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Voters in Washington state will be able to register to vote through the social networking website Facebook, the secretary of state's office says.

The state will have an application on its Facebook page that allows residents to register to vote and then "like" the application and recommend it to their friends, the state's office said on Tuesday.

The state, Facebook and Microsoft have been collaborating on the project since last year, and it is expected to launch next week.

Once it is live, Facebook users will need to agree to let Facebook access their information, which will be used to prefill their name and date of birth in the voter registration form.

Users will still need to provide a driver's licence or state ID number to continue.

Facebook would not collect details other than the voter's name and date of birth, and would not have access to the voter database, the state said.

"In this age of social media and more people going online for services, this is a natural way to introduce people to online registration and leverage the power of friends on Facebook to get more people registered," Shane Hamlin, co-director of elections in Washington, said to Forbes magazine.

Privacy concerns

Hamlin said that beyond giving Facebook permission to use names and dates of birth, voters do not need to worry about their personal information being collected by Facebook.

"You are giving your information to us, not Facebook," he said.

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Facebook app to enrol US voters

Desi social networking site to take on existing ones Worldfloat.Com allows a user to interact with whomever he chooses to interact Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jul 18, 2012, 15:54 IST

A homegrown social networking site is hoping to compete with giants like Facebook and Twitter by integrating features of all top web portals into a seamless floating facility.

The brainchild of Pushkar Mahatta, a city-based young entrepreneur, worldfloat.Com is a combination of several ideas patterned on real life created to go digital where individuals can connect with each other without any barrier.

The portal, launched on a smaller scale, allows a user to interact with whomever he chooses to interact. It's a place for diverse culture yet equal, and replicates the real life actions, thought process, naturally.

"Currently, we are targeting the youths across the world. After some time we plan to penetrate into the business and professional groups," Mahatta said.

Plans are there to add more and more features at regular intervals to make the site more acceptable and exciting like live conversation, creation of virtual shopping mall and office at different cities across the country.

Mahatta said that many venture capital firms have already evinced interest to be a part of the portal and valued it at over $100 million (about Rs 550 crore).

"Since it is a developing site, valuation will surely move northward. People from abroad are taking keen interest in the site. Many VC funds are in touch," he said.

The return on investment of the site would be around $40-50 million each year for the next two years, he said adding the geo-targeted advertisement is the key to revenue earnings since there is no other platform for such advertisements.

"Our plan is to make the site the largest bill board company in the world where people can advertise in cities of their choice. With the addition of more cities, advertisement would go up and this will ensure flow of revenue," Mahatta said.

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Desi social networking site to take on existing ones

This article first appeared in issue 230 of .net magazine the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers.

A universal problem for anyone using social media to build their profile or raise awareness of a product or service is deciding where to focus their efforts. People tend to start with the most well known, i.e. Facebook or Twitter, or they set up profiles on lots of different platforms and then struggle to keep them updated. This is what I would call a tools first approach and it should be avoided if you want to get the best out of your social media activity.

There are two problems with this approach. First, youre making an assumption that your target audience is actually using the platform. And second, if you are working with a small team, or on your own, its going to be a struggle to keep all of your profiles and pages effectively updated.

Before you do anything, start with your objectives; what are you trying to achieve? Do you want to drive traffic to your site? If so, which page do you want to drive them to? Or maybe you want to use social media to help drive new business enquiries or to position yourself as an expert in a particular subject.

Being clear on what youre trying to achieve will make it much more likely that you will be successful. You should then spend some time defining your target audience by doing research into where, online, is the best place to reach them. Once youve taken these steps, it may be clear that in terms of reaching your target audience and achieving your goals, having a Facebook page, for example, is not necessarily the best use of your resource.

The most usual malfunctions in social media arent the high-profile fails, where an intern tweets something inappropriate, or a company does something wrong and finds itself trending on Twitter. Much more common are the times a company or individual sets sail into the world of social media, with the idea of setting the world alight, only to return home with a bruised ego after failing to register on anyones radar. A bit of work before you set off will make all the difference.

