Microsoft developed a framework aimed at faster commercial adoption of blockchain technology by streamlining complex development techniques, said a Thursday news release. Microsoft said it will launch the Coco Framework on GitHub in 2018 as an open source project. It said the framework integrated with a blockchain network offers speeds of more than 1,600 transactions per second. The framework provides distributed governance "that establishes a network constitution and allows members to vote on all terms and conditions governing the consortium and the blockchain software system," Microsoft said.

CTA is accepting entries for CES 2018 Innovation Awards through Sept. 15, it said Tuesday. Submissions will be judged Sept. 20-29, and entrants will be notified of their status by email on Oct. 6, CTA said. Submission requirements are at the CTA website.

Nominations for CEDIA’s 2018-19 board close Monday at 8 p.m. EDT, said the trade association Friday. Five board positions are open: three elected and two appointed, it said. The board influences the industry’s direction, governs the association's activities and represents the residential technology profession to the outside world, it said. The nomination form is at the CEDIA website.

“Environmental progress of electronics manufacturing is stalling,” even though U.S. standards on green electronics "pushed manufacturers toward more recycled plastics, fewer hazardous materials, smarter end-of-life management, and better energy efficiency,” said a report Thursday by Repair.org, which backs right-to-repair laws in states (see 1704100047). “For it to improve again, standards would need to include inspiring, challenging criteria that research has demonstrated to reduce electronics' environmental footprint -- such as design for repair, reuse, and disassembly.” Green standards “have become increasingly ineffectual, as electronics manufacturers now constitute a large voting bloc” on most U.S. standards groups, it said. “Standards are arduous to update, and the criteria are often too easy for manufacturers to achieve. Thus, electronics standards, more and more often, fail to function as tools of environmental leadership. Industry and purchasers rely on these standards for guidance in identifying sustainable products -- which further perpetuates the low bar.” Tech companies “have consistently opposed stronger reuse and repair criteria” in electronics products and standards, it said. Though manufacturers “often claim they design for durability, no durability criteria is included” in U.S. green electronics standards, it said. “Green standards have systemically failed to incorporate strong policies that would enable repair, reuse, and product life extension for electronics.” CTA declined comment Thursday.

​Samsung, bucking recent practice, will hold its IFA news conference off-site from the main Messe Berlin fairgrounds, a Samsung Europe spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. The company booked the Tempodrom, a 3,800-seat concert arena just south of Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, for a news conference that begins 6 p.m. Aug. 30, the first of two IFA press days, said the spokeswoman. Though Samsung will be an IFA exhibitor and is taking up shop in the massive CityCube complex near Messe Berlin’s south entrance for the third year in a row, its Tempodrom event doesn’t appear on the list of exhibitor news conferences just released by IFA organizers. Show organizers decided not to list the Tempodrom news conference because it's taking place off-site, spokeswoman Nicole von der Ropp said Tuesday. Samsung in previous years held its IFA news conferences on one of the two press days at CityCube.

Media companies and organizations, public interest groups and others unveiled the Creative Thread Foundation, a nonprofit focused on fostering diverse content creators. Wednesday's launch event included Congressional Multicultural Media Caucus co-chairs Reps. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Judy Chu, D-Calif. The chairman will be Henry Gates, Fusion TV, one of the founders said in a news release. It said the foundation's aims will include mentorships and promoting and advocating better access for talent and projects. It said founding partners include Amazon, AT&T, CBS, Disney, El Rey, Entravision, Entertainment Software Association, Fox, MPAA, NAB, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, Nielsen and Viacom.

TCL jumped to the No. 5 spot in U.S. TV unit sales for the first half, NPD analyst Stephen Baker emailed us Wednesday. Brands one to four for the period are Samsung, Vizio, LG and Sanyo, Baker said, compared with last year’s top five: Samsung, Vizio, LG, Element and Sony. TCL was seventh last year, he said. TCL credited its partnership with Roku as a primary selling feature. NPD doesn't break out volumes.

"Is tech destroying jobs? Absolutely! And we should be glad," said Mark Jamison, American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow and former member of the Trump FCC transition team. When businesses adopt technologies that lower costs or improve service, they improve efficiency and give consumers "more bang for their buck ... by definition economic growth," he blogged Monday. Technological change creates churn as old jobs disappear, and some may struggle, but it doesn't increase unemployment as "new tech creates new jobs," he said, citing Silicon Valley employing more than 1.3 million people in 2016, a 23 percent increase since 2010.

Joining CableLabs are NBN, Stofa, Nowo Communications and Guangdong Cable, respectively in Australia, Denmark, Portugal and China, said DOJ in Thursday's Federal Register. CableLabs told us it now has 60 members in 35 countries.

CTA takes “no position” on GOP efforts to repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Gary Shapiro emailed us. Shapiro stands by the views he expressed the morning after Donald Trump's November victory (see 1611090038) and so he still thinks the new president “should have started with infrastructure and cut a deal” with Republicans and Democrats in the Congress, he said. On Trump’s vow this week to “let Obamacare fail” after Republicans failed to muster enough votes in the Senate to repeal and replace the ACA, "now that he is here” on healthcare, Trump “should try a new approach working with Ds and cutting costs rather than just reallocate them,” Shapiro said. Shapiro thinks the GOP bills to repeal and replace the ACA were like “moving the deck chairs on the Titanic,” he said. “We need to address rising cost of healthcare.” The White House didn’t comment Thursday.