Happy Thanksgiving! It’s November 25th, and Write Nonfiction in November has just five more days left before the challenge ends. Blog readers have been busy reading, but I’ve heard little from writers. I hope that means you’ve been busy writing. I did notice, however, that many of the article on marketing and promotion garner less readers than others. I’m not surprised.

When I speak to nonfiction writers I’m always surprised at how few want to take on these tasks. In fact, many don’t realize they have to be their own best self and book marketer both before and after their book comes out.  Still others just refuse to take on this job.

I started a discussion once on LinkedIn in a group for writers and editors asking what online methods they found worked best to promote themselves, and the majority of writers flat out said they felt their writing provided the best marketing tool possible. They said they only needed to be good writers; they didn’t need to do anything else. I got the distinct impression that they thought less of me and any other writers spending time on marketing and promotion as a way of getting noticed by editors and publishers or getting our books published. I was more than a little bit amazed. (A few writers, agents and publishers in the group did chime in to say that marketing and promotion were, indeed, necessary.)

So, on this Thanksgiving Day I’m here — yes, just me today — to tell all you nonfiction writers to get your heads out of the mashed potatoes and stare the Turkey down. The turkey represents the actual business of getting your work published and selling your books. That takes marketing skill. That takes promotional efforts. And no one is going to do that for you or like you can.

I’m also here to tell you that reasons exist for you to actually be thankful for this job being yours and for making the effort to promote yourself as a writer and to promote your work as well. (Yes, you can offer up gratitude on Thanksgiving that this job is yours–and, basically, yours alone.) Let me explain why.

Remember what I said on November 1: Even though the business of writing takes you away from writing, it does not represent wasted time. By marketing yourself and your writing, you develop a readership for your work — and ultimately all writers want readers. What’s the use of writing if no one ever reads what you’ve written?  Many nonfiction writers write to help others (via self-help, spiritual, body-mind-spirit, religious books), but if their writing never reaches a reader, they help no one.

I’m not poo-pooing the need for good writing. Assuming your goal involves a published nonfiction book (and not articles), it’s a given that to sell your manuscript to a traditional publisher or your self-publish book to readers, you must have (1) a marketable idea, and (2) good writing skills. If you don’t have a good idea, no one will buy your book. If you aren’t a good writer, you can hire a good editor to make it look like you are a good writer. (If you need a good editor, contact me at cpywrtcom@aol.com or visit www.copywrightcommunications.com!) After that, you will need to market yourself and your writing, first, to develop a platform — develop readers (buyers), and, second, to sell books.

That said, if you, like most writers, cringe at the thought of becoming your own marketing expert, let me assure you there are ways in which to make this job less daunting and more fun. You can also make it fulfilling. I know this, because I took on the job and now actually enjoy it.

If you accept that fact that in today’s publishing world you will be asked by your publisher to do at least one thing every day to promote your book, you’ll realize that you might as well resign yourself to beginning this practice now. You’ll have to do more if you self-publish your book, because you’ll have no help from a publisher at all; even small publishers might offer an author a little bit of help promoting the book…even if that simply means getting it into some stores and helping set up some speaking gigs. So, find 1-5 activities you might enjoy doing and make them part of your daily to-do list.

Here are some I enjoy and in which I find some personal value. (Notice that many of them involve writing.)

Blogging: Blogging gives me a presence online and drives traffic to my website. It also gives me a steady stream of readers–both new and regular readers. Later, when my book is published, I can tell these readers and, hopefully, a percentage of them will buy the book, because they’ve grown to trust me as a writer, blogger and “friend” online. Plus, I get personal value out of this activity, because it provides me with another way to express myself through my writing. It’s a writing exercise for me. When I’m bogged down editing for clients or producing articles unrelated to my books, I can write about something that matters to me or that is related to my personal work. And, by doing so, I gain readers every day. I find it very satisfying to look at my stats and discover that 100 people read my blog on a particular day or to receive a comment from a reader who said my post made a difference in his or her life.

Providing Free Content to Directories: I try to write at least one article every month on a topic related to my books and post this to an article distribution service. This places my article in a variety of online directories, where it then becomes available for use in blogs, newsletters, websites, etc. In other words, anyone looking for content and willing to pay one of the directories for my article can purchase it and use it. Each article contains a resource box with a short bio and contact information. This sends them to my website, where they hopefully become regular visitors or blog readers or sign up for my newsletter. I pay for this service.  I love finding my articles in all sorts of obscure newsletters and blogs. Sometimes I just do a Google search of my name and spend an hour trying to find my articles. Or I’ll put a Google Alert out on some of the key words and see where the article landed. It’s really satisfying to know so many people find my articles worth publishing (even if they don’t pay me). And it’s satisfying to see my website traffic spike.

Writing News Releases that I Post to the Media: I maintain a yearly membership with ExpertClick.com, and there I am able to post news releases that go out to the media. I can tell them what I am doing. I can rewrite my articles and post them. In general, I can let them know that I am the expert on the subjects about which I am writing in my book(s). This way, they will think of me when something comes up in the news that relates to my upcoming books. This also provides me with the ability to comment on news that pertains to my book’s subject matter, making me a socially relevant expert. This activity feel personally valuable when I get a call from the media, which doesn’t happen too often. But when it does, I know my efforts have paid off. I did land a monthly podcasting job from this site, and that has paid off in numerous ways. In particular, I now speak ever month to a huge audience. (The podcast has 110,000 listeners in 90 different countries each month.) This site also gives me excellent Google ranking. (If you are interested in signing up for ExpertClick.com, use my link for a discount: www.ExpertClick.com/discount/Nina_Amir.)

Commenting on Blog Posts and Articles: I have Google Alerts set up for words related to the topics of the books I am writing. When I get an alert and see that someone has written a blog post or an article related to these topics, I click on the link, read what they have written, and, if I have something to add or feel they have written something worth noting, I leave a comment. These comments always provide a link to my website. This brings more traffic to my website, thus increasing my chances of more unique visitors (those who come back more than once), more blog readers, and more people signing up for my newsletter, thus increasing my the list of people to whom I can promote a new book. This activity seems worthwhile to me when I actually develop relationships with the website, blogger or writer. We may set up reciprocal links or begin sharing leads. This is when I know what I offer has value to someone writing about a similar topic or that someone feels their readers benefit from what I have to offer as well as from what they offer their readers. I also learn a great deal from those writing on similar topics, and I might not normally spend the time online finding these blogs or articles.

Frequenting Social Networking Sites: Since I work at home alone most of the time, only having contact with other people when I need to interview someone from my books or for an article, I have found that I really enjoy social networking. I most enjoy Facebook and Twitter.  It’s fun to find real friends there who follow you because they enjoy what you post or “tweet” not just to gain more followers.  When you show up at Twitter, for instance, and “tweeple’” are happy you are there, converse with you and “retweet” what you post, it feels good. And it’s just plain enjoyable.

