Love the Flip Ultras & New Mino

I have finally had a chance to take a look at Flip's new video series: the Ultra ($150) and the Mino ($180). The real big pitch for the Flip Mino is the fact that it is 40% thinner and lighter. Both allow you to simply plug the camcorder's signature flip-out USB arm into any PC for immediate editing and sharing. Shots of the fun and colorful Ultras below.

They apparently offer the ability to upload video directly to MySpace, YouTube and AOL video, although I haven't figured that one out yet - would be nice if it allowed you immediate posting to your blog as well without the double step process and having one of those players' logos in your blog entry.

Both have 2 GB of memory although the Ultra offers a 1 GB/30 minute model as well. Since I love great design and a huge fan of color, I'm always excited about anything that gives me a sense of 'play' in a consumer electronics device. I love the small, throw in-your-pocket size and really clear and simple UI for both shooting and playback.

In addition to the 'way back when' Ford standard black and now white, Ultras come in orange, pink and a neon-like green, although apparently the latter is exclusive to WalMart according to one of their marketing spokespeople.

Other features include: one-touch recording with 2x digital zoom, instant on-camera playback and delete, one-click emailng of videos and video greeting cards, custom editing of movie mixes with the option to set them to your own music, capturing still photos from video and a built-in tripod mount.

I haven't really had a chance to start playing yet but am heading international bound shortly, so will test over the next couple of months in real-time.

Retrevo & PC World Team Up

PC World and client Retrevo team up to offer readers access to competing content directly from PC World’s site. Through this agreement, PC World.com product reviews will now include competing publishers expert reviews and information.

Powered by Retrevo’s artificial intelligence system, PC World readers will see product comparisons and expert and user reviews from other publications, sites, and blogs. As part of the agreement, PC World is also selling advertising programs for the Retrevo Web site.

Traditionally, publishers have operated a closed network and would never consider giving readers instant and easy access to competing publishers from within their walls. With the growing volume of product information and opinions, content providers must help consumers deal with the complexity of web content, which means opening their doors even if that means giving consumers instant and easy access to their competitors.

Consumers are rapidly transforming their media research and consumption to online, which requires a different business model than publishers have adopted in the past. Now, more than ever, users want access to open information and opinions. In the new world of online publishing, the more open you are, the more brand loyalty you build.

ReadWriteWeb's Alt SearchEngines, BtoB Magazine, MarketingShift, DM News and Folio all picked up on the announcement.

A Few MoMA Favorites

A visit this month to MoMA (New York's Museum of Modern Art), which I haven't visited in awhile. It doesn't touch me the way that Europe's art museums do, but it was great to get a dose of some of the finest. It was warm enough to wear a skirt even though I tend to only bring back leather and suede boots whenever I head east.

A few of my favorites:

Max Beckman's Family Picture (1920)

Salvador Dali's Portrait of Gala (1935)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's Street Dresden (1907)

Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World (1948)

Willem de Kooning's Woman II (1952)

Jenni Wolfson: A Storyteller of Genocide & Human Rights Violations

I was recently introduced to WITNESS director Jenni Wolfson, who performed a series of three one-woman skits on the PUSH 2008 stage last week.

She sat in a chair and walked us through one Scottish woman’s journey as a UN human rights worker, living and loving under fire in post-genocide Rwanda. Heartbreaking, humorous and hopeful.

Prior to WITNESS, Jenni worked for 12 years with the United Nations and UNICEF, including 3 years in Rwanda and 2 years in Haiti. Her field work involved investigating the genocide and human rights violations, as well as training the military, police, judiciary and NGOs in human rights standards.

Theatrical in her storytelling, we listened to the brutality she experienced in Africa over the past decade. A remarkable and very moving story. Be sure to check out Jenni's blog, where you read a number of these accounts in great detail.

Challenge Day is Creating Classroom Miracles

A very moving session at PUSH this year was led by husband and wife team Rich & Yvonne Dutra-St. John. They've been leading something called Challenge Day in high schools since 1987. After showing us the video (below), they led us through some of the same questions and exercises they did with students.

Their transformative work with teens in high schools centered around ending prejudice, bullying and isolation in all communities.

A former high school teacher and championship wrestling coach, Rich has worked with teens and families since 1978. Before starting Challenge Day, he was a licensed family therapist and drug intervention specialist, where he opened and directed two different adolescent treatment facilities in Northern California, most notably the Thunder Road Adolescent Recovery Center in Oakland.

Working with teens and adults, for over 26 years in a variety of settings, Yvonne has been instrumental in designing and implementing over 17 different nationally recognized prevention and intervention programs for teenagers. Yvonne's earliest experiences varied from doing classroom presentations and school assemblies, to media programs on gender roles and eating disorders.

She later focused her attention on working with at risk youth, addiction and social oppression issues. Yvonne herself faced weight issues as a child and was one of many teenagers who faced bullying and obesity jokes in her school.

