Today Dr. Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, opened a 3 day conference (January 21 – 23) about local journalism in Schwerin, Germany.

The conference is organized by the “German Federal Agency for Civic Education” and focused on the election year 2009 in Germany and the influence of local media on the outcome, “2009 – Super Election Year. Opinion is made by Local Journalism“.

More than 150 editors of local newspapers, politicians and multi media producer will discuss the effects of cross promotion of print and online media. The multi media production company “media-ocean” was hired to broadcast parts of the conference live via Mogulus.

To watch the conference on Mogulus click here or watch it it on the host blog “drehscheibeblog“.

Here is the schedule of the broadcast:
Thursday, January 22
* 9.00 Uhr: Keynote „Mit Crossmedia zum regionalen Leitmedium“, Konstantin Neven DuMont
* 9.45 Uhr: „Rettet Online die Zeitungsbranche?“ (Podiumsdiskussion)

Friday, January 23
* 11.00 Uhr Podiumsdiskussion: „Newsdesk – Garant für Qualitätsjournalismus?“

Is it a classic case of forgive and forget? This week Obama called on gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, to deliver the invocation at the ceremonial kick-off to Inauguration Week at the Lincoln Memorial.

Has this addition to the inaugural lineup offset Obama’s pick of evangelical celebrity Rick Warren, outspoken opponent of gay marriage and a woman’s right to choose, chosen to deliver the invocation at the 56th President’s swearing in ceremony?

To talk about whether Obama has fixed his Rick Warren problem are Jane Hamsher, Faye Wattleton, Kenyon Farrow, and Eleanor Smeal.

Hosted by Laura Flanders.

Live today at 12pm EST on mogulus.com/lauraflanders

Britain’s Conservative Party Leader David Cameron broadcast earlier today from England on the Mogulus Pro Conservatives channel.

David Cameron created a section on his website, “Cameron Direct“, dedicated to his online presence, and embedded the non-branded Mogulus Pro player for the live webcast from Chatham and Aylesford, England.

Follow the party’s live schedule on twitter: http://twitter.com/Conservatives, available also on their Mogulus channel page.

On the heels of its Macworld 2009 presentation in San Francisco, the new Apple centric documentary, “Welcome to Macintosh” will have a special one-time online screening, Monday, January 12th at 9:30pm ET on TheDigitalLifestyle.tv and mogulus.com/tdl.

Filmmakers Rob Baca and Josh Rizzo will participate in a live chat during the screening where viewers can ask questions about it the movie, the people and the creation process.

“We are thrilled to bring this special screening to the Mac community,” said Ryan Ritchey, founder of TheDigitalLifestyle.tv. The film’s Macworld presentation drew and international crowd and included discussions with Apple legends Steve Wozniak, Guy Kawasaki, Ron Wayne, and others.

Tune in to the TDL Mogulus channel tomorrow night at 9:30pm EST!

Techku team had their last broadcast day yesterday, live from the Intel booth at CES.

Using WiMAX, Techku hosts Sarah and Austin Brooke Brodack walked around the expo halls of Las Vegas Convention Center, showing new products from Nokia, Motorola, Intel, Microsoft, and many others.

While the internet connection seemed to suffer from overuse at the exposition halls, WiMAX gave Techku the possibility to stay live throughout the day, providing them with a strong and reliable connection.

After CES, Techku will keep on broadcasting combining live coverage of events, original content, and video on-demand. Stayed tuned for updates on channel’s schedule!

This year, don’t miss a thing from The International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas!

From Wednesday 7 January to Monday 12 January, 4 Mogulus channels will cover CES: USA Today, Techku, Beet TV and Non Society will each take you into their vision of the world’s biggest consumer electronics show.

Daily news, exclusive interviews, breaking news, behind-the-scenes, parties coverage will be streamed LIVE during the entire conference.

USA Today‘s technology editors Jeff Graham, Ed Baig and Mike Snider will provide viewers with reports several times a day, live from The Venetian Hotel.

Sarah Austin launched the new 24/7 channel techku. The broadcast will focus on original content in the technology space, combining live video with produced shows, and correspondent segments from around the globe.

Andy Plesser from Beet TV will hold a special 2 hour show from the NBC booth, Friday at 12pm (PT). The interview line-up includes executives from Akamai, Adobe, Sony, Intel, HP, Samsung, LG, Google, Yahoo!, NBC Universal, CNET and Microsoft.

Sponsored by Kodak and Cisco, bloggers Meghan Asha, Julia Allison and Mary Rambin from Non Society will be attending press conferences, and get you into the parties and behind-the-scenes of CES.

Go to each channel page to get more information on the broadcasts and schedules!

- mogulus.com/usatoday_ces
- mogulus.com/techku
- mogulus.com/beet_tv
- mogulus.com/nonsociety

Get into 2009 with Mogulus live from Times Square in NYC !

We will be broadcasting panoramic views of Times Square and the new giant Crystal New Year’s Eve Ball, and making the player available for embed to anyone who wishes to show the broadcast on their websites.

Timessquare.com will be redirecting the broadcast to the 2009live channel page on Mogulus.

10connects.com as well as other Gannett properties will be carrying the feeds on their websites.

Go to the 2009live now to check out the behind-the-scenes footage featuring the arrival and installation of the “2009″ sign at the top of One Times Square.

Tune in from 4pm to 12.15 am (EST) to watch the live broadcast!

A few minutes ago, the Des Moines Register started broadcasting oral arguments in the Iowa Supreme Court’s landmark gay marriage case.

