Mediaboss Marketing

2012/04/21 (Last modification: 2012/04/22 02:15)

State of Azawad declared its independence in the north of Mali, and its existence is linked now, in the international media, to the names of Salafist groups and supporters of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its splinter groups, Al-Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa, and recently the organization of the Sunnis.

Visiting these areas was considered an act of madness because they contain dozens of contradictions, which may make a foreign journalist like a product in the slave market where he/she is sold like any other products, or in the market for bids to be bargained away as a hostage.

Through this field coverage, Echorouk was seeking to highlight the creation of armed battles in the Northern Mali, which resulted in the announcement of the Azawad regions dependence and the creation of the State of Azawad, on an area of 800.000 square kilometres.

Nouakchott, the trip to the stronghold of the supporters of religion (Ansareddine)

We did not address the issue of Azawad and the Declaration of independence of their state in the manner pursued by other media, so it was decided that we communicate with the largest possible number of splinter groups active in the region of the liberation movement where Azawad national armed forces, and the National Conference of Azawad, which is political wing, and members of the group of supporters of religion (Ansareddine), the goup of Sunnis.

These contacts led us to arrange the travel measures and the goal was to enter the city "Timbuktu" and "Gao", but the rumors about the possibility of closing the Algerian borders with Mali at any time, urge us to review the idea and we decided then to enter these areas via the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. We arrived there via an Air Algerie plane on Wednesday of last week.

We arrived to Nouakchott to settle down in 48 hours. We tried to contact the elders of Azawad and other groups, and after studying how to enter to the territory of independent Azawad, we decided to cut off distance of more than 2400 km deep in the desert, through crossing the Pacific Ocean from the far west of Mauritania capital Nouakchott, to the far east in the nearest point of the border city of " Pascano" with the new state of Azawad.

The trip to the unknown took us in more than one area in the new Azawad State, we have been disrupted for more than five days in Mauritanian, because of sand storms that swept through the heart of the desert, and due to the difficulty of routes and roads in the hundreds of kilometers, which obliged us to use and rely on a guide in the desert, who was also our driver and interpreter from the Hassani dialect to Arabic or French. He introduced me to the members of a group, and we agreed to ensure my safety and protect me from anything that may happen during the trip.

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Echorouk enters AQIM's stronghold in Timbuktu: Mali Armed Forces under control of Azawad Front

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Social Control, a technology studio that creates social apps for the world's leading brands, is pleased to announce its selection as a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD). It is one of 141 new companies invited into the prestigious program, bringing the total to 232 companies around the world.

The Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer Program recognizes companies that have developed technologies in one or more of the following specialty areas: Page management solutions, ads management solutions, services and platforms for building socially enabled integrations, and/or tools for Page Insights analysis.

We are thrilled to be a part of this very exciting program, and look forward to continuously expanding our vast capabilities in Facebook application development, says Seth Silver, Social Control CEO. This is a dynamic time in the history of digital marketing and our team remains committed to the progression of social software.

In the coming months, Social Control will be expanding its business model from a pure service offering to a hybrid of capabilities, including agency services and B2B & B2C proprietary social products. The company's goal is to offer enterprise brands and advertising agencies a complete suite of social software, from custom application development and social enterprise software to integrated advertising in B2C social products, such as social games, utilities, and networks/portals.

Founded in 2009, Social Control touts a client roster that includes PepsiCo, Reebok, Cisco, and Johnson Products, as well as advertising agencies McCann Erickson, Ogilvy & Mather, and Weiden + Kennedy, among others.

Most recently, the company has created Facebook apps for Wendy's, Ford, Tabasco, Staples, and Maybelline.

About Social Control:

Social Control helps some of the world's leading brands connect with consumers by deploying innovative social media applications leading to deeper engagement, more focused brand communication, and greater business success. We are passionate about social media and its ability to transform the way consumers engage, interact and perceive our client brands.

For more info, please visit: http://socialcontrol.com/

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Social Control Recognized as a Facebook® Preferred Marketing Developer

Android: If you're on a flight with your phone propped up in front of you, or listening to music while you work on your phone with your hands on the keyboard, it can be a pain to stop, unlock your phone or tap it to bring up the playback controls, and hit forward, back, switch songs, or change videos. Wave Control is a new Android app that lets you customize hand gestures to control music and video playback that you perform over your phone's proximity sensor, Minority Report style.

