Author: Neel Achary

Missouri Launches First-Ever Child Care WAGE$ Pilot

Child Care Aware of Missouri secures $5.6 million to boost educator pay and strengthen St. Louis County’s early childhood workforce.

(St. Louis, Mo., Mar 4, 2026) Child Care Aware of Missouri (CCAMO) recently announced the launch of the Child Care WAGE$ Missouri pilot project, a groundbreaking initiative designed to increase retention through compensation based on education for early childhood educators in St. Louis County. The program – funded by a $5.6 million award administered by the St. Louis County Children’s Services Fund on behalf of the County – will begin offering services in May 2026.

Developed by the TEACH Early Childhood National Center in North Carolina, the Child Care WAGE$ program is a strategic salary supplement initiative investing in early childhood educators to elevate care quality and workforce stability. With more than 30 years of proven success in five other states, this marks the first-ever implementation in Missouri, made possible through CCAMO’s long-standing affiliation with the national TEACH Early Childhood Scholarship program.

Beth Ann Lang, Deputy CEO of Child Care Aware of Missouri.

“This has been a four-year journey driven by one clear goal: valuing early childhood educators,” said Beth Ann Lang, Deputy CEO of Child Care Aware of Missouri. “Launching WAGE$ in St. Louis County is a powerful step toward fairer compensation and stronger workforce stability. We’re proud to bring this opportunity to educators who have long asked for recognition and financial support tied to their experience and dedication.”

Through the WAGE$ Missouri pilot, eligible educators in licensed or license-exempt child care programs in St. Louis County will receive salary supplements based on their education level and retention at their St. Louis County-based child care program. These ongoing financial incentives reinforce that professional growth translates into tangible pay increases and long-term workforce stability. The organization’s leadership envisions the St. Louis County pilot as a proof of concept, using data and measurable outcomes to advocate for expanding the WAGE$ model across additional Missouri counties in the coming years.

CCAMO’s leadership in strengthening the early childhood profession spans more than two decades. In 2000, CCAMO secured the sole state license for the TEACH Early Childhood Missouri Scholarship program and awarded the first TEACH Missouri Scholarships, setting the foundation for educational advancement and career development across the state’s early education workforce. To date TEACH Missouri has awarded more than 5,500 scholarships to early child professionals.

CCAMO will hire a Director to lead the new WAGE$ program and plans to bring on two counselors once fully staffed. A tax consultant position will be added in a contracted position beginning in April.

“This pilot is an investment not only in St. Louis County’s child care professionals,” Lang added “but also in the children and families who benefit from consistent, high-quality care.”

Founded in 1999, CCAMO is a statewide nonprofit that focuses on a comprehensive early childhood education experience through impactful programs and partnerships. The organization’s services include workforce development, child care business supports, advocacy and policy work, and its new Child Care Keeps Missouri Working, a regional campaign offering concierge solutions to businesses undergoing employee recruitment and retention challenges due to the overwhelming shortage of quality child care options. For more information, call (314) 535-1458 or visit www.mochildcareaware.org.

Digital Rights Network Launches First Global Platform Connecting Real Estate and Content Creators to Monetize the Digital Layer of the Physical World

More than $400 Billion in value and over 11 Billion in Square Footage  registered as buildings become digital content affiliates driving revenue for property and IP owners.

LOS ANGELES, Mar 4 — Digital Rights Network today announced the launch of its groundbreaking platform designed to connect real estate owners with content creators, media companies, brands, and IP holders to monetize the digital layer of real-world properties. The platform enables property owners to register and manage their Digital Rights while allowing creators to deploy immersive 3D and augmented reality (AR) content on buildings transforming the physical world into a scalable, rights-protected content network.

As augmented reality, spatial computing, and AI-driven media rapidly move from screens into physical environments, buildings are increasingly being used as canvases for digital advertising, entertainment, and social content, often without the consent of property owners. Digital Rights Network provides the missing infrastructure, creating a transparent marketplace where property owners and content creators can collaborate, transact, and share value.