The court’s ruling could ultimately make Iowa the first state in the Midwest to legalize same-sex marriage.

You can access the stream at www.mogulus.com/desmoinesregister. Arguments begun at 10 am (CT) and are expected to last until about 11.15am (CT).

Read the full article at http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081209/NEWS/81209016

The Alliance of Youth Movements was broadcast live 4-5 December using Mogulus.

Facebook, Google, YouTube, MTV, Howcast, Columbia Law School, the U.S. Department of State and Access360 Media brought leaders of 17 pioneering organizations from 15 countries together with technology experts next month in New York for the first-ever conclave to empower youth against violence and oppression through the use of the latest online tools.

Viewers were able to watch most of the panels, chatting and sharing ideas about the discussions that were going on on stage. Speakers included:
• Whoopi Goldberg, Host of ABC’s “The View”
• Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder, Facebook
• James K. Glassman, Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State
• Oscar Morales, Founder, One Million Voices Against the FARC
• Luke Russert, MSNBC
• Matthew Waxman, Associate Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

The Summit panels and presentations will be available on Howcast and iTunes (podcasts) next week.

We’re excited to tell you that Mogulus PRO is available today! We’ve been hard at work enhancing the Mogulus platform to respond to everyone interested in professional features, and we think it will be worth the wait.

There are some important changes happening along with the launch of Mogulus PRO that will affect every producer. Plus, there’s a great offer at the end…

What is Mogulus PRO?

Mogulus Pro gives you the same great, industry-leading features and functionality that you now enjoy with your Mogulus FREE account – and more! We’ve added a bundle of new features geared toward professional producers, so you can have even more quality, control and flexibility.

• Learn more about Mogulus Pro
• Preview quality and features at the Pro Channel Showcase

Let’s take a look at the Mogulus PRO features available upon launch:

	Remove Ads All PRO channels will automatically have our network overlay ads removed, so you’re in full control of the user experience.
	Make Money Use supported ad networks to monetize your content by integrating overlay ads from ScanScout or Google AdSense for Video.
	Analyze Stats Detailed analytics on your PRO channels including statistics on viewer minutes, unique viewers, channel usage, content, embedded players, referrers, and more.
	Privacy Options Remove your channel from the Mogulus Program Guide and Mogulus Grid, and even restrict the websites that can embed your channel.
	High-Quality Streaming PRO channels can opt to broadcast HD-quality streams (up to 1.7 mbps) with On2 VP6 encoded media transcoded on our servers.
	Wide-Screen Format PRO channels can also customize format to broadcast in standard (4:3), wide-screen (16:9), or even cinema (2.39:1).
	White Label Player PRO channels can remove the Mogulus logo and all Mogulus-related links from the Player for completely self-branded user experience.
	PRO Terms of Use & SLA PRO channel owners retain all rights to their broadcast content, with very favorable terms, and a Service Level Agreement that gives you the guarantees you need.

There are many more PRO features and improvements under development, including scheduled programming, APIs, and additional options to monetize your content, including integration of more advertising networks and self-managed campaigns.

Mogulus PRO Plans & Pricing

Mogulus PRO plans will be based on the number of PRO channels you need, and how much storage and bandwidth you use. There will be two plans available upon launch:

PRO-1 ($350 per month)

• 1 Pro Channel
• 25 GB / mo storage included (overage at $1.50 / GB)
• 25 GB / mo bandwidth included (overage at $1.50 / GB)

PRO-10 ($1,250 per month)

• 10 Pro Channels
• 200 GB / mo storage included (overage at $1.00 / GB)
• 200 GB / mo bandwidth included (overage at $0.80 / GB)

All users with PRO plans can continue creating FREE channels anytime, just as you do today. If you do have a PRO plan, now you can simply set the channels you choose to “PRO” (up to the number of channel slots available in your plan).

How Much Would it Cost to Go PRO for Your Channel?
Launch Estimator

Learn More and buy a plan today

Purchasing a PRO plan will be easy. When we launch, there will be an easy, self-service interface on our website that lets you pick a plan, enter your credit card, and start using PRO features immediately.

What Does This Mean for Current FREE Producers?

First, don’t worry. You can keep using Mogulus the way you always have without any big difference in the way you use Mogulus today. We want to make sure this a smooth transition.

That said, here is what you need to keep in mind:

• All FREE channels will now have ads. You will need to purchase a PRO plan in order to remove ads. By placing ads on FREE channels, we can continue offering you all of the features you love about Mogulus, for FREE!
• For users that already have ads disabled on existing Free channels, we offer a 2 week grace period before we begin displaying overlay ads on your channels.
• Users who want PRO features can finally have them! We’ve listened to thousands of feature requests in developing Mogulus PRO, and we hope you’re as excited about it as we are.

Special Promotion for Beta Users

For those of you that have been patiently waiting for Mogulus Pro, we have two special offers if you sign up now:

• The first ten (10) users that buy a Pro-1 plan get 1000 GB of free bandwidth or storage – your choice ($1,500 value)
• The first ten (10) users that buy a Pro-10 plan get 10,000 GB of free bandwidth or storage – your choice ($8,000 value)

We will confirm the winners via email to the first 10 who sign up for each plan. Winners can select which they prefer — free storage or free bandwidth — and we will add a credit to their account by the end of the month.

If you have questions, please feel free to reach out. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more news on Mogulus PRO, and enhancements to the entire Mogulus platform.