On May 21st and 22nd, the Innovation Journalism conference at Stanford is bringing the driving forces of journalism and innovation together. For the AlwaysOn members and bloggers, it’s going to be a great time to network and interact with innovation and journalism bigshots.

The conference will also host a visit by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which will present its new Global Agenda Council on the Future of Media, supporting the media and entertainment industry partnership with the WEF.

David Nordfors, conference chair and Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University’s Center for Innovations in Learning, will be a member of the council, which is being inaugurated in Dubai this November.

One of the program highlights is keynote speaker Tony Perkins, AlwaysOn’s founder and CEO....

Yet another ad network—one we think will get acquired soon—has picked up a heavy investment. Another sign VCs don’t think online advertising will suffer from short-term economic woes.

From the press release:

Spot Runner today announced that global media leaders Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) and Grupo Televisa, along with renowned institutions Legg Mason Capital Management* and Groupe Arnault/LVMH, as well as existing investors
have made equity investments in the company totaling $51 million.

“These strategic investments serve as a strong validation of Spot Runner’s technology-driven advertising model, as well as the results we have generated for advertisers and media owners,” said Nick Grouf, chairman and CEO of Spot Runner.

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Taiwan’s High Tech Computer Corp is taking aim at the iPhone with its newly released version of the “Touch” smartphone. At 3 million units sold, Touch Diamond is giving Apple a run for its money (overseas, of course).

From WSJ:

High Tech Computer Corp. unveiled a new version of its popular "Touch" smartphone, as the Taiwanese mobile device maker seeks to challenge better-known rivals like Apple Inc.

On Tuesday in London, HTC unveiled the new Touch Diamond, a sleeker, more powerful version of the Touch that the company says will make it easier for users to do things like surf the Internet and check email wirelessly.

The Touch has sold more than three million units since it launched in early June of last year, making it a surprisingly strong competitor to similar gadgets from bigger name competitors, like Apple's iPhone.

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Google, in either another move for the good of mankind or for the good of Google, has registered a "concern" with the FCC that Verizon Wireless may not be committed to open-access on the spectrum.

From the Standard:

Google concerned about Verizon's open access

Google has asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to obtain a pledge from Verizon Wireless that it will honor the open-access conditions on a band of 700MHz spectrum before selling the spectrum to the carrier.

Google, in a filing with the FCC Friday, raised concerns that Verizon Wireless wasn't committed to the open-access rules the FCC put on the nationwide C block of the 700MHz spectrum the agency sold in an auction ending in mid-March. The FCC's open-access rules required the winner of the C block to allow customers to connect wireless devices of their choosing and run any applications on the network using the C block.

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So when’s that ad money coming in? As investors clamp down, startups are looking for hipper ad formats.  Real people will smell a rat.

The ad from Dexter below tells the whole story—an embeddable video ad that friends can send to eachother.  Meebo is experimenting with a new ad strategy that eschews in-your-faceness and relies on friend referrals. Now it's up to the ad agencies to make videos that'll go viral.

From WSJ:

Web Start-Ups Seek New Ways to Click
Social, Video Sites Duck 
Some Old-Style Pitches 
And Go for Interactivity

As concerns mount that the slowing economy may hurt the online-ad market, Silicon Valley Web start-ups are developing new approaches. Companies such as online-software venture Slide and video and social-networking site Bebo are trying to run ads that appeal to a younger audience

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The ad world just got one step closer to closing that gaping gap between eyeballs and ad dollars.  The IAB announced  much-needed standards for in-stream online video ads today.

From the press release:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau Launches Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines
Simplification and Efficiency Lead the Way to Continued Explosive Growth

NEW YORK, NY (May, 5, 2008) –The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today announced the release of “Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines.” Created by the IAB’s Digital Video Committee, a group comprised of 145 leading interactive companies, they are the definitive format guidelines that directly address digital video advertising.

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Big Media ain’t dead yet. The AP has launched what it expects will be “a single access point for both news and advertising, both national and local” on smart phones.

AP launches Mobile News Network
 
NEW YORK -- The Associated Press today debuted its Mobile News Network, a multimedia news portal targeted at wireless users who want access anytime and anywhere to international, national and local news content from the cooperative and its members. The web application has been optimized for use on iPhones and can be accessed directly at Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. or via iPhone web application pages at Error! Hyperlink reference not valid..
 
"We are excited to offer the first comprehensive mobile news web app and to have been selected by Apple as a Staff Pick.

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GLG Partners believes in the market for ministry, according to paidContent's Rafat Ali. The religious video-sharing site won a $150 million valuation.

From paidContent:

Hoping For Ungodly Returns: Christian Video Sharing Site GodTube Gets $30 Million Funding

GodTube, one of the fast growing Christian online video sharing and social networking sites, has received a big $30 million funding round from hedge fund GLG Partners, paidContent.org has learned. The valuation for this round was around $150 million. It has previously raised about $2.5 million from private investors, including Norm Miller of Interstate Batteries.

GodTube was launched in summer last year in Dallas, and has since been among the fastest growing websites online...it now says it has about 2 million users a month. Chris Wyatt, the CEO and co-founder of GodTube, was previously an executive producer at CBS.

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Mobile TV has spread from the Far East to Switzerland and Italy. AT&T is betting the US will soon follow suit, and has embraced faith in advertising to cover big infrastructure costs.

From NYT:

Mobile TV Spreading in Europe and to the U.S.

BERLIN — Every day in Switzerland, 40,000 people watch a 100-second television news broadcast on their cellphones. In Italy, a million people pay as much as 19 euros each ($29) a month to watch up to a dozen mobile TV channels.


                                           Telegent Systems
A phone displaying mobile video, using

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