Founded by five-time Emmy® Award–winning producer and augmented reality pioneer Neil Mandt, Digital Rights Network operates as both a digital rights platform and a next-generation distribution network for the physical world. Through the platform, television networks, YouTubers, influencers, celebrities, and brands can form partnerships with property owners to display immersive AR content on buildings’ digital layers, reaching consumers directly. Each participating property functions as a digital content affiliate, generating new revenue with no cost, hardware, or operational burden to the owner.

“Every building has both a physical footprint and a digital presence,” said Neil Mandt, Founder and CEO of Digital Rights Network. “Until now, that digital layer has been unregulated and unclaimed. Digital Rights Network gives ownership, structure, and opportunity to that space, allowing property owners and creators to decide what appears, who profits, and how the real world evolves in an augmented future.”

The platform utilizes secure, blockchain-based verification to publicly record Digital Rights ownership and manage licensing, compliance, and monetization. Digital Rights Network unites industries including real estate, media, advertising, insurance, data, finance, and government, providing the legal, financial, and technical foundation for digital content in physical space.

How Digital Rights Network Works:

• Register Properties: Real estate owners establish Digital Rights for their assets

• Onboard Creators & IP Owners: Media companies, creators, and brands access verified properties for content partnerships

• Policy & Compliance: Governments and municipalities define guidelines for acceptable AR content

• Monetize: Licensed transactions are facilitated and recorded on blockchain through the platform

• Protect: Proprietary technology supports automated compliance and insurance frameworks

Early Adoption and Market Traction:
During its invite-only beta, Digital Rights Network has registered more than $400 Billion value, including participation from leading real estate organizations such as BXP, Colliers, and BOMA/Chicago.

Registered properties include:

• BXP assets such as Prudential Tower, Salesforce Tower, Times Square Tower and the GM Building

• 29 million square feet of Colliers-managed properties

• Iconic landmarks including the Flatiron Building (NYC), One Chicago, TD Garden (Boston), and major Las Vegas resorts such as Treasure Island

• Mixed-use and retail destinations managed by WS Development

“Buildings are the intellectual property of our industry and deserve the same level of protection and monetization as other forms of IP,” said Bryan Koop, Executive Vice President at BXP. “Digital Rights Network provides a framework that finally recognizes that value and generates a new stream of revenue for property owners.”

“This technology will fundamentally change how people interact with the built environment,” said Steve Weikal, Industry Chair of the Real Estate Transformation Lab at the MIT Center for Real Estate. “Few platforms have the global relevance and scalability of Digital Rights Network; it applies to every building, in every city.”

As the internet expands beyond screens and into streets, skylines, and shared spaces, Digital Rights Network is establishing the trusted infrastructure that defines ownership, enables creativity, and unlocks new economic opportunities in the augmented world.

For more information or to participate, visit www.digitalrightsnetwork.com

New Research Offers Businesses a Playbook for Surviving Social Media Firestorms

By Anthony Borrelli

This was how critics labeled a 30-second Peloton holiday ad in 2019 that featured a man giving a woman an exercise bike as a gift. Backlash was so severe that Peloton’s stock fell by about 9%, after social media erupted over perceived outdated gender roles and body image standards.

Researchers describe this kind of reaction as online social disapproval (OSD) — the public expression of criticism against businesses on digital platforms — which can rapidly escalate into bursts of public responses with significant reputational and financial consequences. For instance, in 2023, Bud Light faced boycotts and sales declines following backlash over its partnership with a transgender influencer.

In response, new research co-authored by Associate Professor Jinglu Jiang from the Binghamton University School of Management introduces a digital toolkit designed to help organizations anticipate, interpret, and respond to social media backlash more effectively. The conceptual paper, “Bursts of online social disapproval: leveraging analytics for comprehension and detection,”(opens in a new window) was published in the Journal of Business Strategy.

