The news as of the first coffee today, and the music is Jorma Kaukonen's Quah, the Jefferson Airplane guitarist's best side project:
News Corporation has announced that Owen Van Natta has stepped down from his position as MySpace CEO, effective immediately.
Van Natta is replaced by newly-elevated co-Presidents Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, who will each report to Jon Miller, Chairman and CEO of Digital Media for News Corporation. All three executives joined MySpace in April 2009, according to News Corp officials, with Jones and Hirschhorn previously serving as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, respectively.
"MySpace is an incredibly unique place and we've made real gains in terms of product focus and user experience. I'm proud of the work we've all accomplished together and look forward to watching its continued growth," Van Natta said in a statement.
"Owen took on an incredible challenge in working to refocus and revitalize MySpace, and the business has shown very positive signs recently as a result of his dedicated work," said Jon Miller, News Corporation's Chairman and CEO of Digital Media. "However, in talking to Owen about his priorities both personally and professionally going forward, we both agreed that it was best for him to step down at this time. I want to thank Owen for all of his efforts."
Miller said "Mike and Jason have demonstrated true leadership in their operational and product guidance, respectively, and I have the utmost confidence in both of them to lead MySpace into its next chapter."
Prior to his role as MySpace COO, Jones founded and operated several online businesses, including Userplane, a provider of tools for online communities such as MySpace. Userplane was acquired in 2006 by AOL, where Jones subsequently served as a senior vice president and focused on social media monetization and also pioneered the distribution of widgets and other technology to Web publishers.
Since joining MySpace, Hirschhorn oversaw all aspects of product development, and previously has led both start-up and established online businesses. He was president of Sling Media, Inc's Entertainment Group, which created consumer-driven applications and services for the Slingbox device, and was chief digital officer at MTV Networks.
...
Globoforce, a vendor of global, strategic on-demand employee recognition products, has announced the launch of In*sight, described by company officials as a "strategic consulting services arm."
Backed by Globoforce's recognition experts and strategists, In*sight "is designed to provide Global 2000 companies with a blueprint to implement successful strategic employee recognition programs," according to company officials.
The program offers companies what Globoforce officials call "a low-risk way to determine the right strategy and solution for their long-term employee recognition needs." Through a series of interactive sessions and workshops, Globoforce's team "work closely with companies to immerse them in proven best practices in every aspect of employee recognition."
In*sight's program "ducates companies on each essential step towards building a successful recognition program, including assessing current recognition program, developing parameters and goals, implementing and measuring a successful program, and communicating to employees to ensure widespread adoption," Globoforce officials explained.
Eric Mosley, CEO of Globoforce, said the In*sight program "encompasses all of the best practices Globoforce has established through working hand-in-hand with corporations that have achieved measurable business benefits through a more engaged and motivated workforce."
In*sight officials say the program "encompasses critical best practices to ensure success in strategic employee recognition," including uncovering all of the recognition initiatives and investments that may exist across various departments, divisions, and geographies.
...
A new organization has sprung up to help the relief efforts in Haiti, counting 160 volunteers to participate in two-week rotations of professional service on the island.
Flight to Crisis came together through the coordination of Laz Poujol, and with the help of FreeConference, "has connected volunteers from several countries around the world. The speed of this coordinated effort has been most impressive," FreeConference officials say.
The newly created Flight to Crisis volunteers are a group of doctors, nurses, clergy, medical specialists, engineers, and first responders. Their focus is to provide primary care needs and to help relieve overburdened charities and long-term support personnel. They have been using FreeConference to meet, discuss concerns, and make arrangements for their trip.
"Charitable organizations are especially thankful for free services, and we have heard many stories over the years of how FreeConference has made a difference in their ability to grow and expand awareness of their cause," says Ken Ford, CEO of Global Conference Partners, parent company of FreeConference.
Several years ago another organization, the California Hunger Action Coalition, also started out as a grass roots effort to address hunger needs in the state of California, using FreeConference to rally support around efforts such as Hunger Action Day.
Other charitable organizations using FreeConference services include the American Red Cross and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
FreeConference has sponsored a Flight to Crisis Volunteer, and encourages others to become involved. Flight to Crisis is looking for volunteers, volunteer sponsors, supplies, and donations of frequent flyer miles.
...
Banks looking for advanced measurement approaches for assessment and management of operational risk require a comprehensive framework for capital estimation, "which incorporates loss events across the enterprise," according to SAS officials.
With that advance need in mind, SAS officials say, Union Bank, N.A. has selected SAS, a business analytics software and services vendor, to "help manage risk more efficiently and with more rigor."
Headquartered in San Francisco, UnionBanCal Corporation is a financial holding company with assets of $78 billion at September 30, 2009. Its primary subsidiary, Union Bank NA, is a full-service commercial bank.
A little more efficiency and rigor never hurt anyone. Union Bank is familiar with SAS risk management software, as they selected SAS for credit risk management in May 2009.
Union Bank determined that SAS OpRisk VaR, an analytic value at risk model, would help the organizations "slice, dice, drill down, adjust, trend and plot operational loss data at will," following a "transparent, intuitive and sequential" process.
"We saw SAS software rated highly by analyst research firms and customers for operational risk," said Greg Jones, Vice President of Operational Risk at Union Bank. "SAS offered a product that specifically addressed operational risk with customizable modeling capabilities."
In addition to the SAS reputation and external recognition, Union Bank was impressed with specific capabilities of SAS OpRisk VaR. The SAS software offered "extreme value theory" for assessing risk for highly unusual events, and "component sensitivity analysis," which gauges how sensitive a model is to changes in certain parameters.
Bank officials say they liked how the SAS tool was also capable of weighing internal and external loss data.
