The agreement includes T-Mobile providing a new on-field communication system that will use the wireless carrier’s 4G network. Specifically, the tech will be used to provide a wireless voice system between dugouts and bullpens in “select” MLB stadiums. The dugout-to-bullpen system will appear sometime in 2013 and the companies will continue to look for “options for future innovation within the game.

“T-Mobile has made a significant commitment to Major League Baseball across our game and business, and its innovative drive and expertise in wireless technology will be an outstanding addition to the baseball industry,” said Tim Brosnan, executive vice president of business at MLB. “T-Mobile has been an impact player in the wireless industry, and we look forward to its innovative spirit positively influencing the game and the way fans enjoy it.”

In addition to the wireless dugout-to-bullpen system, T-Mobile will provide its subscribers with exclusive MLB content and offers through a collaboration with the MLB.com At Bat mobile app.

“Baseball is America’s No. 1 digitally consumed sport, and today’s baseball fan is technologically savvy and data hungry, which makes this partnership a great opportunity for not only baseball enthusiasts, but also millions of T-Mobile customers,” said Mike Sievert CMO at T-Mobile.

Twitter announced today that they are now an official sponsor of the Apache Software Foundation. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s a “non-profit and volunteer run open source foundation.” While Twitter’s explanation is satisfactory, it doesn’t do them justice. The Apache Foundation is a community led development group that’s been around since 1999. They’ve had a hand in developing many of the technologies we take for granted today including HTTP Servers, XML graphics and OpenOffice.

That’s why it’s super cool that Twitter is now giving back to the group. Twitter has long been a proponent of open source software and its ability to revolutionize the way we approach computing. It just goes to show you that there is still some good in this world.

Of course, Twitter has a personal stake in this as well. They are working with ASF to complete work on Mesos, an application that’s currently going through the Incubation period at ASF. Twitter is already using Mesos on “hundreds of production machines and makes it easier to execute clustered jobs that do everything from running services to handling [their] analytics workload.”

This is only the beginning as well. As Twitter becomes a larger part of the Internet consciousness, their spreading of the open source goodwill will surely rub off onto others. They certainly have enough clout right now as it is, but working with the ASF will only make them stronger.

It’s worth mentioning that is the second time this week that Twitter has shown itself to be one of the classiest acts in the tech sector. The company recently announced its Innovator’s Patent Agreement. This lets the developer within their companies own the patent for their creations. While it may be in response to the ridiculous patent slinging by Yahoo, it’s still a great move that inspires confidence in employees.

YouTube will cover cost of production for certain channel producers, and the producers themselves will share equally in advertising revenue, once YouTube recoups the original investment. Production costs range from a few hundred thousand to a few million for most channels.

YouTube has struck deals on the new advertising scheme with brands like Toyota, GM, AT&T, and Lowes. As part of the deal, buyers will also be investing in other videos, with their ads appearing in non-channel videos as well. The channel sponsor ads comprise just 20% of the total ad campaign revenue for investors, with the other content being run on the rest of YouTube’s videos.

Unilever will be sponsoring Young Hollywood Network channel for a reported $10 million. Toyota is to sponsor Cafe Mom, Kin Community and Mom’s View for $10 million, and GM will sponsor a package of automotive channels including Red Bull’s action sports channel for $5 million. Chrysler, AT&T, and Lowes also have agreements, but details on those deals have not been released.

YouTube is asking brands to get on board for sponsorship of groups of channels as part of a package deal. According to AdAge, a one year exclusive contract in the music and pop culture categories would cost as much as $62 million a package. Sports would cost $40 million, and automotive would run you about $16 million.

This new advertising model comes after a recent redesign of the channels look for YouTube. As more attention is being shifted from television to online video entertainment, YouTube is trying to stay ahead of the game with improvements to their channels offering, giving a more professional feel to original content and offering new ad opportunities to investors.

“Everyone on the platform wants more followers, myself and the sponsors included. This sounded like a fun way to accomplish everything we’re looking to do with social media in a fun, unique way,” Keselowski told ESPN recently. The young driver truly enjoys interacting with his fans and really seems to have a handle on using social media tools to communicate with them.

Although fans are used to seeing Twitter handles on jerseys and pretty much everything else, this truck will be the first time thousands of social media handles have been displayed on a NASCAR vehicle. It took some design doing to accomplish the challenge but the handles will all fit and be displayed on the truck bed with 10 winning fans Twitter names prominently featured on the doors. Regarding social media, Keselowski adds, “I feel like this is an important new frontier. It’s exciting to me to push it to new areas.”

CPAC is an annual conference that brings together the who’s who of American conservatives – activists, radio/TV personalities, and elected officials. Other than plenty of speeches, CPAC is known for its straw poll which is thought by some to represent the overarching mood of the party (though some fail to place such a high significance on it). Last year’s straw poll winner was Ron Paul. The conference was founded in 1973.

Google is one of nine listed sponsors. The others include the American Center for Law & Justice, the American Principles Project, CitizenLink, Human Events, the National Rifle Association, The heritage FOundation, The Leadership Institute, and the Young America’s Foundation. The event has dozens more co-sponsors and specialty sponsors, and is being co-hosted by the Tea Party.