The toolkit, developed by combining a review of existing research with real-world cases, identified four phases of OSD — preburst, initial burst, spreading and contagion, and recalibration — that explain how backlash emerges and evolves over time.

“The whole point is that online social disapproval is different from traditional crisis management. It’s not linear; it’s more like a cycle, because of how the internet and social media algorithms create different bursting patterns affecting how these kinds of responses can spread,” Jiang said. “Negative opinions become a battlefield in the spreading phase, and sometimes one perspective emerges as more dominant. When things settle down and get back to normal, that’s when management should revert to prebursting monitoring practices, rather than just waiting for it to happen again.”

Jinglu Jiang, associate professor in the Binghamton University School of Management. Image Credit: Jonathan Cohen.

Using the four phases, the study offers guiding questions and analytical indicators to give managers more robust capabilities for early detection, response, and recovery:

• Preburst: Is there a process to monitor emerging trends within your firm?
• Initial burst: Have you identified indicators for OSD popularity?
• Spread and contagion: Is a company-specific burstiness threshold defined? Is a structured procedure in place to monitor OSD burst trajectories?
• Recalibration: Have situational and long-term impact measures been defined?

For the final phase, researchers said the critical question is not simply whether online activity has subsided, but what lasting imprint the OSD burst has left on the organization.

“In the short term, firms can track immediate market and financial responses, such as sales fluctuations, stock price volatility, or shifts in customer traffic. These indicators provide situational feedback on the material consequences of the burst,” the study stated. “However, analytics also structure longer-term interpretations by highlighting enduring reputational shifts. Measures such as customer satisfaction, online review trends, survey-based reputation indices, and social media engagement reveal whether stakeholder trust is recovering or whether skepticism persists.”

Each business needs to define its own baseline “normality” for how the public responds on social media to different events or situations for this type of toolkit to be effective, Jiang said. The study also cautions that older events can resurface unexpectedly, triggering renewed backlash as past news and content are rediscovered online.

“The moment you observe that initial burst online, you need to be cautious and strategic about how you respond,” Jiang said, “because once it enters the spreading and contentious phase, it can become a social media battlefield that’s more difficult to contain. That’s something any business would want to avoid.”

Photo: This was how critics labeled a 30-second Peloton holiday ad in 2019 that featured a man giving a woman an exercise bike as a gift. Backlash was so severe that Peloton’s stock fell by about 9%, after social media erupted over perceived outdated gender roles and body image standards.

Researchers describe this kind of reaction as online social disapproval (OSD) — the public expression of criticism against businesses on digital platforms — which can rapidly escalate into bursts of public responses with significant reputational and financial consequences. For instance, in 2023, Bud Light faced boycotts and sales declines following backlash over its partnership with a transgender influencer.

In response, new research co-authored by Associate Professor Jinglu Jiang from the Binghamton University School of Management introduces a digital toolkit designed to help organizations anticipate, interpret, and respond to social media backlash more effectively. The conceptual paper, “Bursts of online social disapproval: leveraging analytics for comprehension and detection,”(opens in a new window) was published in the Journal of Business Strategy.

The toolkit, developed by combining a review of existing research with real-world cases, identified four phases of OSD — preburst, initial burst, spreading and contagion, and recalibration — that explain how backlash emerges and evolves over time.

“The whole point is that online social disapproval is different from traditional crisis management. It’s not linear; it’s more like a cycle, because of how the internet and social media algorithms create different bursting patterns affecting how these kinds of responses can spread,” Jiang said. “Negative opinions become a battlefield in the spreading phase, and sometimes one perspective emerges as more dominant. When things settle down and get back to normal, that’s when management should revert to prebursting monitoring practices, rather than just waiting for it to happen again.”

