If you remember, Internet users certainly showed their commitment to keeping the Internet free and open back in January when more than 14 million users demonstrated their opposition to the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills. Although many websites went black in a defensive approach of protest, Josh Levy, the Internet Campaign Director of Free Press, which is the organization that is spearheading the initiative, told us that, with this movement, the groups want to take an offensive approach.

The groups have developed 5 basic principles for what they believe the Internet should be. These include:

Expression: Don’t censor the Internet.

Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.

Openness: Keep the Internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate.

Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don’t block new technologies, and don’t punish innovators for their users’ actions.

Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone’s ability to control how their data and devices are used.

“Protecting the Internet is protecting democracy, it’s protecting our ability to speak with each other, [and] it’s a fundamental concept,” said Levy.

Incidentally, TechFreedom and the Competitive Enterprise Institute have also come out with their own “Declaration of Internet Freedom.” Although Levy doesn’t agree with every element this proclamation includes, he told us that the whole idea behind their own movement is to create conversation in order to find solutions for preserving the open Web.

Levy went on to say that their “Declaration of Internet Freedom” is a continuing effort to raise awareness for protecting the Internet. At this point, the Declaration has received more than 1,000 signatures and is expanding into a global movement as well.

In a nutshell, he developed a mobile platform called Kiip that offers rewards to gamers as they advance within their games. As Wong explained to us, the model is designed to connect with users when they have “moments of happiness” or “moments of achievement” within the games they are playing on their mobile devices.

“We felt that ‘hey, why don’t we tap into these existing, very engaged audiences, but do something that actually values their engagement and actually creates something that’s useful to them rather than to simply show them an ad?’” he pointed out.

The young company, which recently just celebrated its 2-year anniversary, already has clients such as Pepsi, American Apparel, Best Buy, and Disney. The way it works is when a user is at that “moment of achievement,” he or she is offered a $10 gift card for Best Buy, for example.

Since the innovation is quite unique, there has been speculation that the Kiip platform is going to dramatically change the future of advertising. Wong told us that he is humbled by the association and is hopeful about where the platform will head. Kiip has already expanded beyond games to include all apps that have those “moments” and has plans of taking it even further.

“I think people will start to realize how it’s much more than advertising once they actually start to experience it,” explained Wong. “So, the next stage of our company is really about bringing it beyond simply just games and having more and more people get a chance to touch or feel a Kiip reward.”

He did say that he thinks display advertising is here to stay, but he believes that the idea of a “reward network” is really catching on.

Kiip is currently available on both Apple and Android platforms, and more than 400 apps have already adopted it. Wong also hinted that we would see much more from the platform in the coming weeks.

Does the idea of Kiip’s reward network take away the stigma that is normally associated with ads? If so, how do you see this platform changing the advertising industry? We’d love to hear your take.

Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, doesn’t think so. According to him, the “Rule of Three” applies to the tech sector just as it does to any other sector in a capitalistic economy. At any given time, there may be three dominant players in various sectors of tech such as search and browsers, but, as he explained, “creative destruction” happens much faster in technology than it does in other industries. The fall of Myspace, for example, is a perfect illustration of this happening.

“Just because these companies are large, it doesn’t mean that big is bad,” said Thierer, “or, in this case, that big is uncompetitive or non-innovating. In fact, to the contrary, despite the fact that some very large players dominate various sectors of the digital economy.”

As these antitrust concerns have grown, it seems that a lot of them have evolved around privacy concerns, which is unique since antitrust typically involves price, quantity, and quality. Thierer questions this addition of “privacy” to the mix, but also told us that current antitrust laws, in general, are too dated.

However, since the digital space is impacting society more and more, he believes that policymakers and regulators will continue to be active in getting involved in the Internet. Thierer would like to see Washington apply Moore’s law to these issues, which would mean that laws could drop or change every couple of years in order to keep up with the pace of technology.

Although it seems like a logical solution to him, Thierer said he is not optimistic about it coming to fruition. Eventually though, he said there would likely be a bill that would cover these issues.

Do you think competition is lacking in the tech sector? Let us know.

According to Jon Lindsay, who is a research fellow with the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Stuxnet is a piece of malware that was designed as a cyber attack. Its purpose was to destruct the normal operations of a uranium facility in Iran that has been suspected to be part of a nuclear initiative from the country.

As to whether or not the effort was successful, Lindsay told us that, although it did create confusion among Iranian engineers, the enrichment of uranium continued and even improved during the attack. In other words, he believes it had a “minor effect” on the Iranian plant.