Writing Articles for Ezines: I write for ezines related to my topics. Some of these pay and some of these don’t. Many writers refuse to write for free. I prefer to get paid, but if I can post an article on a site that get’s 5,000 visitors per day and is willing to run my bio with links to my website, I’m happy for the opportunity to promote myself and to attempt to gain more readers and more people on my mailing list. As usual, it feels great to have my writing read as well.

Speaking or Teaching: I do try to schedule at least a few speaking gigs per year. Sometimes these are local, and sometimes they are in other areas of the country. I must admit, they give me the jitters, but once there I enjoy myself. I like doing workshops or offering classes; then you get to talk to people one on one. This develops stronger relationships. I find it easiest to offer teleseminars. I can do this from the comfort of my home and potentially reach the most people possible. I enjoy testing out my ideas on people and having them give instant feedback; it’s a bit like test marketing your book, especially if you are doing it prior to having a published book. Plus, each time I speak or teach before an audience, I feel more prepared to be a published author. That gives this activity added value.

Writing for Traditional Print Publications: I send out queries or essays to a variety of print publications on topics related to my books. This tends to be hit or miss, since they have to accept my ideas or essays. However, when they do, I typically get paid and get a short bio and possibly a link to my website. As a magazine journalist by trade, I find this most satisfying. I love having my work published in magazines and newspapers and getting paid for my writing. The fact that people are reading my work, I’m getting paid for that work, I’m building my platform,and I’m gaining “fans” at the same time fulfills many of my goals in one fell swoop.

Additionally, I have gotten involved in a few organizations that give me some promotional advantages while also allowing me to pursue my interests or support causes in which I believe. This is why you’ll find me as director of public relations of CyberJudaism.org, for instance.

I’d like to leave you with the same information I offered on WNFiN Day #1: These efforts have helped me grow my “author” website (www.purespiritcreations.com) to 10,000 visitors per month and the related blog, called “As the Spirit Moves Me” (www.purespiritcreations.com/wordpress), to an average of 3,000 readers per month. To some these numbers may seem huge; to others they will seem small. Remember, I have only self-published a handful of booklets and many, many articles. I am not a well-known speaker.

I will admit that my “opt in” efforts have not been as good, and my mailing list has not grown tremendously over the years. That’s my next task–to get more people to actually opt in to my newsletter so my list grows.

On Facebook, my followers are not huge (over 360), but people tend to be more careful about who they “friend” on that site. On Twitter, though,  in about nine months I’ve gained over 760 “tweeple.” Every day that number increases.

Overall, I’m struck by the personal value I’ve found through my marketing efforts. Although I have bemoaned the fact that I have yet to receive the coveted traditional publishing contract, I have found my writing in ezines, newsletters and blogs all over the world. More people read my writing each day than I ever thought possible–possibly more than would read a published nonfiction book of mine unless it was on the New York Times best seller list or the next Harry Potter of nonfiction. When I think about the fact that I have yet to sell one of my book manuscripts to a traditional publisher, I remember that because of my marketing efforts I actually am reaching–and helping–an enormous number of readers. That fact, however, will likely help me reach my goal of landing a traditional publishing contract. In the meantime, I’m having some fun, finding personal value in my marketing efforts and feeling fulfilled as a writer.

No, I’m not making much money off these efforts–well, I make money off a few of them. However, if I wanted to self-publish a book or push my self-published booklets harder on my website, I could. When I want to market my teleseminars or workshops, I can. And when I do have a traditionally published book in hand, I can tell all these “friends,” “followers,” “visitors,” “readers,” and “tweeple” about it, and hopefully they will buy the book…and tell their “friends,” “followers,” “visitors,” “readers,” and “tweeple” to do the same.

In the meantime, I’m being read and listened to, and more and more people know who I am and what I do. I get feedback as well. All of this I find personally valuable. That makes my job as Nina Amir’s marketing director a bit easier to stomach. Actually, most days, the job “tastes” pretty good.

On that note, I think I’ll dig into my mashed potatoes and eat a bit of turkey before it get’s cold.

About the Author

Nina Amir is a seasoned journalist, nonfiction editor, author, consultant, and writing coach with more than 30 years of experience in the publishing field. She has edited or written for 45+ local, national and international magazines, newspapers, e-zines, and newsletters on a full-time or freelance basis. Her essays have been published in five anthologies and can be found in numerous e-zines and Internet article directories. An award-winning journalist, she also has a proven track record as a book editor; one of her client’s books was self-published and then purchased and re-released verbatim by Simon & Schuster (Fireside) and another won the 1998 Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Award (Inspirational category), received a contract from William Morrow but remained self-published and went on to sell over 115,000 copies. Another of her client’s books recently was purchased by O-Books, a fast-growing British publisher.

Nina also is an inspirational speaker, spiritual and conscious creation coach, teacher, and the regular holiday and spirituality expert on Conversations with Mrs. Claus, a weekly podcast heard in more than 90 countries and downloaded by 110,000 listeners per month (www.thefamilyyak.com). Through her writing and speaking, Amir offers human potential, personal growth and practical spiritual tools from a Jewish perspective, although her work spans religious lines and is pertinent to people of all faiths and spiritual traditions.

Additionally, Amir has written and self-published several booklets and workbooks, including :

• Using the Internet to Build Your Platform One Article at a Time, 8 Tips for Getting Publicity, Exposure and Expert Status by Providing Free Copy Online
• The Priestess Practice: 4 Steps to Creating Sacred Space and Inviting the Divine to Dwell Within It
• The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation: How to Mystically Manifesting Your Physical and Spiritual Desires
• From Empty Practice to Meaning-Full and Spirit-Full Prayers and Rituals…in Seven Simple Steps
• Navigating the Narrow Bridge: 7 Steps for Moving Forward Courageously Even When Life Seems Most Precarious

Currently Amir is writing four books; she also compiled a Jewish celebrity cookbook for which she is seeking a publisher.

To learn how to use the Internet to build your platform one article at a time, why every author needs a platform or how to enhance your expert status by posting articles online, go to:  http://www.copywrightcommunications.com/Teleseminars.html orhttp://www.copywrightcommunications.com/Products.html

Nina Amir
CopyWright Communications
cpywrtcom@aol.com

http://www.copywrightcommunications.com
http://www.purespiritcreations.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Nina-Amir/1180528530
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nina-amir/6/460/134
http://twitter.com/ninaamir

www.mysoncandance.wordpress.com
www.purespiritcreations.com/wordpress
http://www.examiner.com/x-7363-San-Jose-Jewish-Examiner

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It has been a long year working offshore… not a completely new experience since I worked on a Oil platform two years ago, but different in a way since this time I was  responsible for delivering the DCS system. In 2007 we  depend entirely in Dragados managing and decisions because for that project we were just another provider,but for PB-KU-H we are the EPC .

