Jennifer 8. Lee

Jennifer 8. Lee Email and Phone Number

Short Stories • WikiPortraits • Documentary Producer •  Emoji Activist • Fun Projects @ Plympton
Jennifer 8. Lee's Location
San Francisco, California, United States, United States
About Jennifer 8. Lee

I'm often the money person for mission driven projects.I’m co-founder and CEO of a lit­er­ary studio called Plymp­ton, which innovates in digital publishing and has partnered with the New York Public Library, the White House, Amazon, The New York Times, Audible, Twitter and the MIT Media Lab. I currently do a lot of work in the misinformation space, having cofounded Misinfocon series and the Credibility Coalition through Hacks/Hackers.I produce film projects, including "The Search for Gen­eral Tso" and "The Emoji Story", both which premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival. I was an associate producer on Chasing Coral, which won the 2017 Sundance Audience Award for documentary. I do a lot of emoji work as the co-creators of Emojination and Emojicon. I'm on the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee. I was a Fast Company 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2018 for my emoji work.In the past: I was one of the youngest full-reporters ever hired by The New York Times. I wrote a book called The For­tune Cookie Chron­i­cles, on how Chi­nese food is all-American and hit #26 on the New York Times bestseller list. I was a lead judge in the Knight News Chal­lenge that gave away $25 million for news innovation.Projects that I (or others) dreamt up that I've helped make real include News Foo (now Newsgeist), Hackers/Hackers, Recovering the Classics, Spark Camp, and NewsDiffs.NPR called me a “con­cep­tual scoop artist” and Esquire magazine listed me among the “Women We Love." In journalism, I serve on the board of the Cen­ter for Pub­lic Integrity, MuckRock and InsideClimate News, on the advisory boards of the Nie­man Foun­da­tion and the Polk Awards, and also on the Robert F. Kennedy Courage in Jour­nal­ism awards. I also am on the board of Hacks/Hackers.In literary world, I serve on the the boards of The Asian Amer­i­can Writ­ers’ Work­shop and the New York Pub­lic Library’s Young Lions Com­mit­tee.I received my degree in applied math and eco­nom­ics at Har­vard Uni­ver­sity (where I was vice pres­i­dent of The Har­vard Crim­son) and then I went to Bei­jing Uni­ver­sity for a year on fel­low­ship and stud­ied inter­na­tional relations.

