WATERTOWN, Mass.-Design group Big Blue Dot has hired Jan Craige Singer as the Watertown-based facility’s studio head.
Prior to joining Big Blue Dot, Singer spent two years as a Watertown-based educational/ multimedia/television development consultant. Her clients included smarterkid.com and e-commerce company Red Rocket, both of Boston. While she was a consultant, Singer also studied at Harvard University, where she graduated with a master’s in education.
Before her consulting gig, Singer served as head of development at Hearst Broadcasting Productions, Boston.
Prior to Hearst, Singer served as VP of programming for five years at Discovery Communications in Bethesda, Md. She joined The Discovery Channel, one of Discovery Communications’ networks, as director of on-air promotions. After one year, she was promoted to VP of program services. Three years into her stint at The Discovery Channel, Singer headed over to The Learning Channel (TLC) – which Discovery Communications had recently acquired as VP of programming. Singer was the founding executive producer for TLC’s Ready, Set, Learn!, a six-hour commercial-free block of children’s programming.
Big Blue Dot specializes in print, broadcast and multimedia design for companies that specialize in children’s products. Its clients include ABC, PBS, Scholastic, Nickelodeon, TBS and the Canadian children’s network YTV.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More