Now I feel we could work closer with ABB italy, but the circumstances where different some months ago and the pressure maked me take some different decision back then. I also feel that the technical group from PEMEX was not very open.

Hopefully this last travel was the last one, it was not the fourteen days stay month after month but the sum of all trips… and the boat of course… the boat and the diesel smell. That thirteen hour journey from Ciudad Del Carmen to KU-MALOOB-ZAAP I will never forget…

Bioinformatics is a computer intensive field, so it is quite natural to find that experts in this discipline tend to post a lot of useful information on the web. In fact most professors teaching bioinformatics courses, book authors, and creators of important algorithms have extensive web sites filled with tutorials and educational information. The challenge is to locate the resources that you need for your personal education without spending months of your time surfing the web searching for these gems.

There is a clear need for an organized central resource that collects links to bioinformatics training material. The EXOME™- Horizon (EH) is an attempt to fill this need.

EXOME™ Horizon, an enabling service for Bioinformatics is a “Unified bioinformatics Learning Environment” that integrates the tools to learn, appreciate, explore and teach Bioinformatics in an optimal way. It facilitates the understanding of Bioinformatics among researchers and students.

The EXOME™ Horizon is an organized collection of Sequence Analysis tools, Structural Bioinformatics tools & Drug discovery tools, Comprehensive tutorials, In-built databases, On-line references, Sample test datasets, etc. In short everything that interested scientists/student’s need in order to train themselves in the emerging discipline of bioinformatics

EXOME™ Horizon is a service offering that consists of Sequence Analysis, structural bioinformatics and Drug Designing modules. EXOME™ Horizon uses workflow model through which a user can effectively and efficiently comprehend the procedural steps of sequence analysis, structure analysis and drug designing.

Listed below are just some of the areas in which training is conducted using EXOME™ Horizon:

* Genomics -Sequence/Structure Annotation, Phylogenetic Analysis, SNP Analysis, Genomics/Comparative
* Proteomics – Structural Bioinformatics, Protein Modeling and Simulations
* Cheminformatics -Pharmacophore/QSAR Modeling, Combinatorial Library design, Molecular Dockings, Structure Based Drug Designing, Toxicity Modeling and Prediction, Chemical Databases

Some of the salient features of EXOME™ Horizon other than the one mentioned above are as follows:

1. Client server architecture minimizes the cost per user.
2. Minimizes the hard ware requirement to a Server
3. User specific & secure work space
4. Comprehensive help menus for self learning
5. Limiting the use of internet bandwidth with inbuilt data bases- Nucleotide, PDB, PDBQ etc.
6. Interactive GUI removes the pain to learn and write commands to run an application.

Easy to understand the results/output through graphical representation and saves valuable time in understanding the application specific output

For any further queries on EXOME™ Horizon, kindly contact Rajesh

Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, O2 and others face one and the same threat as mobile phones become more powerful, cheaper per unit produced, and wireless networks (EDGE, 2G, 3G, 4G) improving towards universal world-wide coverage. And the earthquake for existing businesses comes again from Google.

Apple (iPhone) said no to Google Voice, because they had a fiduciary responsibility towards its carrier who subsidises the iPhone 3G and 3GS at a huge price. Which they make up with pricey subscriptions. I use already Skype on Android when I call abroad or for longer calls in general. The threat (um, tsunami) for carriers is, that the Googlephone (GPhone) will handle its calls though 3G/2G as network and associated Google Voice only. The coming revolution that everything will go though the ‘Pipe’ in and out, should cause them having bad dreams.

For existing mobile phone carriers and their traditional business, counting calls by minutes, Google is a disruptor. And Google is moving fast. They (Google’s Eric Schmidt) said for years (publicly in interviews and speaking events) that the phone is the first device for people in developing countries, experiencing the internet (& Google). When a CEO is speaking so candidly about a thing, shouldn’t you pay attention? No, because according to the business textbooks, you should pay attention to big existing companies who are already competing in the same market as you. Verizon vs. AT&T vs. T-Mobile. Small companies can move quick and fast, but have it hard to gain traction. Guess what, Google is big and everywhere, but still moves considerably fast, is agile, and gets traction fast because it is everywhere. Now Google will use its operational size, employees smarts and brand name to come in as disruptor to the mobile phone business. What they need is just ONE carrier who give them access to their network only. Deal done for the coming revolution. I see especially China and India and other developing countries, who are building their cellular network, the most interesting target for Google, they could buy a stake into one of the many small phone carriers (compared to Verizon or AT&T) and support with quick and cheap cash the undergoing construction of networks, thus that their grand plan for the GooglePhone/GPhone can be realized. Carriers here in Europe or America won’t cannibalize their own business for sure. Google, again, is solving a customer problem with high impact. Something they are always aiming for when using their resources to develop products.

Second thought on this, my projection. In two to three years, when counting by minutes is dead, when counting by megabytes is norm (like now with the ‘internet’), Comcast and other broadband providers are competing for the same customers as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, O2 et cetera. When they realize they can’t compete against the trend. Broadband providers have the land-line infrastructure, what they just need are the radio towers to distribute the signal through the air. My word, they will compete for the same customer. When the US economy up-ticks (should) again, we will see some big provider doing M&A, they will throw in the word synergy to make it tasty for shareholders, and employees will lose their jobs as usual. Speaking on the phone, having a conversation on the phone – will move onto the ‘Pipe’, and there is nothing you can do about it. It’s Economics again, technology, cost and leverage.

For us the consumer, it becomes cheaper to communicate. Existing businesses and associated businesses will change eventually. Mobile phone manufacturers will be doing business like any other PC/Laptop manufacturer. Developing a compelling product consumers want to buy. Consumers then are free to choose which network they want to use. Over will be the days that we can have only an Apple phone when we are willing to join AT&T’s world as well. Over are the days of subsidies. Yes, we may have to pay $150-$300 for a brand new phone, but it will be your main communicator for the future on the road, a very powerful one. It is called convergence (see computing and technology).

————————

Further Readings:

• The New World of Wireless: How to Compete in the 4G Revolution
• Mobileopportunity Blog: The mobile data apocalypse, and what it means to you
• Video – Web 2.0 Expo 2007, Eric Schmidt talking about the mobil space

“You Have a Question?  I Have an Answer” is a feature that answers real questions from real writers.

Q:  I have finished a manuscript that could be sold as fiction, but in truth, it is a memoir of a teenage girl.  The story begins when she first falls in love at 13 and tracks her on-again-off-again romance until she finally marries the man, who was the boy she fell in love with 30 years before.  I am the main character.  I have gotten so many rejections for this story as fiction, so I thought perhaps I’d start submitting it as a memoir. Any suggestions?                                                                                    –T.S.

A:  Thanks for the question!

This brings to mind some questions of my own, and I think the answers could help writers with similar manuscripts.

IS YOUR STORY COMPLETELY FACTUAL?