Jennifer 8. Lee's Current Company Details
Plympton

Plympton

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Short Stories • WikiPortraits • Documentary Producer •  Emoji Activist • Fun Projects
Jennifer 8. Lee Work Experience Details
  • Plympton
    Ceo
    Plympton Apr 2012 - Present
    Las Vegas, Us
    Co-founder of a literary studio which focuses on innovation in digital publishing. We have disbursed millions of dollars to writers. Among our work: • Commissioning short stories from prominent writers for Amazon Original Stories, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Min Jin Lee, Curtis Sittenfeld, Cheryl Strayed, Tom Perrotta, Kate Atkinson, Alice Hoffman and many more. Negotiated standard digital terms with over a dozen agencies including WME, ICM and Wiley.• Recovering the Classics (recoveringtheclassics.com), which crowdsources cover designers for great books in the public domain. Partnered with the Obama White House, the New York Public Library the Digital Public Library of America, Google Books and Warby Parker. Covers exhibited nationwide through a campaign called 50x50 (50x50.us)• Subway Library with the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in May 2017. • Produced a VR film for the New York Times in conjunction with Penguin Random House and Sensorium Works based on George Saunders' Man Booker Prize-winning novel, Lincoln in the Bardo.• Created a new digital license, The Goldstein License, that allows works to be used for non-profit library and educational use as long as it is free to the end user.• Cleared rights for over 600 digital short books for the New York Public Library digital shorts collection for SimplyE mobile reading app.• Writing Downtown residency in Downtown Las Vegas with The Writers Block bookstore.• CODEX Hackathon, a literary and publishing hackathon that drew people from around the world to the MIT Media Lab. Sponsors and partners include Google, HarperCollins, Goodreads, Mailchimp, Macmillan, Harvard Book Store, Kickstarter, Amazon Books, Automattic, Dropbox, Wattpad, among others. Often called "the best hackathon I've ever been to" by participants. • Helped launch the Twitter Fiction Festival in Fall 2012.
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  • Wikiportraits
    Co-Founder And Photographer
    Wikiportraits Jan 2023 - Present
    Launched WikiPortraits, a worldwide initiative to take high-quality photos of notable individuals for Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Since launching in early 2024, WikiPortrait photos from SXSW, the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, the National Book Awards, the Nobel Prizes and other events are viewed at an annualized rate of over half a billion times per year across more than 100 different language Wikipedias. Photos have spurred the creation of hundreds of Wikipedia articles and Wikidata itemsSince launching in early 2024, WikiPortrait photos from SXSW, the Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, the National Book Awards, the Nobel Prizes and other events are viewed at an annualized rate of over half a billion times per year across more than 100 different language Wikipedias. In addition, the photos have spurred the creation of hundreds of Wikipedia articles and Wikidata items (which are often the predecessors to full articles, which are also linked to Google Search). Our photographers have shot Angelina Jolie, George Lucas, Meryl Streep, Jeremy Strong, Sidney Sweeney and hundreds of other celebrities on the red carpet; Nobel laureates like Demis Hassabis and Geoffrey Hinton in Stockholm; plus National Book Award winners and Pulitzer Prize winners (see the attached tear sheets).
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  • Writing Atlas
    Co-Founder
    Writing Atlas Jun 2023 - Present
    Creating the world's biggest catalogue of short stories, because every story deserves to be read.
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  • Credibility Coalition
    Co-Founder
    Credibility Coalition Apr 2017 - Present
    San Francisco, California, Us
    The Credibility Coalition is a grassroots interdisciplinary group which creates better standards for online content through rigorous research and formulate thoughtful applications of these results. We have received funding from Google, Facebook, Craig Newmark, Knight Foundation, Twitter and private foundations and individuals.We construct frameworks that support a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to assessing, scaling, and implementing information quality online. I co-founded the group along with a team from Meedan, a San Francisco-based non-profit.
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  • The Emoji Story (Formerly Picture Character)
    Producer
    The Emoji Story (Formerly Picture Character) Jan 2016 - Present
    Producer of The Emoji Story (formerly Picture Character), a documentary about the secret regulatory world of emoji that premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival which was directed by Ian Cheney and Martha Shane. Also appeared at Hot Docs, AFI Docs, Taormina Film Festival, Sydney International Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, and many many others.
  • Unicode Consortium
    Member, Emoji Subcommittee
    Unicode Consortium Dec 2015 - Present
    South San Francisco, California, Us
    Part of a group that deliberates and discuss emoji policy on a weekly basis. We joined Unicode as Emojination, a grassroots organization whose motto is "emoji for the people, but the people." Ran a Kickstarter for the dumpling emoji project that raised almost $12,000 to draw attention to opening up the emoji deliberation process. Personally shepherded through emoji proposals for DUMPLING, TAKEOUT BOX, FORTUNE COOKIE and CHOPSTICKS to become candidates for Unicode 10, released in June 2017. DUMPLING is considered a model emoji proposal. Other emoji include HIJAB, RED PACKET, MOON CAKE, BROCCOLI, BASEBALL CAP, SANDWICH.