It is clear that leading this initiative is an act of passion and love for both of them. They asked the attendees a variety of questions and asked us each to stand if the answer was yes. They ranged from 'have you ever been told you were a 'bad' kid and have you ever faced discrimination because of your color, the size of your body or the tone of your voice to have you ever been witness to someone who has been raped or died because of violence and have you ever been beaten because you weren't man enough?

We shared emotional moments as we all looked around at 90% of the room who standed for nearly nearly every question. I wondered whether the same Challenge Day approach would have worked in my 1970s classroom and was doubtful. Doubtful and yet thrilled that this generation is open and expressive enough to allow themselves to remove the barriers at such a young age.

The Faces of PUSH 2008

A selection of my favorite shots from this year's PUSH 2008 in Minneapolis, now in its sixth year. I uploaded photos to the PUSH 08 photo album here, although the images are grainier and darker than normal due to a lens issue on-site. Enjoy.

President and founder Cecily Somers on the PUSH 2008 stage

University of Rochester Assistant Professor of Religion Anthea Butler

Christina Allen, Julia Fischer Baum

Public Radio International's Dan Jensen and Pat Carney, founder of The Carney Group

Dan Wilson

Jenni Wolfson

The PUSH team

Cecily reaches out and thanks the PUSH team

Skirts & Boots

Yvonne Dutra-St. John

Rico Vallejos

Dan Jensen (portrait)

J.D. Steele & Shangilia

Musician J.D. Steele performed at the PUSH Conference this year. He and his siblings started performing together as children, forming that other singing family group from Gary, Indiana.

Since then, J.D. has performed with The Steeles all over the world, and his talents as a composer, arranger and vocal artist have earned him recording contracts, awards, commissions for musicals, operas, movies and commercial jingles.

On stage, he is quietly charismatic in a zen-like way, meaning he exudes passion but is completely in his own body, controlled, relaxed and calling us all to do nothing but smile and fall into his music.

Steele's most recent project is with Shangilia, a 200 kid orphanage in Nairobi, where he has led the group in performances at the Kennedy Center and toured Tanzania, the U.S. and Greece.

It started when twenty-three children gave their first public performance at Nairobi 's National Theatre in July 1994. The occasion was the visit to Kenya of four members of the United Nation's Committee of Ten (established to monitor the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child). The children's exuberant performance culminated in the building of a human pyramid from the top of which Kamau, wearing filthy tattered clothing, proclaimed the Rights of the Child.

As their site says, "the show is designed to expose and sensitize society to the rising predicament of those young lives lost on the street, sniffing glue, picking pockets and exposed to prostitution. Besides raising funds for the children's plight, performances have proved that the performing arts are effective to both rehabilitate the child in gaining self-confidence and worth, as well as demonstrate the potential of all children."

We learn about his experiences with the children through humorous stories, slides and song. Being involved with such an amazing life-changing organization, its no wonder that Steele looked rejuvenated and joyous as he sang African songs to the PUSH audience.

On the Dollar, Oil & the Upcoming Election

Nate Garvis, British-born Mark Seddon and Clyde Prestowitz, graced us with their insights on the PUSH stage last week in Minneapolis.

Clyde, who has an impressive track record of foreseeing economic changes long before they happen, including the recent bursting of the housing bubble and fall of the dollar, talked to us about the prime issues a new president would have to embrace in November.

The falling dollar was an obvious one, as is the price of oil and the war. What about healthcare and education I cry out quietly. We're becoming a third world country and soon, we'll be sending our kids out of the country to get an education and go into personal bankruptcy because we can't afford to keep our families healthy.

The backgrounds here are largely economic, business and legislative however, so that's primarily where the focus of this talk went. As VP of Government Affairs for Target, Nate Garvis is responsible for political, legislative and regulatory affairs at the international, federal, state and local levels of government.

And, Mark Seddon held the most recent post as the United Nations and New York correspondent for Al Jazeera International. A fascinating background, Seddon was also an editor of Tribune, a reporter for the BBC and The Guardian, and a member of the Labour party's National Executive Committee in England.

Clyde, who keeps a close eye on energy and geo-political developments, notes that oil is $130 a barrell but adds, "there's no guarantee its going to stay there."

He talks about the late seventies when people put solar panels on their roofs and then stopped because the price of oil went down. He asks us, "will our behavior change this time?"

Globalization is not strengthening democracy. "Our democracy is designed not to work," he says. "Checks and balances were put there so it was difficult to change things."

Clyde returns to the upcoming election and talks about the perception abroad. He says, "People ask me all the time, 'will they let him get elected?' Who's they?" he laughs, but he's right. I get that question from friends abroad and it comes up at home as well.

I later asked Anthea Butler, who also spoke at PUSH this year (on religion), what she thought. What she 'hears' from the African American community is that the older generation fears his assassination whereas the youth simply wouldn't stand for it.

These are scary times but also exciting times. The world is waiting to see if America can step up to the plate. I hope we can show the world that somehow, somewhere within this interior, people can set aside their differences, their prejudices and their fears and embrace the change that we need.