If not, and, say, Oprah happens to like it, you could have an A Million Little Pieces situation on your hands—not something you necessarily want.  (Although, I’m fairly certain author James Frey made more than a few bucks even after being kicked out of Oprah’s book club…so, I could be wrong.)

If it is completely factual, then there’s the whole issue of getting the permission of all those people you represent in the book, making sure it’s not libelous, etc.  Being that memoir comes from one’s memory—and being that memory can be subjective—you want to be sure you get all the “characters” on board before you send it out into the world.  It might just be easier (and more fun) to fictionalize some true events to avoid potential headaches.  I’ll discuss this more in a second.

DOES IT TELL A GOOD STORY?

An editor friend of mine told me he often sees writers sacrifice their storytelling because they keep incidents “how it happened.”  This made a lot of sense to me, and it sort of transformed the way I think about writing to a degree, once I paid attention to where I was doing that.

When I fictionalized some of the events of my MS I’d written as “true to life,” the story quality improved.  Rookies tend to write from their personal lives, and I think recognizing that and breaking out of that habit when it’s necessary is something everyone needs to learn.

When you fictionalize, the story goes from being a bunch of “Dear Diary” moments to more of a manuscript.  (Now, my MS isn’t a memoir, so that’s exactly the kind of transformation I needed; however, if you want yours to be a memoir, you can’t really do that.)

But, how do you know if it’s a good story, you ask?

Well, you may be a bit biased in this area.  The story might interest you because, y’know, it happened to you and all, but will it appeal to others if it’s written as it happened IRL?

To answer this question, have a few people critique it.  If your MS is completely factual, you’ve done your homework in terms of getting the proper permission, and you don’t think you’re going to get sued (should your book be published), get four to six people—not family members—to read it and offer feedback.  If you don’t have a writing group to look at it, *brace yourself for a shameless plug,* join an online group, such as the one I helm, Shenandoah Writers.

After you’ve received feedback from writers on the overall story, then maybe ask some friends who read to peruse it.  Their reviews might be a bit more glowing (don’t let them fool you), but this will give you a sense of how a variety of people will react to your actual story.  (FYI: I’d weigh the critique partners’ feedback much more heavily, but this way, if the critiques tear you apart, your friends can tell you what an awesome job you did, and that will cheer you up.  Hee!)

Remember, many, many (did I say many?  I meant pretty much all) literary agents are looking for narrative nonfiction—and that includes memoirs—so, the better your story is and the more it reads like a novel, the better the shape of your manuscript.

If after the feedback you discover the story lacks something, my advice would be to fictionalize the hell out of the thing.  Think of it as fun/therapeutic for you, as you can indulge your fantasies a bit (i.e., how might things have gone had, say, I stayed friends with so-and-so in high school; what would that year have been like if I hadn’t dated Johnny Douchebag, etc.).

HOW’S YOUR PLATFORM?

This isn't exactly what we're talking about when we say "platform," but a pair of these puppies probably can't hurt your career.

This is the biggest question that comes to mind when considering memoir.  According to pretty much every literary agent out there, you must have a strong platform for pretty much any kind of nonfiction.

What’s platform, you ask? Platform is basically your visibility—your reputation or following.  Do you have a Web site or blog?  Does it get 2,000 views a day?  Do you speak at conferences?  Do you do guest appearances on a radio show?

If the answer to all these questions is “no,” don’t fret.  It’s not imperative that you host your own morning talk show, but having some kind of name recognition certainly factors in when literary agents consider taking on your project.  As well, this is something you must consider when deciding whether or not to fictionalize the truth or present your MS as a memoir.

However, according to most, story and writing trumps all.  If it’s incredible, and it had better be—especially if you lack celebrity status—you should be okay.  (Ideally, though, you should have the perfect mix of both.)

HOW’S YOUR QUERY LETTER?

You say you’ve received “so many rejections for this story as fiction,” and I guess I’m just wondering a) how far in the querying process you’ve gotten, b) how many rejections you’ve gotten, and c) how long you’ve been querying.

If you’ve only queried a handful of agents and received form rejections from all, the problem might be your query letter, not your manuscript.

As we’ve all heard over and over, the query is the foundation upon which your publishing career rests.  If no one’s asking for your pages, revisit your query.  However, if most agents have requested partials/fulls from you, and you’ve still been rejected more than a few times, then it might be your manuscript after all.

When in doubt about your query, consult the Query Shark.

Welcome to Obama’s America, where there are only three truly evil acts: 1) being a conservative; 2) working for Fox News; 3) being a patriot who tries to keep America safe from its enemies.

These SEALs are at least guilty of number 3, and are most likely also guilty of 1 as well.  That’s more than enough for Obama.

And of course Fox reported on the story.  But we already know they’re guilty of Crimes Against Obama.

Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges For Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

Tuesday, November 24, 2009
By Rowan Scarborough

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three, all members of the Navy’s elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral’s mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.

Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named “Objective Amber,” told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault.

Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe, SO-2, is facing charges of dereliction of performance of duty and making a false official statement.

Petty Officer Julio Huertas, SO-1, faces those same charges and an additional charge of impediment of an investigation.

The three SEALs will be arraigned separately on Dec. 7. Another three SEALs — two officers and an enlisted sailor — have been identified by investigators as witnesses but have not been charged.

FoxNews.com obtained the official handwritten statement from one of the three witnesses given on Sept. 3, hours after Abed was captured and still being held at the SEAL base at Camp Baharia. He was later taken to a cell in the U.S.-operated Green Zone in Baghdad.

The SEAL told investigators he had showered after the mission, gone to the kitchen and then decided to look in on the detainee.

“I gave the detainee a glance over and then left,” the SEAL wrote. “I did not notice anything wrong with the detainee and he appeared in good health.”

Lt. Col. Holly Silkman, spokeswoman for the special operations component of U.S. Central Command, confirmed Tuesday to FoxNews.com that three SEALs have been charged in connection with the capture of a detainee. She said their court martial is scheduled for January.

United States Central Command declined to discuss the detainee, but a legal source told FoxNews.com that the detainee was turned over to Iraqi authorities, to whom he made the abuse complaints. He was then returned to American custody. The SEAL leader reported the charge up the chain of command, and an investigation ensued.

The source said intelligence briefings provided to the SEALs stated that “Objective Amber” planned the 2004 Fallujah ambush, and “they had been tracking this guy for some time.”

The Fallujah atrocity came to symbolize the brutality of the enemy in Iraq and the degree to which a homegrown insurgency was extending its grip over Iraq.

The four Blackwater agents were transporting supplies for a catering company when they were ambushed and killed by gunfire and grenades. Insurgents burned the bodies and dragged them through the city. They hanged two of the bodies on a bridge over the Euphrates River for the world press to photograph.

Intelligence sources identified Abed as the ringleader, but he had evaded capture until September.