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  • Unicode Consortium
    Vice Chair, Emoji Subcommittee
    Unicode Consortium Aug 2017 - Dec 2021
    South San Francisco, California, Us
    As one of the vice chairs, I help usher emoji proposals through the process. I represent Emojination, whose motto is "Emoji by The People, For The People." We attempt to bring the voice of the people on issues of emoji.
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  • Emojination
    Co-Founder
    Emojination Sep 2015 - Present
    Emojination is a grassroots organization whose motto is "emoji by the people, for the people." We strive to make emoji approval an inclusive, representative process. Our efforts have drawn worldwide attention.• Our proposal for the interracial couple emoji with Tinder has been honored by a Webby Award and Fast Company Innovation in Design Awards in General Excellence and Graphic Design. • Our work has also been collected in the CooperHewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.• We have been featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live, WIRED, The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Atlantic, Fast Company and many other outlets around the world. • We also run the highly successful Emojicon conference and fun Emoji Spelling Bee.
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  • Hacks/Hackers
    Board Member
    Hacks/Hackers May 2010 - Present
    New York , New York, Us
    Central and leading Organizer at a technology x journalism group that includes more than 10,000 members across 70+ chapters and 5 continents.Primary base is Hacks/Hackers NYC, which I originally set up the Meetup group, and is now one of the largest chapters, and one of the largest Meetups in New York City. We do monthly or semi-monthly events, including talks, demos, classes and hackathons. More at hackshackers.com. I also started and run the Hacks/Hackers jobs list.
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  • Emojicon
    Creator
    Emojicon Jan 2016 - Present
    Launched and executed a conference celebrating all things emoji in San Francisco that first took place November 2016. The event attracted a thousand people throughout the weekend with an opening party, panels, emoji film festival, emoji hackathon, an emoji spelling bee, emoji improv and other activities. Sponsors included GE, Panda Express, Taco Bell, Adobe Typekit, Samsung's Mapzen, ESPN, Knight Foundation, The Harnisch Foundation, and Timberland. Emojicon received coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, TIME, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and on Comedy Central.
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  • The Search For General Tso
    Producer
    The Search For General Tso Dec 2010 - Present
    Executive producer of a documentary on the history of American Chinese food which premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was acquired by IFC/Sundance for theatrical release in January 2015. The film is a collaboration with director an Cheney, the Peabody Award-winning director of "King Corn." It is inspired by the research in my book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. The film also played at the Seattle International Film Festival and AFI Docs in Washington DC.
  • Chasing Coral
    Associate Producer
    Chasing Coral Sep 2015 - Present
    Associate Producer on Chasing Coral, the documentary directed by Jeff Orlowski and produced by Larissa Rhodes which won the 2017 Sundance Audience Award for U.S. Documentary. This was filmed over more than three years, 650+ hours underwater, included footage from over 30 countries with the support of over 500 people around the world. Global rights were acquired by Netflix.
  • Columbia University In The City Of New York
    Media Innovation Fellow, Brown Institute For Media Innovation
    Columbia University In The City Of New York Sep 2014 - Present
    New York, Ny, Us
    Part-time fellow starting the 014-2015 academic year for the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, which was established in 2012 as collaboration between Columbia and Stanford Universities. The mission is to "sponsor thinking, building and speculating on how stories are discovered and told in a networked, digitized world." I lend my Rolodex to them, and they support my creative activities.
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  • Upworthy
    A Good Person To Know
    Upworthy 2012 - Present
    Los Angeles, Ca, Us
    Part of the launch team of Upworthy (joined before it even had a name). Adviser of assorted and sundry sorts. When it helps to know somebody to get something done, I'm useful, both inside and outside. I've handled talent recruiting, partnerships, visibility, branding, and pipe up on editorial every so often. I also lurk on the engineering lists. A good number of the early hires, ranging from product leads to interns (who became staff) were through my network.
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  • The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
    Author
    The Fortune Cookie Chronicles Dec 2006 - Present
    Wrote a national Bestseller on Chinese food in America, published by Twelve Books and Jonathan Karp. Appeared on The Colbert Report, The Today Show, CNN, Martha Stewart, and NPR stations coast to coast. You can watch a humorous talk on TED.com. The book establishes that fortune cookies' origins are neither American nor Chinese, but actually Japanese. Inspired a Smithsonian exhibit and a documentary. Hit #26 on The New York Times Best Seller List.
  • Spark Camp
    Co-Founder
    Spark Camp 2011 - Present