Clyde is right about the economic issues. The collapsing dollar is a major crisis and the first one a new president will face. Energy is next and then there's the war. At home however, Amerians are fragile, they're eager, they're worn, they're in denial, and they're finally turning to disbelief as the picture of the mess we live in -- soon to be post Bush administration -- is now a reality.

We've been debating carbon taxes for years and still remain behind Europe. We hang onto old beliefs and old practices. A new administration is going to have to deal with the question about what do we do. They will have to execute a campaign that not only makes change sustainable but gives Americans a sense of hope for the first time in nearly eight years. We're crying out for a leader.

Dan Wilson Hits the PUSH Stage

Singer songwriter Dan Wilson hit the PUSH 2008 stage last week in Minneapolis.

Another beautiful thing about PUSH is that the event weaves in amazing, eclectic performers throughout the sessions. These artists have so much soul, you lose yourself as they find their way in between 'brain food' panels and individual talks about serious global issues.

The emotion of music allows you to process what you just heard in a different way and Cecily's selection of these artists are a powerful part of the conference.

Dan won a 2007 Song of the Year Grammy Award with the Dixie Chicks for 'Not Ready to Make Nice.' Additional recognition includes the 2007 Album of the Year (Dixie Chicks, 'Taking the Long Way'), for which he co-wrote an additional 5 songs, and a nomination for Best Rock Song for 'Closing Time,' on which he was primary singer and songwriter with the band Semisonic.

On-stage, he tells us a story a heartwarming story about the birth of his first child, the inspiration behind Closing Time, which most people think is about the closing time of a bar. We break into laughter as we learn that he hid meaning in his lyrics so people, particularly his band wouldn't know. It was more than touching - Dan has that rare ability to ever so softly engage an audience in a way that keeps them wanting more stories and more music.

PUSH Conference in Minneapolis

I've been wanting to go to the Minneapolis-based PUSH Conference for awhile now but since its always in June, there has always been a conflict. This year was no different as I was in launch mode, but I somehow found myself on a Northwest flight heading to the midwest last week.

President Cecily Somers often has a hard time describing the event, which she puts in the 'brain food' category. It's a miniature Davos in a way, in a mini-TED-like format, so its small enough that you can still meet nearly everyone at the conference if that was your goal.

The theme this year was "The Fertile Delta," which while it has a great name, is hard to summarize in one line. It addressed one of the things I've been feeling in a bigger way over the last eighteen months - the widening of gaps in the U.S.

After visiting Mexico last year, I was not only reminded that our dollar is in decline, but it was thrown in my face. And it wasn't just the dollar that I felt in Mexico and every other international trip I've taken in the last year or so. America is turning into a third world country (some argue that it already is) and the transition is gradual like they so often are, that many living in the top 20% barely notice, or if they do, its easier to turn a blind eye than to face it.

Issues addressed at PUSH including some of these very themes, here and abroad:

--while globalization is bringing more players to the table, many more are being left behind.
--this widening gap in resources, wealth, education, technology and healthcare is a destabilizing influence --this trend is unsustainable and we need to re-think business models and social systems for agility and for solutions that are truly sustainable (look at the state of our education and healthcare system for example) --Phrases such as the "Digital Divide" and "Two Americas" refer to this growing chasm within.

Where The Fertile Delta comes in, is that "while this space in between faces extreme challenges, it represents enormous, untapped opportunity."

Cecily hopes PUSH will leave people with at least a few reasons why polarization never looked so good.

This brain food event brings in together academics, politics and international issues. While so many of the issues discussed were global in nature, the attendee base was largely from greater Minneapolis and other pockets in the midwest, unlike last year which was closer to 50/50. The slowing economy and soaring airline costs could be part of this shift.

A couple of my favorite speakers included Thousand Hills Venture Fund co-founder Antoine Bigirimana and University of Rochester Assistant Professor of Religion Anthea Butler.

While based in the states, Bigirimana spends the majority of his time in Rwanda as a philanthropist, supporting the Kigali Center for Entrepreneurs. Bigirimana was born in Rwanda and is a central figure in Rwanda's information and communication technologies (ICT) community.

He talked to us about how Rwanda is making a transition from agricultural subsistence to a knowledge–based economy that will act as the information–technology hub for neighboring countries in Eastern and Central Africa. Because Rwandans reached bottom, sustainable change is happening in remarkable ways and quickly. Implementing some of these changes in neighboring countries could have a profoundly positive impact on central Africa.

He was incredibly moving and inspiring and gave us hope that change can happen rapidly on a continent that has suffered a series of slow starts over the decades. His passion centers around technology and to-date, Bigirimana has been successfully building Internet infrastructure in Rwandan villages, programs which can be replicated elsewhere in the region.

Speaking of inspiration and passion, enter Anthea Butler who recently wrote Women in the Church of God in Christ. Able to fluently blend women's issues and religion, her stance on the PUSH stage was on fundamentalism.

Up right after a speaker on Islam, she encouraged us that while the radicals get most of the media stage, there's another point of view, another way of behaving within the same religion. These are the stories so rarely told and even when they are, they often get buried. Be sure to listen to her on video on the PUSH website.