The military is sensitive to charges of detainee abuse highlighted in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The Navy charged four SEALs with abuse in 2004 in connection with detainee treatment.

I’d first like to thank these SEALs for their service; second, I’d like to thank them for capturing Ahmed Hashim Abed; third, I would like to thank them for giving this slimebag a fat lip.

Let’s assess the record of this administration: repeatedly attempting to contact al-Qaeda — merits a promotion; giving a terrorist murderer a fat lip — merits a court martial.

This is what happens under the Obama worldview that requires providing Miranda rights to terrorists and according them all the rights and privileges of American citizens.

It is a cancer that resulted in the Obama administration declassifying vital intelligence secrets which kept this country safe in order to use it as a political weapon

It is a cancer that resulted in the Obama administration literally attempting to criminalize the role of our intelligence professionals at the CIA for their role in desperately striving to keep this country safe.  Now, surprise, surprise, the morale at the CIA is at a 30-year low (dating back to the last time a Democrat tried to destroy the Agency).

It is a cancer that resulted in a Muslim captain who’d had regular email contact with al-Qaeda as well as “soldier of Allah” on his business card getting promoted to major before murdering 14 human beings and wounding more than 30 more at a military base – as he screamed ‘Allahu akbar!’ – while our own SEALs get disciplined for capturing such murderous bags of slime.

It is a cancer that resulted in five confessed terrorists going from requesting the death sentence at a military tribunal to getting an opportunity to plead not guilty and use the civilian trial Obama gave them as a platform for their jihadist worldview while putting America (and George Bush) on trial.

It is a cancer that has resulted in a president dithering for nearly three full months while ignoring his own handpicked general’s request for more troops in Afghanistan.  While nearly twice as many American soldiers have died (so far!) than died under George Bush.

Today Obama came out and – while continuing to criticize Bush for not having the right “strategy” – said he intends to “finish the job” without bothering to have any kind of explanation as to what the “job” even is.   Which is to say, some fat load of good his three months of “policy reviews” has done.  Meanwhile, the morale of our troops is sinking, while the morale of the Taliban and the number of the American body count is rising.

And we have Barack Hussein to thank for inflicting us with this cancer.  The sooner he is gone, the sooner our healing from cancer can begin.

Note to fools: there is no CSI Kandahar, and there is no CSI Baghdad.  We cannot possibly ask our soldiers to gather evidence and turn battlefields into crime scenes.  We are worse than idiots for demanding that our warriors on foreign battlefields act like domestic police officers.  It is a blatant category fallacy.

Prayer for Barack Obama:

Psalm 109:8 – “Let his days be few, and let another take his office.”

Hier findest du das Video einer Online Presentation mit Dirk Griesdorn, der euch hilfreiche Tipps und Information über die Faszination des Devisenhandels gibt.

Themen:

• Der größte Markt der Welt
• MyPrivateTrade – die intuitivste und sehr leicht zu erlernende Plattform für Online Devisenhandel und
  schnellst wachsende Community Europas
• Strategien im Währungshandel
• Live Trading – Vorführung

done

Bebe $190

I make lots of sketches when I design. I love drawing and after putting together my ideas in my head I try to turn them into 2D by making sketches. It’s difficult because the designs are always in change until the moment they become lasted. My brother  is a really talented contemporary artist (painter) and once he told me as I was doing my sketches that “Reka, you draw brilliantly, it’s a pity that you draw well nothing but shoes!” At least there’s a gap for him as an artist I said to him. And you know what? My designs are portraits of shoes so here you go three studies for shoe portraits from the recent fall collection.

There were lots of talks about the Nokia new platform Maemo and its future, everyone was a bit confused would S60 remain or be taken over by Maemo? Now this confusion is somewhat solved, Nokia would still be coming up with phones using S60 platform but by 2012 switch would be made from S60 to Maemo gradually. It is seen that Maemo is far developed and strong platform compared to S60 and is the one for the future handsets by Nokia. Now we can wait for another phone by Nokia using Maemo, that would surely give an idea way the Nokia is moving ahead.

Il cavaliere in mutande…

Lo abbiamo giocato sull’Amiga 500, sul NES, sul Super Nintendo, in sala giochi e in molte altre console…chi non si ricorda del povero Arthur, che combatteva in boxer i suoi nemici!

Ma partiamo dagli antipodi. Per chi non lo sapesse, Ghost ‘n Goblin, sviluppato dalla allor giovanissima Capcom, usci nelle sale giochi nel 1985 e, dato l’enorme successo, usci l’anno seguente su Commodore 64.

Il gioco era un platform 2d, a scorrimento orizzontale, dove impersonavate appunto il povero Arthur, costretto a farsi larogo a piedi in mezzo a zombie e demoni di vario genere. Non aveva una barra di energia, bensì al primo colpo accusato rimaneva in mutande, mentre al secondo moriva, diventando un mucchietto di ossa. Il gioco consisteva nel superare ben 7 livelli (all’epoca erano proprio tanti!) per arrivare a sconfiggere il Demone finale e salvare la sua amata principessa. Durante il percorso, Arthur era in grado di ottenere nuove armi (pugnali da lancio, torcia infuocate, lancia, crocifisso ed ascia). Poteva anche acquisire l’armatura d’oro, prendendo l’oggetto armatura (che ricovera uno stato di energia) quando già la possedeva.

Negli anni futuri, il nostro Arthur uscirà in tre versioni restyling precisamente:

1. Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (1988)
2. Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts  (1991)
3. Ultimate Ghouls ‘n Ghosts  (2006)

QUI potete gustarvi il filmato del gioco

A month after Om trashed LinkedIn for failing to launch a promised application platform, and more than a year after the initiative was first announced, the professional network is finally giving out developer keys. Today LinkedIn launches a business-focused apps platform.

The full launch follows a string of LinkedIn deals to integrate with IBM (s IBM), Research In Motion (s RIMM), Microsoft Outlook (s MSFT) and Twitter. Promised early platform developers include TweetDeck, Posterous, Box.net and Ribbit. (More details on the company’s blog.)

With far too many platforms begging for developers’ services today, why should they head to LinkedIn? “Obviously LinkedIn is a pretty unique platform, but these are fundamentally standard REST APIs,” said Adam Nash, LinkedIn’s VP of search and platform products. “More than 50 million people have used LinkedIn to build their professional presence online, and they want to use it everywhere.” He promised that the LinkedIn platform would ensure the same privacy protections as the company’s site. 

As for the delay, Nash said, “We wanted to spend time to understand how people wanted to use the platform and use the technology to scale.” Translation: Better late than never!

Over fifty million users entrust their professional identities and relationships with LinkedIn, helping build LinkedIn into the largest global professional network today. However, professionals around the world use a wide variety of applications and Web sites to get their work done, and they have spoken loud and clear that they want the ability to leverage their professional networks wherever they work.

Starting today, developers worldwide can integrate LinkedIn into their business applications and Web sites. Developer.linkedin.com is now live and open for business.