    One of five co-founders of a fun thematic media-related unconference that strives to be the most fun weekend-long dinner party you have ever been to. Themes have included Design, Money, Storytelling, and Data. Spark Camp is inspired from News Foo, which itself is descended from Foo Camp. So one could say Spark Camp is a grandcamp of Foo Camp. The other cofounders are Amy Webb (CEO of Webbmedia Group), Amanda Michel (Guardian U.S.), Matt Thompson (NPR), and Andrew Pergam (Washington Post alum).
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  • The Splendid Table
    Guest Host
    The Splendid Table Dec 2013 - Present
    Occasional guest host for The Splendid Table, a half-hour radio show produced by American Public Media that airs on local NPR stations nationwide.
  • Newsdiffs
    Co-Creator
    Newsdiffs Jun 2012 - Present
    Co-creator, with MIT alums Eric Price and Greg Price, of a widely cited hackathon project that tracks changes in news articles after they've been published. NewsDiffs is one of only one thousand sites archived by the Library of Congress and has been profiled in The New York Times, as well as the Columbia Journalism Review and Poynter.org.
  • Center For Public Integrity
    Board Member
    Center For Public Integrity Mar 2011 - Present
    Washington, Dc, Us
    Board member of award-winning nonprofit organization that focuses on original investigative journalism. The organization has won a wide gamut of awards including numerous Polk Awards, as well as its first Pulitzer Prize in 2014.
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  • Harvard Magazine
    Member Of Board Of Incorporators
    Harvard Magazine 2010 - Present
    Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us
    Advisor for Harvard Magazine, the independent alumni magazine serving the university. Previously had been a Ledecky Fellow when I was an undergraduate. You can read my undergraduate columns here: http://harvardmagazine.com/profile/jennifer-8-lee (Including a piece on the arrival of cell phones on campus in 1999!)
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  • Sxsw
    Advisory Board Member For Panels And Accelerator
    Sxsw 2010 - Present
    Austin, Tx, Us
    Numerous and sundry roles at SXSW. Working with the Knight Foundation, I helped introduce a journalism track to SXSW and a news category to the SXSW Accelerator startup competition. I also coordinated the annual "Awesomest Journalism Party. Ever." for around a decade (Which attracted over 500 people annually and whose sponsors have included The New York Times, NPR, Condé Nast, The Huffington Post and The Associated Press. Many people considered it their favorite party at SXSW).
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  • Nieman Foundation, Harvard University
    Member, Advisory Board
    Nieman Foundation, Harvard University Jun 2010 - Present
    Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us
    Advisory capacity to one of the largest and oldest journalism fellowship organizations in the country. One of only a handful of board members that wasn't previously a Nieman Fellow. More details here: http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/NiemanFoundation/AboutTheFoundation/AdvisoryBoard.aspx
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  • Institute On Higher Awesome Studies
    Board Member
    Institute On Higher Awesome Studies 2011 - Present
    Board member of the Institute on Higher Awesome Studies, the non-profit affiliate of the Awesome Foundation. Other board members include Alexis Ohanian, Pete Hottelet, S.I. Newhouse IV and Ethan Zuckerman.
  • Polk Awards
    Adviser
    Polk Awards 2012 - Present
    We look for and nominate for candidates for Polk Awards, a premiere journalism accolade. But my main contribution as an adviser thus far was registering polkawards.com and polkawards.org in 2010 and waiting until they were ready to use the URLs.
  • News Foo (Now Newsgeist)
    Co-Creator
    News Foo (Now Newsgeist) Dec 2010 - Present
    Drove the creation of News Foo, a descendent of O'Reilly's famed Foo Camp. Backed by Knight Foundation and Google, News Foo is an "unconference" gathering of 150 journalism and technology folk in Phoenix each year. Original idea came from technology journalist Steven Levy, and then we brought to Knight and Google to kick off funding and logistics. Karen Wickre (then of Google, later of Twitter) was also a key driver. In 2014, News Foo was renamed Newsgeist.
  • New York Public Library
    Young Lions Committee Member
    New York Public Library 2010 - Present
    New York, Ny, Us
    The Young Lions is a membership group for New Yorkers in their 20s and 30s who are committed to supporting the work of the Library. We do programming and recruitment and fundraising.
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  • Robert F. Kennedy Center For Justice And Human Rights
    Member Journalism Awards Board
    Robert F. Kennedy Center For Justice And Human Rights Apr 2009 - Present
    New York, Ny, Us
    Part of a committee of six independent journalist which lead the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, which honor the outstanding reporting of the lives and strife of disadvantaged people throughout the world. Known as the "Poor People's Pulitzers" within the press arena.
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  • The Asian American Writers' Workshop, Incorporated
    Board Member
    The Asian American Writers' Workshop, Incorporated Mar 2009 - Present
    New York, Ny, Us
    Help coordinate programming, fundraising, recruiting for a leading Asian-American literary arts organization.
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  • Google
    Advisory Board, Google News Lab
    Google Jul 2015 - Present
    Mountain View, Ca, Us