Okay, maybe Minority Report is a bit of a stretch, but you do get the ability to wave your hand in specific ways to accomplish certain commands, like skip forward, back, change the volume, stop or pause playback. One wave across the sensor skips forward, two skips back to the previous song, and three will pause or resume the song. The free version of the app is ad-supported, and needs to run in the background while you're watching a movie or listening to music (or even in another app entirely) so it can keep an eye on the sensor to see if you wave at it.

The paid version of the app ($1) allows you to assign different commands to your waves, gives you a stop command, and removes ads. If you prefer to stay hands off with your phone while you listen to music or watch a video, Wave Control may be a little complicated, but it might be a time saver. Have you tried Wave Control? Have an alternative? Let us know in the comments below.

Wave Control | Google Play via Addictive Tips

See the rest here:
Wave Control for Android Controls Media Playback by Watching You Wave Your Hand Over the Screen [Video]

Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington today urged media companies to embrace the zeitgeist of consumer control and develop new ways to engage people who increasingly "want to be part of the story of their time."

Speaking at the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Transformation Conference in San Francisco, Huffington quoted everyone from Albert Einstein and Hercules to Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and musician will.i.am to underscore her message that newspapers and other media need to evolve quicker to respond to the massive changes in how the public consumes -- and now participates in -- news.

"We are in this brave new world and this discussion of [media Web site] pay walls . . . completely misses what is happening," Huffington said. "In every survey you read, you have about 80 percent of consumers who say that they don't want to pay for news and opinion, unless it's very specialized news and information."

She added: "We can't use an analog map and expect to find our way in a digital world. . . . The content provider is no longer at the center of the universe. At the center of the universe is now the news consumer."

Digital technology and the Internet have given rise to citizen journalists for whom "self-expression is the new entertainment," Huffington said. And unlike the past when people absorbed media passively while sitting on a couch, consumers now use the Web to post, access and circulate information in what Huffington described as the "golden age of engagement." The sooner that media owners tap into that phenomenon, Huffington suggested, the better off they will be.

"This is the new reality. People want to be part of the story of their time. They want to participate -- both in small ways and in big ways, both in small issues and in big issues -- with what is happening in our world," Huffington said. "So, this is a huge opportunity for advertisers and marketers because the most engaged consumers are the most loyal ones."

More broadly, consumer involvement in media stems from empathy toward others and not just during tragedies such as the earthquake in Haiti, according to Huffington. Rather, people want to find broader meaning in life beyond personal concerns, which is "very much at the core of human nature," she added. "This is something that many brands are already tapping into. Coke and Pepsi and American Express and Starbucks and Nike and the Gap and Apple and Dove and Yoplait and . . . many others are recognizing the significance of tapping into that longing in the consumer," she said.

Huffington spoke for about 20 minutes during the opening morning of the conference's general session. The conference runs through Wednesday.

See original here:
4A's: Huffington Embraces Consumer Control

If youre on a flight with your phone propped up in front of you, or listening to music while you work on your phone with your hands on the keyboard, it can be a pain to stop, unlock your phone or tap it to bring up the playback controls and hit forward, back, switch songs, or change videos. Wave Control is a new Android app that lets you customise hand gestures to control music and video playback that you perform over your phones proximity sensor, Minority Report style.

Okay, maybe Minority Report is a bit of a stretch, but you do get the ability to wave your hand in specific ways to accomplish certain commands, like skip forward, back, change the volume, stop or pause playback. One wave across the sensor skips forward, two skips back to the previous song and three will pause or resume the song. The free version of the app is ad-supported and needs to run in the background while youre watching a movie or listening to music (or even in another app entirely) so it can keep an eye on the sensor to see if you wave at it.

The paid version of the app allows you to assign different commands to your waves, gives you a stop command, and removes ads. If you prefer to stay hands off with your phone while you listen to music or watch a video, Wave Control may be a little complicated, but it might be a time saver. Have you tried Wave Control? Have an alternative? Let us know in the comments below.

Wave Control [Google Play via Addictive Tips

Read the rest here:
Control Android Media Playback By Waving Your Hands