The evolution of the LinkedIn Platform

Over the past months, LinkedIn has supported integrations with some of the most prominent and critical software applications in the enterprise. Partnerships with companies like IBM, Blackberry (Research in Motion), and most recently Microsoft, have given us time to invest in both functionality and scalability of the platform.

S

oftware is moving to the cloud, and business applications need context for who people are and how they are related. LinkedIn now is the obvious choice as a provider for those services. It is hard to imagine a business application that would not benefit from LinkedIn integration.”

– Roger Neal, SVP/GM at BusinessWeek Digital, McGraw-Hill

At LinkedIn, we have always believed that business applications are better when they are built over a platform of professional reputation and relationships. In real life, our most valuable professional assets are the skills and experience we acquire and the trusted relationships we build. It’s not surprising that business software becomes more productive and valuable when it is built over these services.

How can I start developing for the LinkedIn Platform today?

Registering as a LinkedIn developer is as simple as filling out a form on developer.linkedin.com. The LinkedIn platform leverages the open OAuth standard to make integrations from almost any language and development environment as simple as possible.

W

hat a breath of fresh air. We were able to go to http://developer.linkedin.com, request a key, and actually write functioning code in less than 15 minutes. It’s amazing to have access to such a powerful platform on tap at any time.”

– Iain Dodsworth, Founder and CEO of TweetDeck

A number of developers who have helped provide us with feedback and guidance in our development will be announcing integrations in the coming weeks. For example, TweetDeck is announcing full support for the LinkedIn platform in its next version. Now you can easily view or take action on your LinkedIn network updates from within TweetDeck, with the full integration of the LinkedIn profile information of the person who posted the update.

This is the beginning of a new set of opportunities for the LinkedIn platform, and we look forward to seeing the integrations that developers will launch in the coming weeks and months.

Stay tuned for additional enhancements over during the coming months as we learn and grow this platform together.

CS PURAM- GEETA
Our neighbour was a driver in KSRTC, living in rented house.
His daughter Geeta was a dark, tall, slim girl, working in a shop at Palakad town. She has a younger brother, still in school when, we were there.
An offer came for her hand. The boy is handsome. His parents are well to do, both getting pension, in addition to their savings, a house in Thiruvanthapuram etc. They have only this son whom they want to entrust to a reliable loving girl.
At that point we had to go to Delhi. On our return, we brought Ammu, Sudha’s daughter Meghna, who was only two years old, as there was nobody to look after her, when the parents went to work.
 There was no such decision. We were inside the railway compartment. Damodaran and Sudha were on the platform. When my wife stretched her hands and called Ammu, she jumped into her hands; the train moved. So that was how she came in  our custody. As some wit put it, we bring babies into this world, jus to play with them!
I used to take her wherever I went, in the village. She never showed any sign of remembering her parents; but, when Damodaran and Sudha got into the autorickshaw on their return, after a brief vacation with us in the village, she went away with them, without once turning bach to look at us! My wife was on the point of tears.
One day Geeta came from Thiruvananthapuram. She looked serious. Her man was a spoilt child. After break fast, he goes away with his friends to roam about in the city. At noon, he comes back, takes rest and again, in the evening another outing, returning home after dinner in the restaurants.
Three times, she has to wash his cloths. Always, he goes in clean ironed cloths. Geeta is his washer woman.
An itching caused a nuisance to me. Nothing was visible. Thuppan told me it is caused by small mice. After observing my abdomen he confirmed it.
I went to a doctor, who gave me a medicine to be applied all over my body, for seveal days. No relief came except when it is applied.
Then I poured kerosine oil all over my body. My body became clean. I became fair, but the mice thrived.
Murugan told it comes from the river water. Several persons are victims, not myself alone. It was little consolation.
In March 2000, we came to see Leena’s baby and could not go back to CS Puram, as there was nobody to help her. My mice disappeared, without any reason. I was very much releaved.
The baby born on the auspicious day, when Ammathiruvady is brought to our ancestral home, on Makam of the month of Meenam,every year, was named Ananya.
Premchand, Leena’s father-in-law was also there. They stayed at their son Shishir’s house at Lajpatnagar, quite near to our place, and he woud come to see Ananya daily.
He was younger to me, very jolly, but suffering from diabetes and heart  trouble. Doctors at  AIIMS had recommended biopsy. I think a ring was inserted already.
At his instance I too joined the Yoga course, for ten days, provided by  the AIIMS, free of cost.
Of course, the classes were good, but of no use, unless we continue the practice during our life time. This is not practicable. A proper study to determine the efficacy of the system, I believe, has not been conducted. The pulse rate comes down. That is because we remain in a detached atmosphere, free from normal tensions. The same experience can be had, when we pray at a temple or  church etc.
In the library attached to the Yoga cell, I came across a remarkable book titled POWER HEALING by Dr. Leo Galland. He is a normal allopathic doctor, who examines those cases, where doctors are unable to find out the root cause and fail. He has recorded a number of  strange cases. In one case, doctors treated a patient for heart attack who died after repeated attacks. His investigation revealed that, the patient died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The deceased was working in an old cellar, peeling off plaster, under which the poisonous gas had accumulated, over a long time, in some pockets. THE POISON CAUSED THE SYMPTOMS OF HEART ATTACK.
Another case was a young girl whose skin was extremely dry. She was a schizophrenic patient. Seeig her skin, the doctor told her to take cod liver oil, which contans omega 3 fatty acids. AFTER SOME SIX MONTHS, SHE RETURNED TO GIVE HIM THANKS. She was cured of her mental condition. Now this oil is given routinely to all mental patients in England, I read in the news paper.

Bagi pemilik iPhone, kini ada kabar gembira setelah Juni lalu diluncurkan perangkat lunak OS versi 3.0. Dengan OS versi 3.0, penggunaan iPhone dapat lebih optimal dengan berbagai fitur unggulan yang menyertainya. Bagi pemilik iPhone generasi sebelumnya, OS Apple versi 3.0 bisa diperoleh secara gratis dengan empat langkah mudah setelah mengunjungi www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate.

Lalu apa saja keistimewaan OS Apple versi 3.0? Lebih dari 100 fitur unggulan dijejali Apple untuk pengguna iPhone. Pengguna pun kini dengan mudahnya bisa melakukan cut-copy-paste sesuai dengan kebutuhan. Apple sendiri tak membatasi fitur ini hanya sebatas teks, tetapi juga bisa dilakukan untuk gambar atau dari email, termasuk antaraplikasi. Atau coba gunakan fitur spotlight search, semacam mesin pencari untuk kemudahan pencarian dalam seluruh sistem. Caranya dengan memasukkan kata kunci untuk mencari nama, email, kalender, atau pada aplikasi lainnya. Fitur message-nya memungkinkan pengguna meneruskan berbagai bentuk pesan seperti sms, mms, maupun video untuk dikirim seluruhnya atau sebagian yang dianggap penting saja.

