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Google Class Action Suit Settlement

I found this incredibly fascinating and wondered if Facebook and Zinga, or other social networking applications and sites will follow suit with class action suit settlements. This is a momentous achievement for those who feel helpless that participating in social networking automatically forfeits their privacy. What do you think?

Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we’ve reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.

Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users’ concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be.

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com.

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This mandatory announcement was sent to all Gmail users in the United States as part of a legal settlement and was authorized by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Google Inc. | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway | Mountain View, CA 94043

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4G in NYC

This is the first day my HTC Evo has allowed me to connect to the 4G network in both Manhattan and Hoboken. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited, though I haven’t seen much of a difference yet. So far, my favorite part was to be able to rub it in Zeh‘s face as his Nexxus One isn’t 4G capable.

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Book Trailer: ROOM, by Emma Donoghue

My company, ERA404 Creative Group,  just finished editing this book trailer for the new novel by Emma Donoghue, “ROOM.” The book has already been shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize and has received a ton of wonderful publicity. This video was shot in the client’s audio lab at Little, Brown and Company. The actor is the son of publisher Michael Pietsch and is actually a very good artist. Coaching a little kid to draw poorly is more difficult than it sounds, but he did a wonderful job anyway.

While I selected the script, edited the audio and directed the shoot, the editing and cinematography was done by Mike Citarella and the video was shot under the guidance and creative assistance of LBC Marketing Maven (and Craft Services for the shoot), Amanda Tobier. The official site for ROOM (www.roomthebook.com) is expected to launch next week.

This is the third video we’ve concepted for a book. The first was the viral video (NSFW) for Charles Bock’s “Beautiful Children,” which rocketed through the web with the help of Adrants and Gawker articles. The second was for Joshua Ferris’s “The Unnamed” web site, which showcases surveillance video from Grand Central Terminal.

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Mark Khaisman’s Packing Tape Artwork

Ukrainian born mixed media artist Mark Khaisman uses translucent packing tape on Plexiglas panels with a light source behind to create incredible images that have the shadow and depth of large scale paintings. Khaisman uses several layers of tape to give the pieces contrast and thinner stripes of tape to achieve smaller “brush strokes” and utilizes the natural crinkles to create subtle texture as needed. The artist achieves even complex features in the faces of his characters. It’s pretty incredible. The most original use of tape since this.

Read more

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Ian Wright’s Paper Trail

Ian Wright—the artist, not the English footballer turned television and radio personality—made this illustration with pieces of paper for the cover of the current album of T.I. called Paper Trail. On Wednesday, September 22nd, he’ll be speaking for AIGA/NY’s Small Talk Number 1. Shame that I’ll be out of town, but I really love the quality of craft and originality of his work.

Here’s the recap from the AIGA site:
A Londoner currently based in NYC, Wright has been making portraits across art and design since 1978 for clients such as Vitra, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nike and Issey Miyake. After a sharing a studio with designer Neville Brody at “The Face” magazine in 1981, Wright set up his own studio.

Enjoying the unpredictability they offer, his use of deliberately inexpensive materials has included salt,  cassette tape(s), pin buttons, mascara brushes and paper cups.

Wright’s illustrative artwork has been exhibited internationally, including the London Design Museum (2007), the Exposure Gallery (2007), the Cosh Gallery (2007), Rosemary Gardens (2005), Pentagram  Gallery (2005), Reed Space NYC (2006), Mass Production at The Christopher Henry Gallery (NYC) (2006), and Issey Miyake (2002), among others.