Weekend Reading — The Latest Open Government Plan (Post-Edward Snowden)

Sunshine is the best disinfectant. As it turns out, we might need something a little stronger these days.

News Byte

Livefyre Acquires Analytics Startup Realtidbits

Lifefyre, the social commenting platform startup, announced Thursday it had acquired Realtidbits, a San Diego-based analytics startup. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Realtidbits will continue to work as a team based in Southern California. All Realtidbits users will be migrated over to Livefyre’s existing commenting platform, and the Realtidbits analytics software will eventually be offered to Livefyre’s enterprise customers.

And Then There Was One, as Disney Picks Single Digital Leader

When you wish upon a digital strategy.

Justin Kitch Talks About His New Learning Platform, Curious (Video)

Are you curious about Curious?

Yahoo’s Mayer Now Chit-Chatting With Ryan Seacrest About Content Ideas

Maybe a singing competition? Nope, he’s been there. Maybe a radio show? Yipes, he’s done that. Perhaps a New Year’s broadcast from New York’s Times Square. Does this guy get any sleep?

News Byte

Microsoft Names Exec to Top Skype Post

Microsoft has named Gurdeep Singh Pall to replace the departing Mark Gillett as corporate VP for Skype, as well as its Lync communications product. Gillett, who took a job as head of value creation at private equity firm Silver Lake, had been responsible for Skype’s product, engineering and operations worldwide, duties that will now fall to Pall. An experienced engineer, Pall was most recently CVP of Information Platform & Experience in Microsoft’s new Applications and Services division. Before that, he was CVP of the Office Lync & Speech group.

Twitter to Wait Until After IPO to Name Woman — Likely With International Cred — to Board

The number of women with international experience is long, but if I were to bet whom Twitter is considering for its top picks, I would name only two: Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright.

Voices

Managing Platforms Is a Human Art

With platforms, you are not managing software; you are managing people.

Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Needs No Permission (Video)

The serial entrepreneur talks about his new book, “Without Their Permission.”