One of the main reasons that this is big news involves Google’s perceived political leanings. Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt is a proud supporter of President Obama, and Google’s workforce is number three on the list of biggest sources of campaign funding for the President.

According to Bloomberg, Google says that they will have a presence at events from both sides of the aisle this campaign season. The CPAC was particularly attractive to Google because a large percentage of the attendees are young, technology users, they said.

Google also said that CPAC is a perfect chance to promote Google Politics & Elections. Google Politics & Elections is a dashboard they unveiled in January that allows users to track primary results, on-the-ground reporting, as well as find the most current news about all the candidates and issues. Google also plans to incorporate Google+ Hangouts into CPAC.

This year’s CPAC will take place on February 9-11 in Washington D.C. The confirmed speaker list is filled with nearly everyone important in conservative politics these days – Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum and Scott Walker. There are some interesting oddities as well, like actor Stephen Baldwin and TLC reality show star Michelle Duggar (the one with all the kids).

Well, if you are a Twitter member in the United Kingdom, you hang a clown suit on the announcement, while making fun of what we Americans call “beer.” Before the Twitter breakdown, some information about the partnership.

Budweiser and the Football Association have agreed to a three-year deal that sees Budweiser as one of the primary sponsors of FA Cup. In fact, while the agreement stands, the event will now be called The FA Cup with Budweiser. Is that anything like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim? Considering Budweiser has sponsored the World Cup for the past 25 years, such a relationship shouldn’t be so surprising, but then again, the World Cup is just that: teams from all over the world. Meanwhile, the FA Cup is an England-only tournament, making Budweiser’s primary sponsorship — over brands like Bass or, hell, even Guinness — ripe for humorous reactions.

Naturally, Twitter is the place for these gems, and with “Budweiser” trending in United Kingdom, there’s plenty of reaction to share, although, it should be said the first tweet I noticed captured the mood perfectly:

For some reason, I dig Nad Star’s Twitter background. Well, the right side of it, anyway. The Twitter assault on Budweiser continues:

A voice of reason shows up, but it’s doubtful the contribution will salve these reactions:

Whatever the case, there’s little doubt the Football Association enjoys the influx of Anheuser-Busch money, and there’s even less doubt the FA Cup’s viewership will suffer because of the partnership. With that in mind, maybe next time, the FA can court some German beer brands. It’s not like the history between these two countries was that bad, right? Who knows, maybe Budweiser can make use of Arianny Celeste, much like they did with the Bud Light Lime commercial:

And that’ll run you about $3000 a pop. It raises to $5000 after September.

Baron also has set up a Rocketboom channel on YouTube, where you can make yourself with all that Joanne (and maybe some Amanda, too, but I didn’t look that far.)

What was most interesting about Baron’s blog post was a short history detailing how much the site struggled in the beginning and about how difficult it was to keep the show afloat.

He writes:

Just over a year ago, we ran out money for Rocketboom. We were not mature enough to consider investments and so I decided Rocketboom had to go forward with an E-bay auction….

I’ll never forget the fear of failure that buit up to 5 seconds before the auction ended a loser, followed by a final refresh click with just 2 seconds to go that suddenly showed a $40,000 winner. To this day, I had never publicized that $40,000 was actually our reserve, helping to set the high market value.

AdSense Debuts Video Pilot

With the new offering, publishers not only can choose when their ads play, but also can choose which videos they appear in.

AdSense Product Marketing Manager Christine Lee (not to be confused with Bob and Tom’s Kristi Lee) says Google will be gathering information through the pilot to gain a better understanding of what works best in video ads.

The company cites challenges publishers face while trying to monetize their content through video inventory, and building a beneficial relationship with users as the driving force behind the offering.

This new announcement comes on the heels of two other video offerings. AdSense already offers Click-to-Play video ads for any publisher opted into image ads that want to try their hand at video.

In January, AdSense debuted its video distribution and sponsorship service pilot that allows publishers to choose short-form video clips bundled with ads for display on their websites. 

"In the past few months, we’ve seen a real upsurge in the number of military families waiting for sponsors," said Terry Gniffke, CEO of Caliber Media Group. "Long deployments can make it extremely hard for families to stay connected. But with the help of new corporate sponsors, our brave service men and women can continue sharing life’s most precious moments through the latest technology on the Web, giving them a little piece of home when they need it most."

WebsitesForHeroes.com was launched in 2006 by two California men. Terry Gniffke of Caliber Media, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, and Michael Sawtell, CEO of DigitalPost Interactive, a provider of family Web site technology to keep military families connected.

The site was originally created to allow Americans to sponsor families, but the program has broadened to allow corporate America the chance to sponsor families who are still waiting for sites. The new corporate program allows companies to become silver, gold or platinum sponsors by supporting as few as 25 families.

"These sites provide a whole new way for military families to communicate," said Michael Sawtell, CEO, DigitalPost Interactive. "Through our advanced Web 2.0 platform, spouses on both sides of the ocean can now share videos, photos, online diaries, and even message boards where loved ones can post words of support. The result is a rich, warm family experience that bridges the miles in ways ten minute phone calls simply cannot."

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