Rekam pesan suara (Voice Memos) atau kebutuhan audio lainnya bisa dilakukan kapan dan di mana saja sesuka hati. Cukup gunakan mikrofon pada iPhone atau manfaatkan mikrofon yang terdapat pada headset. Hasil rekaman suara dapat dikirim melalui mms atau email. Begitu pula dengan landscape view yang memberikan keleluasaan saat membutuhkan tampilan keyboard yang lebih besar saat menggunakan menu mail, message, note, atau safari.

Beberapa fitur lainnya yang menonjol, di antaranya adalah Bluetooth stereo yang memungkinkan penggunanya menggunakan Bluetooth wireless stereo dengan dua buah earplug untuk memanjakan telinga. Begitu pula dengan fitur shake to shuffle yang hanya dengan mengguncangnya sudah bisa berpindah ke lagu berikutnya. Di antara fitur-fitur unggulan, ada satu fitur menarik parental control. Fitur ini akan memberikan privacy penggunanya dengan membatasi akses untuk lagu-lagu, video, atau aplikasi yang dikehendaki.

Dengan sekitar 100 fitur barunya, diyakini OS Apple versi 3.0 akan menjadi pionir perangkat lunak di kelas smartphone yang kini semakin tinggi peminatnya. Setidaknya dengan menyajikan beragam inovasi pada iPhone generasi terbaru, akan menjadi platform aplikasi yang makin keren dan canggih. Dan bagi pengguna iPhone 3G, akan mendapatkan beberapa keunggulan lainnya seperti peningkatan performa kecepatan hingga 7,2 Mbps saat berselancar di dunia maya. Fungsi dan kemampuan kamera 3 megapikselnya sudah disertai fitur autofocus dan macro focus, termasuk editing untuk fungsi kamera video.

_______________________

Boks

Membeli iPhone 3G Tanpa Uang Muka

Bagi peminat smartphone iPhone 3G, kini ada tawaran bundling yang menarik dari Telkomsel. Smartphone iPhone 3G 16GB bisa dimiliki dengan biaya awal Rp 0 alias tanpa uang muka. Peminat bisa memilih tiga paket yang tersedia, yaitu Turbo, Turbo Plus, atau Turbo Premium. Dengan masa angsuran selama 12 bulan, iPhone 3G bisa segera digenggam dengan besaran cicilan mulai dari Rp 800 ribuan. Untuk memutuskannya, sesuaikan pilihan paket yang diinginkan dengan kebutuhan dan dana yang dimiliki.

iPhone 3G terbaru ini dapat digunakan di seluruh jaringan Telkomsel, baik 2G maupun 3G, serta memiliki kemampuan mendeteksi jaringan hotspot Wifi secara otomatis, sehingga memudahkan untuk penggunaan internet kecepatan tinggi maupun browsing multimedia kapan pun dan di mana pun. Layanan tak berbayar alias gratis pun bisa langsung dinikmati seperti 20 mms, data hingga 1 GB, termasuk gratis bicara dan sms, Jadi, selama periode angsuran hingga 12 bulan, konsumen dapat terus menikmati layanan gratis. Khusus pemilik iPhone generasi sebelumnya, layanan gratis 20 mms baru bisa dinikmati setelah di-upgrade ke versi iPhone 3.0. Telkomsel juga menawarkan paket berlangganan internet unlimited 3,6 Mbps dengan biaya langganan Rp 87 ribu setiap bulannya. Jika masih penasaran, langsung klik saja http://www.telkomsel.com/iphone/whoretobuy.

The first time I had the need to research book marketing for myself, a publisher told me to purchase 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer. I immediately purchased a copy of the book and have been referring to it ever since—and telling other authors to do the same. So, when I contacted John to ask if he would be willing to participate as a WNFiN guest blogger this year and he said, “yes,” I was thrilled.

Today, John takes us farther into the world of book marketing. Don’t’ cringe, though, or click through to a different blog post or website. If you want to become a successfully published author, you need to learn how to become a book marketer. Plus, once you understand what this job entails, it won’t feel so difficult or uncomfortable. After all, even writers have relationships…

Marketing Nonfiction Begins with Creating Relationships
By John Kremer

The essence of marketing is very simple. It comes down to one thing: creating relationships. And that, in turn, can be broken down further to simply making friends. If you can do that, you will be successful as a book marketer.

I know many authors who only want to spend time in the garret writing their great American novel or the self-help book that will change people’s lives. And, personally, that’s what I enjoy doing most.

But, as an author, you can’t hide away. You must engage people. You must get involved. You must interact. That’s how you build an audience and create true fans.

The two most effective ways to create relationships in today’s book world are to speak and to build an audience online.

If you haven’t spoken in front of an audience before, the best way to start is by working with local bookstores, libraries or groups. Begin by speaking in front of small groups so you can develop a comfortable speaking style and have time to write one or two talks you can present regularly. Start with short talks (a half hour or less). In time, you’ll come to love speaking in front of larger and larger groups.

The great thing about speaking is that once people hear you speak (and like your talk), they become bigger fans than they would have been simply by reading your book. That means they will tell more people about you and your book.

Speaking also gives you a great opportunity to interact with your readers, to find out whether or not your book meets their needs or answers their questions. Indeed, their questions could easily help you develop a new edition or even write a completely new book.

In the second part of this blog (which will post tomorrow), I’ll describe a few of the actions you can take to build relationships online.

About the Author

Book marketing expert John Kremer is the owner of Open Horizons. He is the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, The Complete Direct Marketing Sourcebook, High-Impact Marketing on a Low-Impact Budget, Do-It-Yourself Book Publicity Kit, and Celebrate Today.

As a book marketing consultant, his clients include a self-published author who has sold over two million books, a new age publisher with 60 titles, and a $100 million publisher with a rapidly growing list of 1,000 titles.

John Kremer, President
Open Horizons
P O Box 2887
Taos, NM, 87571
575-751-3398
JohnKremer@BookMarket.com
http://www.bookmarket.com
http://www.TenMillionEyeballs.com

Help writers find the wonderful information and resources at Write Nonfiction in November all year:
Vote  WNFIN One of Writer’s Digest’s Annual 101 Best Internet Sites for Writers

Please visit www.copywrightcommunications.com and sign up for the free newsletter to receive a gift at the end of the Write Nonfiction in November challenge!

Don’t forget to sign into the WNFiN social networking and chat room and tell us what you are writing about or start a discussion.
http://writenonfictioninnovember.ning.com/

Marvel comics has been a leader when it comes to new media and having an online presence.  In December we’ll be giving a full breakdown grading each publisher in their online operations, a new yearly tradition.  However, we’ve decided to spotlight something a little early, Marvel Comics’ Retailer Resource Center.