Using the four phases, the study offers guiding questions and analytical indicators to give managers more robust capabilities for early detection, response, and recovery:

• Preburst: Is there a process to monitor emerging trends within your firm?
• Initial burst: Have you identified indicators for OSD popularity?
• Spread and contagion: Is a company-specific burstiness threshold defined? Is a structured procedure in place to monitor OSD burst trajectories?
• Recalibration: Have situational and long-term impact measures been defined?

For the final phase, researchers said the critical question is not simply whether online activity has subsided, but what lasting imprint the OSD burst has left on the organization.

“In the short term, firms can track immediate market and financial responses, such as sales fluctuations, stock price volatility, or shifts in customer traffic. These indicators provide situational feedback on the material consequences of the burst,” the study stated. “However, analytics also structure longer-term interpretations by highlighting enduring reputational shifts. Measures such as customer satisfaction, online review trends, survey-based reputation indices, and social media engagement reveal whether stakeholder trust is recovering or whether skepticism persists.”

Each business needs to define its own baseline “normality” for how the public responds on social media to different events or situations for this type of toolkit to be effective, Jiang said. The study also cautions that older events can resurface unexpectedly, triggering renewed backlash as past news and content are rediscovered online.

“The moment you observe that initial burst online, you need to be cautious and strategic about how you respond,” Jiang said, “because once it enters the spreading and contentious phase, it can become a social media battlefield that’s more difficult to contain. That’s something any business would want to avoid.”

Hasiru Habba 2.0 Unites Residents at Gopalan Olympia to Champion Sustainable Living

Bengaluru, Mar 03: What happens when residents take ownership of their neighbourhood’s environmental footprint? At Gopalan Olympia, that intention became action through Hasiru Habba 2.0, a resident-led initiative focused on promoting sustainable living practices among residents and local vendors.

 Hosted at Yuva Tarabeti Kendra, the event was organised by the Hasiru Hejje Swaccha Usiru Citizen Collective, a community of residents from the surrounding neighbourhood, in partnership with Kumbalgodu Gram Panchayat. Designed as a platform for community engagement, Hasiru Habba 2.0 encouraged practical, on-ground conversations around responsible waste management, mindful consumption, and eco-friendly lifestyle choices at the neighbourhood level.

“We believe sustainable communities are built when residents take the lead, and we are proud to support initiatives like Hasiru Habba 2.0 at Gopalan Olympia. By enabling such platforms, we hope to inspire meaningful change and foster a culture of responsibility and conscious living within our neighbourhoods,” said Dr. C. Prabhakar, Director, Gopalan Enterprises.

The event turned sustainability into action. Residents, volunteers, and local vendors participated in interactive sessions demonstrating how small, consistent efforts—such as waste segregation at the source and reducing single-use plastics—can collectively make a significant environmental impact.

At its core, Hasiru Habba 2.0 showcased the power of citizen-driven movements, where solutions emerge organically from within the community. Gopalan Olympia, as the host community, played a pivotal role in fostering a residential ecosystem that supports community-led sustainability initiatives and encourages civic participation at the grassroots level.

Supporting the initiative, Gopalan Enterprises distributed approximately 1,500 reusable jute bags to local vegetable vendors, retail shops, pushcart sellers, and cloth merchants to actively reduce single-use plastic usage. Additionally, seed-paper tags were provided to promote tree planting and encourage long-term behavioral change. The Group also assisted with on-ground efforts for area clean-up and waste management during the event.

Beyond Hasiru Habba 2.0, Gopalan Enterprises has undertaken regular maintenance and upkeep of the Olympia vicinity, including road cleaning, debris removal, and monitoring to ensure the area remains orderly, safe, and environmentally friendly for residents and commuters.

The event reflected strong collective engagement, marking a positive step toward building a cleaner, greener, and more environmentally conscious community. Through initiatives like Hasiru Habba 2.0, Gopalan Enterprises continues to demonstrate its belief that responsibility extends beyond property boundaries and into the shared urban environment.

Lakshmipriya Devi Shines in 11 Tareng at the 79th BAFTA Awards

The Central African Republic has launched a high-quality digitization project