately disproved once and for all (we think) in a video that the two created together last month.

What started as a clever play on a pop culture phenomenon ultimately became a blueprint for sustaining social media buzz.

2. Conan O’Brien

When Conan O’Brien took over as host of The Tonight Show in mid-2009, one of his first sketches poked fun at Twitter for its banality. Little did he know at the time that mere months later, he’d become the center of a massive user-created digital movement (“Team Coco”) as NBC pivoted to shift Tonight Show hosting responsibilities back to Jay Leno.

Following his ouster, Conan quickly moved to capitalize on his Internet momentum, establishing a Twitter account that would serve as his comedic outlet while he sorted out his next career move, which he ultimately decided would be a new show on TBS.

Whereas Conan’s Tonight Show played the traditional willfully ignorant-of-technology card, Conan’s new show has made social media the centerpiece of a campaign to try and get the masses to shift their late night viewing habits to cable. As a result, we’ll soon find out if digital loyalty translates to television ratings.

3. BPGlobalPR

This year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was one of the biggest environmental catastrophes in recent times, and the company’s much-maligned handling of it had some speculating that bankruptcy might be imminent for the petroleum giant.

Providing comic relief through the whole ordeal, however, was @BPGlobalPR, a satirical Twitter account pretending to be BP’s public relations department. With updates like “Sadly we can no longer certify our oil as Dolphin Safe,” the account quickly amassed tens of thousands of followers.

As for his inspiration, the man behind the account, “Terry,” told Mashable in an interview that “They pay people like me a TON of money to make it look like they’re doing stuff, but really we don’t have to do much except talk. Our talking buys them time to figure out how they are going to sweep it all under the rug and go back to making lots of money.”

While BP eventually closed the oil leak and activity on the @BPGlobalPR account has slowed, the feed served the dual role of both entertaining and reminding the world that BP was not doing a very good job at either closing the leak or communicating effectively with the public.

4. Dan Savage

In recent months, one of the most prominent social issues in America has been the bullying of gay teenagers. In response, sex advice columnist and gay rights activist Dan Savage launched the “Its Get Better” YouTube channel, where everyday people have uploaded hundreds of videos providing encouragement and inspiration to gay teens, telling them they have much to look forward to.

It didn’t take long for the channel to go viral with openly gay celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris and Ellen DeGeneres contributing video messages. Within about a month of launching, the channel attracted a video from President Obama broadcasting the “It Gets Better” message.

The campaign has been nothing short of inspiring, and we will be following Savage to see how he uses his various social media channels –- which also include a popular blog, Twitter feed, and podcast –- to raise awareness for important LGBT issues going forward.

5. Darren Rovell

It’s been a spectacular year for stories about the business of sports, and sitting at the center of it has been CNBC’s sports business reporter Darren Rovell.

There was simply no better feed to follow on Twitter than Rovell’s as the world of Tiger Woods came crashing down following a car-accident-turned-sex-scandal turned tens of millions of dollars in lost endorsement deals.

Then, when LeBron James made the universally mocked decision of broadcasting “The Decision” on ESPN, Rovell again was the point man for assessing brand and consumer response as one of the world’s most highly paid and previously admired athletes suddenly became one of the sporting world’s biggest villains.

In between, Rovell’s Twitter feed and blog has broken news on everything from TV ratings to jersey sales to free agency moves. To an extent, he’s also made the business of reporting on sports sexy, as evidenced by some of the competitors he’s now attracting.

What’s Your Take?

Which personalities do you follow via social media? Let us know in the comments or nominate them for the Mashable Awards.

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)/>

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)/> Time: 7:00 – 10:00 pm PT/> Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas/> Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations/> Socialize: Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, Foursquareclass="blippr-nobr">Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Mashable Awards Gala Partner:

From a group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is now a global entertainment organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has over 5,000 employees, including more than 1,200 artists from close to 50 different countries.

Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to nearly 100 million spectators in 300 cities on five continents. In 2010 Cirque du Soleil, will present 21 shows simultaneously throughout the world, including seven in Las Vegas.

For more information about Cirque du Soleil, visit www.cirquedusoleil.com

Mashable Awards Online Partner:

Have you ever wished for your own personal gourmet Chef?

The Fresh Diet is like having a Cordon Bleu chef prepare your meals in your own kitchen. There’s no cooking, cleaning, shopping – just fresh prepared delicious meals, hand delivered to your door daily! Whether you want to lose weight or just want to eat healthy, The Fresh Diet can help you meet your goals. The best news, we’re giving away a FREE week of The Fresh Diet every day on our Facebook page. Just click here to become a fan and you could be the next winner. Join now!

Mashable Awards Partner:

Join us at the 2011 International CES®, the global platform for inspired ideas and innovation. With 2,500 exhibitors, CES continues to be the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow and always reflects the dynamic consumer electronics industry. The International CES is not open to the general public and all attendees must be in the CE industry to be eligible to attend the show. Register FREE for the 2011 CES with priority code MSHB, an exclusive promotion for Mashable Readers.

Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:

Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

Win an iPad!

Join us on Facebook to learn how to enter Dynadot’s I Can Haz iPad Giveaway!

Dynadot is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and web host where you can register the perfect domain name affordably, reliably, simply and securely. Whether you are a blogger, business owner, or planning on creating the next best Internet meme you need a domain that represents you. Let Dynadot help you establish your web identity today.

Mobile Future is a broad-based coalition of businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals interested in and dedicated to advocating for an environment in which innovations in wireless technology and services are enabled and encouraged. Our mission is to educate the public and key decision makers on innovations in the wireless industry that have transformed the way Americans work and play and to advocate continued investment in wireless technologies.

Our “Mobile Year in Review 2010” animation proves a glimpse into the most notable breakthroughs in the wireless industry this year.

Yahoo! is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

Mashable Awards Gala Silver Sponsor:

Aro Mobile is an intelligent mobile experience that includes better email, connected contacts, smarter calendar and improved browsing.

The Aro system automatically learns what’s important in your life—the people, places, dates and organizations you care about most. In your communications, Aro automatically identifies people, places, events, dates,organizations and locations. From any recognized term, Aro offers quick action menus to speed up your day.

The unique Aro experience is powered by advanced web services: next generation natural language processing and semantic data analytics services. Aro gives you the power to see through the clutter and focus your mobile life.

Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

Mashable Awards Gala VIP Lounge sponsor:

Influxis specializes in the deployment of creative streaming solutions. Services include large scale deployment, mobile streaming, turn-key applications, and enterprise support with custom network options. With the unique combination of a worldwide network, knowledgeable developer support and nearly a decade of streaming media experience, Influxis is an essential partner to businesses, advertisers, developers, educators, and others who seek expertise in innovative streaming.

Mashable Awards After Party Sponsor:

Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, jgroup

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Willie Nelson was arrested yesterday at a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas after agents reportedly found 6 ounces of marijuana on his ...

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