President Obama Shares His Hopes And Fears After MTV Town Hall - MTV.com

During "A Conversation With President Obama" on Thursday (October 14), the nation's leader addressed a range of concerns, directly from the country's young people. He elaborated on his administration's plans to curb illegal immigration while streamlining the process of entering the country legally. He discussed plans to improve resources for teachers and keep guns out the hands of kids. And while he addressed viewers' apprehensions about the future of the United States during the broadcast — thanks to their #mygreatesthope and #mygreatestfear tweets — he also divulged his personal hopes and fears after the show.

For a politician saddled with responsibilities of unparalleled gravity, President Obama told forum attendees he is concerned about the level of political engagement of America's youth. After personally greeting audience members, Obama took the mic one last time before heading out and urged everyone in the room to vote, maintaining that the efforts of enthusiastic citizens will drive change.

"Regardless of who you vote for, regardless if you found anything I said persuasive, I need you to vote on November 2," he insisted. "One of the things that happened in the last election is that young people got involved in ways that they had never gotten involved in before and that has to sustain itself, that has to maintain itself. Because the only way we're gonna solve these problems is if everyone is seriously engaged."

Then Obama, who won his historic 2008 presidential campaign on the tenets of hope and change, quipped, "Nobody [today] asked me what gave me hope," and explained what still inspires him.

"What gives me hope is all of you," he said. "What makes me afraid is the possibility that because these problems are hard, because it takes time to solve energy or education or build a good infrastructure or deal with immigration, because these are big complicated issues, that people get discouraged when they don't get solved right away."

The president reminded the attendees that change is often realized through long-term commitment to reaching a specific goal.

"This is a process. It's always been that way, and that's how we've overcome challenges in the past," he continued. "I have no doubt that America will remain the best, greatest country on earth as long as all of you are a part of building it. As long as you keep your eye on the prize and recognize that a change doesn't happen just because of one election, it doesn't happen just because you wish it, it happens because of hard work and sustained persistence and involvement."

The leader of the free world added that, ultimately, making a difference is not just in the hands of politicians, but also the work of dedicated citizens.

"I hope that all of you stay inspired," he said. "Don't just look to some elected official for that inspiration. Look to each other, look to yourselves."

What do you think about President Obama's hopes and fears? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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NATO Says It's Ready to Help in Taliban Talks - Voice of America

VOA News 14 October 2010

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance is ready to help in the Afghan government's efforts to pursue peace talks with the Taliban.

At a NATO meeting in Brussels Thursday, Rasmussen said the NATO-led force in Afghanistan is willing to provide "practical assistance" for reconciliation efforts.  He did not elaborate but noted the alliance will keep up military pressure on the Taliban.

His comments came a day after a NATO official said the alliance has helped secure passage of Taliban commanders to Kabul, and that such trips would be very difficult without NATO's consent.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who attended the meeting, said they support Afghan reconciliation efforts.  But they cautioned the process may not be successful.

In Kabul, a top adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for NATO forces to cease military operations in areas where militants are willing to begin talks.

Also in Kabul, the head of Afghanistan's new peace council -- Burhanuddin Rabbani -- said the Taliban is willing to take part in negotiations to end the country's nine-year war.

Rabbani, the former Afghan president, said the insurgent group has never rejected talks completely and instead has set tough conditions for peace.

Earlier this week, President Karzai acknowledged his government has held informal discussions with the Taliban but the group has denied his claim.  The militants have demanded all international troops leave Afghanistan before peace negotiations can begin.

U.S. officials have called for Taliban fighters to lay down their arms, cut ties to al-Qaida and support the Afghan constitution.

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Google, Facebook battle for 'future of the Web' - Computerworld

Computerworld - Microsoft advanced its partnership with Facebook this week, a move that could represent the biggest threat to Google's search standing yet.

Microsoft and Facebook announced that they're teaming up to make Internet searching more social. Now when someone uses Microsoft's Bing search engine to look for a new car or a book, she can see which ones her Facebook friends liked. It will now be easier for searchers to get their friends' opinions before they make purchasing decisions.

Industry watchers said this was an interesting development for search in general, but it also holds big implications for Google in particular. What's notable is that Facebook turned to Microsoft for this deal and not to the search market leader, Google.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the press conference on Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Wash., on Wednesday, said there was a specific reason he wanted to go with Bing.

"They really are the underdog here," Zuckerberg said. "They're incentivized to go out and innovate. They have all these smart people and are trying to do all these new things."

Google, not surprisingly, dismissed the notion that the deal may have any far-reaching implications and said it welcomes the challenge.

"We welcome competition that helps deliver useful information to users and expands user choice," said Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesman, in an e-mail to Computerworld. "Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space. It makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day our users benefit from that."

But industry analysts said this Microsoft-Facebook partnership could spell trouble for Google, despite the fact that the search giant handled 72.15% of all U.S. searches last month.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo have thrown stones at Google, but nothing has yet chipped its hefty search lead. When the two companies combined their search engines in August, the dominant search company barely blinked. So, if Microsoft couldn't rattle Google when it teamed with Yahoo, which is No. 2 to Google in terms of search market share, why might Microsoft's new partnership with Facebook have Google executives looking nervously over their shoulders?

"Let's face it, Bing has been a big disappointment, but this could act as a differentiator," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Research. "People prefer Google to Microsoft, but they prefer Facebook to Google. If the partnership makes Facebooking better, then it could pull users away from Google."

In other words, a major social network, like Facebook, could end up being Google's Achilles' heel.

Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner, said the partnership announcement was less about Facebook and Microsoft than it was about Facebook vs. Google.

"The real importance of [this week's] announcement is that it highlights the growing strategic conflict between Facebook and Google," Valdes said. "There is a battle for the future of the Web, and it is not about search engines, but about the social Web. The competition is between the new and the old -- between Facebook as the early leader in the social Web, and Google as the dominant player in the content Web. Everyone else, such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Twitter, will play a secondary role, and will start lining up on one side or the other."

And what could make this situation more interesting is that Google is reportedly working on launching its own social network. Rumored to be dubbed Google Me, it's considered to be Google's shot at creating a Facebook killer.

Google hasn't had a lot of luck in the social networking arena. Its Google Wave social networking service was shut down in August and reviews of Google Buzz were lackluster. But the company has learned from its failures and may be ready to try to pull some of those advertising dollars away from Facebook.

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research, said there's a big battle brewing between Google and Facebook, and Microsoft may have found a way to use that conflict to chip away at Google's massive market lead.

"[The Microsoft-Facebook partnership] moves some searches from Google to Bing," he added. "For major Facebook users, I believe 'social search' is attractive, and many are likely to switch to Bing for all searches... Not only does [Google] lose users, but they lose young users."

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

Read more about Web 2.0 and Web Apps in Computerworld's Web 2.0 and Web Apps Topic Center.

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