Tag / Stanford University

by Erica Swallow

Brands on Foursquare

The Foursquare homepage highlights 10 brand pages, but there are plenty more!

With all of the exciting Foursquare partnerships that have been popping up, I decided to start maintaining a list of all of the brands that are utilizing Foursquare to engage users and distribute content. Below is a full list of brands that currently have brand pages.

987FM

Adobe

ARTINFO

AskMen.com

Bing

Bon Appetit Magazine

Bonnaroo

Bravo

C-Span

CNN

Crain’s Chicago

The Dew Tour

DonQ Rum

Dora the Explorer

The Expendables

Explore Chicago

Flavorpill

GOOD Magazine

Gossip Girl

Harvard University

Havaianas

Heavy Table

Helmut Lang

History Channel

How to Make it in America (HBO)

Huffington Post

IFC (Independent Film Channel)

Intel

The Learning Channel (TLC)

Live Nation

Louis Vuitton

Lucky Magazine

Manchester City Football Club

Marc Jacobs

Mashable

Metromix

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metro News (English) / Journal Metro (French)

MTV

National Wildlife Foundation

New York Magazine

The New York Times

The Real L Word

San Fran BART

The Seattle Times

SFGate.com

SF Giants

Six Flags

SPIN Magazine

Stanford University

Super Model Me

Syracuse University

Texas A&M University

The Tenth Inning (PBS documentary)

Thrillist

Time Out Chicago

Time Out New York

TODAY Show

TransLink

Valentine’s Day Movie (Warner Brothers)

VH1

VisitPA

Visit Bucks County PA

Visit Milwaukee

The Wall Street Journal

Zagat

If you know of any partnerships left off the list, please add them in the comments below, as the goal of this post is to keep the world informed of the great stuff that’s going on over at Foursquare! Cheers!

by Erica Swallow

FACES: Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford: On Common Grounds 2009 (Part II)

The second half of FACES (Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford) was excellent! We had great discussions among delegates and even had some top-notch keynote speakers! Here’s a taste of the last few days at FACES 2009.

Above: Condoleezza Rice (Former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, Current Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow, Stanford University)

Condoleezza Rice was our keynote speaker for the week. She spoke eloquently about Chinese and American relations, touching on four key topics:

1.) The need for Americans to fully recognize and promote the domestic transition that China is facing during a time of vast economic growth within the country.

2.) The need for regional cooperation between Asian countries and the United States. She made reference to the success of the Six-Party Talks (North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia, China and the U.S.) and Friends of Pakistan and said there was a need for progress in regards to China-Taiwan relations.

3.) The need for the world to fully recognize China as a global power. Citing the facts that China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a big player in many other organizations, she urged us to place China on the same level as other global powers.

4.) The importance of realizing that China makes a huge and necessary contribution to the world economy.

During the Q&A section, she said two things that really stuck with me:

On Taiwan’s political status of “Status Quo“:

“Status Quo” is a political device used to manage a problem so no one has to solve it.

On democracy:

The absence of democracy in countries is dangerous.

I was very surprised with her candidness to answer questions with real passion, feeling and bias. All too often, we get the political answer from current and past politicians. Yet, Rice told it like it was. Impressive.


Above: Christian Kaas and Alex Metelitsa sign the China-Taiwan agreement during our Paracel Islands simulation.

I had the chance to participate in a political crisis simulation, much like those that take place in Model UN. My group worked on the “Paracel Islands simulation”. The Paracel Islands are a chain of small islands and reefs in the South China Sea, off the coast of Hainan and Vietnam. These islands are claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. During our simulation, control of the islands was being disbuted by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. The premise of interest in the islands was that the extraction of oil would begin in 5 years and last for decades. All three countries had particular interest in the oil, as natural resources are valuable, especially in this day of age.

I was a part of the Taiwanese delegation in the simulation and played the role of Chief of Energy Department. The simulation was eye-opening to what really goes on in politics! We had an extreme amount of information a-symmetry going on and were constantly making side-deals throughout the simulation. We had to play hardball to get the Chinese delegation to even consider Taiwan as a valid player, because we first had to get past the political issues. I really enjoyed it!

Above: Abby (Zhang Fuyang) played the role of a reporter from “The Vietnamese Times” (a ficticious newspaper) during our Mach Press Conference, where Christian and Alex (playing Chiefs of the Taiwanese and Chinese National Security Advisory Boards, respectively) announced and signed our agreement.