Marvel is pleased to announce that retailers are now able to participate in the MARVEL RETAILER RESOURCE CENTER- an invaluable tool to help retailers make use of all of the information, artwork, and previews that is at their disposal. This innovative tool offers tremendous benefits to local retailers and fans. The MARVEL RETAILER RESOURCE CENTER enables retailers to create websites for their stores with up-to-the-minute news, artwork, catalog listings and changes, as well as maps and local happenings. Ask your retailer if they have signed up for the MARVEL RETAILER RESOURCE CENTER and tell them Marvel sent you!

The service is a pay service that allows comic book retailers create websites with some content provided by Marvel.  These websites include features of the store’s choosing, creating a platform for an easy web presence.

These websites are equipped with Google Maps, store images, events calendars, complete Marvel product listings (updating by Marvel, not the retailer, saving hours of labor each week) product listings for all other companies,” David Gabriel said. “Plus, we provide printable on-sale lists of all our comics and collections, so a store’s customers can click a button and print out a checklist of all the books on sale that week.”

The resource center helps stores with early previews to help better manage their orders, promotional tools such as flyers and early art, and an easier way to interact with Marvel staff.  Will retailers pay Marvel for a website, when there are much cheaper and more flex able options available?

Most retailers we’ve spoken to do not want to pay the monthly fee,” Gabriel explained. “However, when we did the individual math and consider the cost to maintain and create a website, add in the First Looks program that most retailers were a part of and then throw in the slew of free books, exclusive variants and special members only sales, the retailers that participate are definitely coming out ahead. I liken this to paying your monthly basic cable bill and then being reimbursed for watching certain programs each month.

Retailers can check out the service and a video tutorial at http://www.marvelretailers.com/.  While we here at Graphic Policy applaud Marvel for providing this platform we have to wonder why Diamond Distributors hasn’t ventured into this territory?  Stay tuned for a further article about the platform Diamond should provide to their clients and the comic book industry.

It’s not been much time since Silverlight 3 and the Silverlight 4 beta is already out!

http://silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight-4-beta/

One of the coolest aspects for me is the printing support. Today’s RIA space dearly needs good printing support for its applications. As usual, microsoft has packed enough goodies in the bag, to make a non-programming drag’n'drop coder look like a champion developer! Comprehensive set of form controls and the works…

Another very important point with this version might be the networking support. Again, this might prove to be a game changer. I am thinking cloud, stock markets and social networks right now and I am hoping this could prove to be a cool RIA platform for getting stuff done!

For now this needs Visual Studio 2010 beta 2 (or the web dev express 2010 beta 2).

Check out the announcement: http://silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight-4-beta/ which I am sure will be a lot more instructive than the two second analysis I have for now.

It’s good news that VS2008 and 2010 can live together. I am off to trying the new stuff now!

Cheers

Shaurya.

(c) Stefan Ferreira / www.cthechange.com

Okay, I gotta admit it. I am drinking the Kool-Aid here at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference, and it is good. Very good. What flavor, you ask? Innovation. Mmmm. Tasty. Refreshing. And (being cloud-based) less filling.

I have spent the last 18 years in the CRM / IT consulting biz, and have watched the rise — and fall — of numerous companies and products. Some were great ideas, but ahead of their time. Others just adequate, but pushed by companies with a lot of cash and marketing savvy. And then there was Siebel, who fought its way to the top and stayed there for a long while by offering the “best available” combination of functionality, enterprise-class performance and interoperability, and configurability — not to mention vendor stability, and a very aggressive sales force and partner program. Back in the good old days, Siebel was an innovator, and it showed. Innovation was what set Siebel apart from its competitors; corporate drive was what funded the innovation.

But then Oracle bought Siebel. Now, some would regard Oracle as a company that innovates by acquisition. I’m sure Oracle would like its customers to think so. Others would say it seems more like Oracle is where innovation goes to die. At least for acquired companies. I’m not knocking Oracle — they’re a solid company that offers a very compelling “one-stop-shopping” technology footprint for the enterprise, and they still continue to do database better than anyone else on the planet, and OBIEE is the promise of Siebel Analytics made manifest. But in trying to be all things to all people, Oracle has often sucked the lifeblood out of innovative acquired companies like Siebel. And so it is that opportunity has not only knocked, but damn near kicked the door down for Salesforce.com.

Salesforce.com, in just 10 short years, has gone from completely unknown, to the unquestionable 800-pound gorilla of the CRM space. Yes, there are various ways to define market leadership, and I’m sure Oracle can still find ways to call Siebel a market leader, but let’s face it: Salesforce.com has people EXCITED. SFDC alleged on the Dreamforce website that 12,000 would be in attendance, and insiders have told me the internal stretch goal was 15,000. Well, guess what?  19,000 people attended the show this week — in this economy. The Day 1 keynote start was delayed 40 minutes just to allow the overwhelming crowds to process through check-in and get to the keynote.

SFDC is also beating Oracle left and right at the deal level. We have seen a steady stream of clients this year — large enterprise clients —  jumping ship from Siebel to Oracle. Faced with the pain, time, and cost of upgrading from Siebel 7.x to Siebel 8, they are just throwing in the towel on Siebel altogether, and moving to Salesforce.com.

Why? Upgrade time, pain, and cost are certainly the drivers that make them do the due diligence of looking at non-Siebel alternative. But on its own merits, SFDC is beating Siebel on-premise, Oracle CRM On-Demand, and other CRM applications. So SFDC has achieved not just competitive parity at the enterprise level, but actual competitive superiority.

And then — and this is the entire point of this blog — on top of all that, SFDC has heaped a metric ton of INNOVATION. Application-level stuff like Sales Genius, Cloud Scheduler (like Evite for business meetings), Content Library (think Apple’s Cover Flow meets YouTube for presentations and other business docs), and Chatter (the “big” announcement of the DF09 Day 1 Keynote) that securely brings a very nice hybrid of Facebook-like and Twitter-like functionality to the enterprise, and consolidates internal human-generated, application generated, and externally-generated FB & Twitter updates into a “newsfeed” embedded in every standard SFDC object. But not just app-level stuff, also platform-level innovation, like 5-minute upgrades, a new bulk-load API, one-click deployment, Salesforce-to-Salesforce integration, and Force.com sites.

There’s more, of course, too much to list here. But the point is, Salesforce has the three key ingredients of potentially huge success, not just in the CRM market, but in the enterprise applications space overall: real functional capabilities, corporate drive, and continuous, leapfrog-style innovation. Kudos to Marc Benioff and everyone at Salesforce.com for SFDC becoming a $1.3B run-rate company, especially in this economy. But mark my words, they won’t stay small like that for long.

Do you like apples? More thoughts about SFDC’s future tomorrow. . .

As usual, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Please leave a comment here or on our Facebook page.

Thanks!

Eric Heine
Vice President
Integra Technology Consulting

781-890-0070
eheine at integratc dot com

www.integratc.com

Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/IntegraTC