Although there has been a lot of speculation about its influence and whether laws should ban such activity, Lindsay doesn’t think enough information is available at this point to make such judgments. According to him, people shouldn’t be fearful, but cyber efforts will continue going forward. However, he doesn’t think we will see large-scale cyber attacks.

“We will continue to see more and more cybercrime, but no cybercrime that massively brings down financial systems,” he said. “We will continue to see a rise in espionage, but it will continue to be like espionage always is – a very ambiguous instrument.”

What are your thoughts on Stuxnet and the whole concept of cyberweapons? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

As he explained to us, Goalee pulls data from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to find out who people really are. From there, it allows users to choose goals and connects people based on their similar interests.

Brown told us that Goalee isn’t trying to be the “new social network,” but instead, it’s simply trying to be a “networking coach” for users.

At this point the service is free, but it will be rolling out a paid service later this year that will allow users to have unlimited goals and connections.

Still, what’s been missing is the ability to manage and optimize the links that are inserted into the content. But now, thanks to LinkSmart, the game is changing. LinkSmart launched late last month in an effort to solve this challenge for publishers.

According to Pete Sheinbaum, the company’s CEO and also the former CEO of DailyCandy, he encountered this problem personally and wanted to do something about it. As a result, LinkSmart introduced its Total Link Management (TLM) solution to provide publishers with a way to optimize their in-text linking and make what was formerly a very manual and stagnant process into an efficient one.

“LinkSmart was born to think about links in a brand new way,” he said. “We wanted to provide publishers with tools that analyze exactly what people were doing in and around the links, what they were clicking on, where they were going, [and] how often they were doing so; but more importantly, give them a software service tool based in the cloud that starts to manage and optimize these links in real-time.”

Sheinbaum told us that he believes LinkSmart and its solution will dramatically change the publishing industry for the better, helping content providers, marketers, and advertisers.

LinkSmart also brought in $4.7 million in funding upon launch to be used to further develop the platform.

However, as Grant Simmons, the Director of SEO and Social Product at The Search Agency, pointed out to us, Google has tendency to announce similar products that aren’t “fully-baked” after a competitor releases a new product.

“Google is trying to differentiate itself by copying,” he said.

According to Simmons, it’s been evident for some time that Google is worried. Social is one particular area that is an obvious issue of concern for the search giant, which is why Simmons believes Google has pushed so hard to integrate Google+ into its search results. While it’s natural that Google would try this approach and take advantage of its massive userbase, whether or not users respond well to it is the real question.

Simmons told us that social media has certainly changed the game of search and that it would continue to do so going forward. At this point though, it is not apparent who will emerge as a leader in the space, if it is any one player specifically.

What people also don’t always realize is that online forums take a lot of time and effort, just as a business would, since they require management and revenue streams. However, the question then becomes – how do you make money with them?

O’Keefe actually answers this question and others in a new free ebook called Monetizing Online Forums that he just released in partnership with Skimlinks. As he explained to us, monetization is just as tricky with online forums as it is with other areas of the Web. Let’s face it, popular websites such as Twitter still struggle with the money-making concept.

He told us that people can make money through display advertising, in-text monetization, sponsored brand placements, affiliate and CPA networks, product sales, premium memberships, and a number of other ways, but he quickly pointed out that forum owners must be careful to find a balance between making money and giving the forum’s members a positive experience. If forum owners aren’t careful, “overmonetization can kill a forum,” he said.

O’Keefe goes into much more detail about the various revenue models and the challenges with them in his new book. Still, if done right, he said that forums can be profitable.

At this point, however, the new strategy does not seem to be working. Instead of increasing sales, the company has experienced declines.

According Martha Guidry, a principal partner of The Rite Concept and also the author of the book Marketing Concepts That Win!, the J.C. Penney’s new strategy wasn’t bad, but it was poorly executed. Guidry is known as “The Concept Queen” and told us that J.C. Penney hit a “sweet spot” with the whole idea of no couponing and constant savings. However, she said the company failed in communicating that message to consumers.

She pushes a CLeAR way of thinking that focuses on the critical areas of content, language, and relevance. As she explained to us, the idea was there for J.C. Penney, but the relevance and language were not.

J.C. Penney did recently come out and say that it plans to adjust its marketing message but doesn’t plan on changing its strategy. Although there are still some naysayers against the company, Guidry believes this is a good move. She said that if the company is able to communicate their “fair and square pricing” to consumers, it may be able to make its revamp work. But, she did tell us that she doesn’t believe this message resonates with the company’s target audience.

The only problem with this interaction is figuring out what it means. Are consumers really engaging with the brand, and what is it that they want in return? These questions and others challenge brands everyday.

According to Matt Warta, the CEO of GutCheck, companies shouldn’t be bogged down with this worry. His company provides a platform that allows brands to really understand what their fans and followers are thinking.