Towards the end of the day, the entire FACES delegation competed in “Iron Chef”. We were given an arrangement of foods, including ketchup, mustard, squash, avocado, Spam, hotdogs, fish, crabmeat, sourkraut, radishes, oatmeal, yogurt, tangerines, cheese, mushrooms and grapes. Each food had to be used in at least one of three dishes, and grapes had to be used in all three dishes. The catch? We had 45 minutes.

My team’s final menu was as follows:

Appetizer: Squash soup
Main dish: Sauteed fish over salad
Dessert: Oatmeal and yogurt mixed with freeze-squeezed grape juice and tangerines
(See below)

Above: My “Iron Chef” team created three amazing dishes!

Above: My teammates and I were quite proud of our creations!

Above: The FACES Executive Team were real sports for trying EVERYTHING! Yuck!

In the end, our team came in 3rd place (out of five teams). I guess that’s not too bad… We saw some crazy dishes, and I was amazed at the true bravery of the FACES Executive Team for trying every dish presented to them. I saw what went on in our kitchen, and it wasn’t pretty! I’m sending my best wishes to the execs in hope for survival after such trauma!!!

I want to thank all of the American and Chinese delegates, the entire FACES Executive Team, all of the speakers, and the entire Stanford campus for a great week at FACES 2009! I’m looking forward to the Beijing forum in November!

by Erica Swallow

FACES: Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford: On Common Grounds 2009

For the past few days, I’ve been at the Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford FACES. The mission statement of FACES is:

The Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford (FACES) is a student led group started at Stanford University dedicated to fostering personal relationships and understanding among future leaders in the United States and China. Through its presence on college campuses, FACES strives to promote interest and awareness in U.S.-China relations, building the foundation for a more constructive bilateral future.

Here’s a little taste of what we’ve been up to:


Above: Discussion about “Taiwan: Major Anniversaries and Potential Breakthroughs in Cross-Straight Relations, featuring Thomas Gold (Associate Professor of Sociology, UC Berkeley, Executive Director of the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies), Sam Zhao (Professor, Execuitive Director of the Center for China-U.S. Cooperation, University of Denver, Founder and Editor of the Journal of Contemporary China); and Eric Yu (Research Fellow & Program Manager for Democracy in Taiwan at Stanford’s CDDRL).


Above: David Straub (Acting Director of the Korean Studies Program at The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center of Stanford, Former U.S. State Department Korean Affairs Director); Sigfried Hecker (Professor of Mangement Science and Engineering, Senior Fellow at FSI, Co-Director of CISAC, Stanford University; Emeritus Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory); and Michael Armacost (Sorenstein Distinguished Fellow at APARC) discuss “China, the United States, and the Future of the Korean Peninsula”.

Above: Michael Armacost makes a valid point on North Korea’s treatment of South Korea: “South Korea has an economy that is 50 times that of North Korea, yet North Korea treats South Korea with utter disrespect.”


Above: Ronald McKinnon (Senior Fellow at the Stanford Center for International Development at SIEPR, Stanford University) and Jean Oi (William Haas Professor in Chinese Politics: Professor of Political Science, Stanford University) discuss “The Future of Economic Growth in China”.


Above: Thomas Fingar (Payne Distinguished Lecturer for International Studies, Stanford University) revives a new thought on the exportation of democracy: “Democracy is not exportable. If it is not indigenous, it is not real.”

Above: Yiqun Zhou (Professor in Asian Languages, Stanford University) discusses “New Confucianism in China” with the American and Chinese delegates.


Above: Stephen Schneider (Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University); Jeremy Carl (Research Fellow at PESD, Ph.D. Candidate in the Emmit Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, Stanford University); and Michael Wara (Assistant Professor of Law, Stanford Law School) discuss “Intergovernmental Cooperation & Technology for Climate Change”.


Above: Robert Baensch (President of the Baensch International Group Ltd., Academic Director and Faculty Director of the Stanford University Professor Publishing Course) and Charles McCullagh (Senior Vice President, Member Services, Magazine Publishers of America) discuss “Capitalism and International Media”.


Above: Richard Williams (Former U.S. Consul Gernal in Hong Kong, Former U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia, Former Country Director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs, U.S. Department of State) (far left) discusses Tiananmen, 20 years later.

FACES has been such a valuable conference so far. I can’t wait to attend more seminars and panel discussions. Tomorrow, are conducting simulations, which are much like Model UN. My team is in debate over the Paracel Islands. One team will play Taiwan, while the other will play China. We will enter negotiations to try to find the best solution. I’ll let you all know how it goes! Wish my team (Taiwan!) luck!