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Choosing your social network

LONDON, July 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Event Details Announced, Including a Keynote Presentation by Julien Codorniou, Facebook's Head of European Partnerships

Rising Media and WebMediaBrands, producers of the Social Gaming Summit, today announced details of this year's event on 15 November in London. Social Gaming Summit (SGS) is the only conference which fuses mobile gaming, immersive worlds, real-life brands and social networking. http://www.mediabistro.com/socialgamingsummit/

The third annual Social Gaming Summit is the must-attend event for media owners, games developers and anyone involved in the games, mobile, social media and entertainment markets. SGS features presentations, lively panels and engaging discussions on the convergence of gaming and the social web from business visionaries and pioneers who are driving the industry forward.

Social Gaming Summit - London will take place at - 200 Aldersgate, St Pauls, London, EC1A 4HD.

Julien Codorniou, European head of gaming partnerships for Facebook, will kick off the event with the morning keynote presentation. Julien supports the development of the local gaming ecosystem for companies including Wooga, King.com, Social Point and IsCool Entertainment.

"Social games received more than $800 million is funding last year, which has fuelled the gaming industry, with developers pushing to inject compelling social interaction and engagement into every game they create," Matthew Finlay, CEO of Rising Media. "The stakes are high and there is a greater need for mastering the business and technology of successful social and mobile games. The Social Gaming Summit unites established industry leaders, along with emerging start-ups, all leading the charge in this very exciting industry."

Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit

Delegates who register for the Social Gaming Summit will also be able to attend Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, which will be co-located at 200 Aldersgate, St Pauls. Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit will focus on the emerging smartphone and tablet games industry. The conference features an intensive programme of presentations and panel discussions from leading experts in game design and monetisation strategies. For further information, please visit http://www.mediabistro.com/smartphonegamessummitlondon/

Register before 14 August 2012 to take advantage of the lowest-available super early bird rates: http://www.mediabistro.com/socialgamingsummit/register.asp

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Social Gaming Summit, London 2012

Ascension Parish Major Kevin Hanna reports the Sheriffs Office was called to a Gonzales home on Thursday, July 5, 2012, at 2 am to investigate a juvenile runaway case.

A preliminary investigation identified the runaway as a 13 year old female. Authorities discovered that the 13 year old left the home and left with an unknown male subject in a blue four door truck. The parents were alerted that their daughter was possibly headed out of state with an unidentified 40 year old man, Hanna said.

During the course of the investigation the Sheriffs Office utilized a number of resources, including assistance from the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Office, U. S. Marshal Service, FBI, Louisiana State Police. The investigation revealed the 13 year old received a call on her cell phone just before she ran away. That cell number was identified as belonging to a Michael Long. With limited information on Long, investigators began a process of elimination as they located a number of Michael Longs in their data base.

And emergency order was obtained on the13 year olds cell phone which permitted the cell phone company to provide several key pieces of information. One piece of information confirmed the phone belonged to a Michael Long. A second piece of information revealed that the 13 year olds phone was shown to be in Baton Rouge area which gave the family and investigators hope that she was still local. The cell phone company also supplied investigators with recent text messages that documented communication between the 13 year old and Long.

A Sheriffs Offices forensic computer examiner had to break a password code to gain entry into the 13 year olds computer. Upon examining the computer it was discovered that the 13 year old posed as an adult and visited a number of adult dating sites and also entered members only sites where she had dialogue with members. The sites included explicit sexual activity in addition to dating services. At this point of the investigation the examiner is still attempting to identify where the 13 year old and Long had dialogue on the computer.

By mid afternoon of July 5 investigators narrowed their suspect list down to Michael Long of 4530 Sunny Brook Avenue Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Research revealed that Long was not a registered sex offender although he has a criminal history consisting of domestic abuse battery, 2nd degree battery, assault and resisting arrest. Unknown to Ascension Parish authorities, as they was preparing to proceed to Longs Baton Rouge home the family received a call from a relative who had just convinced the 13 year old, by phone, to be picked up from the Sunny Brook home.

The 13 year old was transported to the Sheriffs Office where she admitted to being picked up by Long and taken to his home in Baton Rouge. Ascension Parish investigators, assisted by East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office, proceeded to the Sunny Brook home where Long was taken into custody. He was transported to the Ascension Parish jail where he confessed to picking the 13 year old up and having consensual sex with her. He is currently in Ascension Parish jail and charged with 2nd degree kidnapping and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. Pending further investigation Long will face possible charges in East Baton Rouge Parish.

The 13 year old is currently in the St. James Youth Detention Center on a juvenile status offense of being ungovernable (runaway). Her fate will be determined pending a hearing in juvenile court.

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Social networking leads to arrest for kidnapping