GutCheck has one tool that allows brands to get one-on-one with individuals and have in depth conversations to find out their exact needs. The company also rolled another tool earlier this year called Instant Research Communities that allows brands to communicate with groups of people in a social setting.

“There’s nobody else out there that can do what we do in the amount of time that we do it and at the price point that we have,” said Warta.

He went on to say that the company would continue to improve its platform to make sure that brands are getting the most relevant research through their social campaigns.

Although the Knight Foundation honored Behavio for the advancements it can make in journalism, the platform can actually be utilized in many other areas as well. As Nadav Aharony, the company’s co-founder, explained to us, the platform can actually “look at how communities live their lives.” In other words, it can detect how friendships are formed and how people make decisions.

The journalism implications are significant as well since the platform will be able to enhance the meaning of pictures. In addition, it opens the door for many others to contribute to a story.

Aharony told us that the platform began as an open source project at the MIT Media Lab Funf and then developed into Behavio. While the platform is still relatively new, he believes it has the ability to be used in many different industries, including healthcare. He expects that we will see apps and services that use the framework in the relatively near future.

According to Maxim Weinstein, StopBadware’s Executive Director, the “bad ads” that the alliance refers to are the advertisements that deliver malware, point users to spam, or tries to sell them counterfeit goods. He told us that the alliance hopes to not only protect consumers from these bad ads, but it also hopes to preserve the integrity of advertising since it is the primary revenue model for most Web companies.

The alliance plans to make recommendations for industry best practices, provide a platform for sharing information about bad actors, and also work closely with policymakers to keep them informed on trends and as well as what the industry is doing to self-regulate. Weinstein said that malicious advertising is a “very real threat” and that, although there are improvements happening, it is critical that stronger action is taken to soon.

Within the first year, the alliance hopes to have more companies on board with its effort and to have policy recommendations available for the industry.

One company, however, that has no doubts about Facebook’s monetization plan is Wildfire, the software suite for social media marketers. WebProNews spoke with Tom Rikert, the company’s Director of Product Development, who told us that Facebook is the centerpiece of most social strategies.

Furthermore, given its “treasure trove” of data, Rikert believes that Facebook is able to reach users with relevant ads based on their interests. Before Facebook, he worked at YouTube and was faced with the similar challenge of monetizing massive users through advertising. With his experience in this area, he believes Facebook is on the right track.

“When done right, ads are actually value add,” Rikert said. “They [Facebook] are connecting people to information they care about and entertainment they care about.”

As for the mobile advertising strategy, Rikert told us that he believes Facebook is approaching it correctly as well. He foresees the social giant eventually tailoring ads based on location and other factors that can be customized to individual users, which means higher click-through rates for advertisers and, of course, more revenue for Facebook.

What do you think? Are you convinced by Rikert’s defense of Facebook’s ad model, or are you still skeptical? Please share your thoughts.

According to Elias Roman, the company’s CEO and Co-founder, the attention and growth that Songza has been receiving is due to the unique service it provides. As he explained to us, Songza has “expertly curated playlists” for just about anything. However, it is most distinguishable from other services for its “concierge” feature.

Through this feature, Songza essentially learns its users in a way that allows it to match music playlists to whatever activity the user is doing. For instance, if you tell Songza you’re going to exercise, it will provide an exercise playlist for you without you having to think about what music you need.

Another distinctive feature of Songza is the fact that it does not have audio ads. It does have display ads but has no plans of incorporating ads into the music experience.

Although Roman believes Songza is very different from both Pandora and Spotify, he admitted to us that they are all competing for the same audience, which, of course, could mean some big changes ahead in the music space.

At this point, Songza is available on all iOS and Android devices and also has a Web application. Although the “concierge” feature is not yet available for Android, Roman told us that it would be very soon.

As author and technology consultant Larry Downes explained to WebProNews, if this proposal were to be adopted, it would dramatically change the unmetered “peered” design of the Internet that has been successful for so long. If this system were to change, it would tax content providers to reach non-U.S. Internet users, which could hit many U.S.-based companies hard.

Downes told us that the current system that the Internet is based on is a “remarkable example” of the multi-stakeholder process and, therefore, does not need to be changed. The reason, however, that ETNO is so adamant on pushing such a proposal through is that most of these content providers are located in the U.S., which means the Europeans aren’t getting any revenue.

As he explained, this proposal is very worrisome to not only U.S.-based companies, but also to the future of the Internet. Fortunately, the U.S. is aware of the concerns and has indicated its opposition to them.

At this point, this proposal and potentially others are expected to be debated at the World Conference on International Telecommunications in December.