    Member of a small advisory board for Google News Lab, a division of Google which partners with some of the most innovative organizations in media to tackle a wide range of issues in the news industry. Its activities range from supporting media startups, to supporting investigative journalism, to bolstering the impact of eyewitness media. Other advisory board members include Melissa Bell of Vox Media, Joaquin Alvarado of the Center for Investigative Reporting, Rahul Chopra of Storyful and Hari Sreenivasan of PBS.
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  • World Economic Forum
    Co-Chair, Media, Entertainment And Cult Global Futures Council
    World Economic Forum Oct 2019 - Dec 2024
    Cologny, Geneva, Ch
    Co-chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Media, Entertainment and Sport for the 2019-2020, and 2020-2021 term. (Previously was Media, Entertainment and Culture)The network of Global Future Councils is an invitation-only community that serves as a brain trust for the World Economic Forum on certain themes ranging from AI and ethics to biotechnology to infrastructure. The councils come together in person at the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils in Dubai each fall, and then convene virtually throughout a year to future projects.
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  • Digital Public Library Of America
    Board Member
    Digital Public Library Of America Apr 2015 - Jun 2021
    Board member for the Digital Public Library of America — a free, open, and sustainable national digital library resource that was launched in 2012. The current DPLA Board is composed of public and research librarians, technologists, intellectual property scholars, media studies scholars, and business experts from around the country.
  • Angellist
    Seed Investor For Yc Demo Day Fund
    Angellist Feb 2017 - Oct 2018
    San Francisco, Ca, Us
    Partner in a pop-up seed fund raised by AngelList and deployed specifically on Y Combinator Demo Days, starting with W17. For each fund, we write over a dozen investments ranging from $25,000-$50,000. Co-lead wth YC Alum Brad Flora, the founder of Perfect Audience.
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  • Harvard Innovation Lab
    Mentor/Advisor
    Harvard Innovation Lab Nov 2014 - May 2015
    Allston, Ma, Us
    Advised lots and lots of startups as Harvard Innovation Lab on visibility, marketing, and deck presentation. Generally early stage, pre-institutional funding.
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  • Marketplace
    Commentator On Npr
    Marketplace 2011 - Dec 2012
    Us
    Occasional commentator for American Public Media's Marketplace series, which airs on NPR stations coast to coast. Topics include technology and social trends. You can see the clips here: http://www.marketplace.org/people/jennifer-8-lee
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  • Awesome Food
    Trustee
    Awesome Food 2011 - 2012
    Founding trustee of Awesome Food, a microphilanthropy organization which gives $1,000 monthly grants to ideas which further food awesomeness in the universe. Awesome Food is part of the Awesome Foundation. Currently on hiatus as I focus on a startup.
  • John S. And James L. Knight Foundation
    Lead Judge, Knight News Challenge
    John S. And James L. Knight Foundation Dec 2009 - Mar 2011
    Miami, Florida, Us
    Helped coordinate a competition, newschallenge.org, which is giving away $25 million over five years. The 2009-2010 competition attracted 2,300 applications, which was whittled down to 500, then 50, then to the finally funded projects of about a dozen. Also coordinated News Foo Camp, with O'Reilly Media and Google. Coordinated various news initiatives at SXSW Interactive, including leading the news category in startup competition, two parties and a booth.
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  • The New York Times
    Reporter
    The New York Times Dec 2000 - Dec 2009
    New York, Ny, Us
    One of the youngest full reporters ever hired by The New York Times. Coverage included technology, environment, 2004 campaign, style, crime, poverty. Also helped launch City Room, one of the flagship blogs of the Times. Three Publishers Awards. Known for quirky funny stories and coining the term "man date," which has now entered popular usage.
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  • The New York Times
    Technology Reporter
    The New York Times Dec 2000 - Dec 2002
    New York, Ny, Us
    Covered technology for Business Department and Circuits. Wrote early features about culture of Google.
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  • The Poynter Institute
    National Advisory Board Member
    The Poynter Institute Jan 2003 - Jan 2008
    Us
    Member of a 18-person board that advised the Poynter faculty and administration on strategy of a leading journalism education institution. Concurrent board members included editors and executives from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, The Chicago Tribune, Knight-Ridder. Retired after six-year term was up.
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Jennifer 8. Lee Education Details

  • Harvard University
    Harvard University
    Applied Math And Economics
  • Peking University
    Peking University
    International Relations

Frequently Asked Questions about Jennifer 8. Lee

What company does Jennifer 8. Lee work for?

Jennifer 8. Lee works for Plympton

What is Jennifer 8. Lee's role at the current company?

Jennifer 8. Lee's current role is Short Stories • WikiPortraits • Documentary Producer •  Emoji Activist • Fun Projects.

What schools did Jennifer 8. Lee attend?

Jennifer 8. Lee attended Harvard University, Peking University.

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