Second Hat in the Ring for Republican Leader

In a video announcement to members of the national committee, Ms. Wagner said the party needed new leadership to prepare for the 2012 presidential campaign, as well as a renewed focus on fund-raising, transparency and accountability.

?We must be efficient, relevant, professional and credible,? Ms. Wagner said. ?We must start immediately to erase past debt and to restore the confidence of our donor base. We must have these resources in order to take back the White House and complete the job that was started this year.?

Ms. Wagner, a former national co-chairwoman of the committee who also served as an ambassador to Luxembourg under President George W. Bush, is the second person to formally announce intentions to run for the post. This month, a former Republican chairman from Michigan, Saul Anuzis, declared his intention to run.

Several other top Republican officials are considering making a bid, including Maria Cino, a longtime Republican leader with close ties to the Bush administration, and Gentry Collins, who recently left his position as political director for the national committee.

The current chairman, Michael Steele, whose term expires in January, has not said whether he intends to seek re-election. His stewardship of the party has been sharply criticized by many Republicans, especially his handling of fund-raising, even though the party scored sweeping victories in the midterm election and captured control of the House.

The 168 members of the Republican National Committee are scheduled to meet in Washington in January to elect a leader.

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Is Loyalty Dead? Unlocking its secrets with social media [TNW Social Media]

?I promise to cherish and buy you in richness and in debt till Groupon tears us apart.?

Is this what loyalty to a certain brand or product has come down to these days? The era of information has changed the way we shop, with online search for product information, real time price comparison and reviews preceding almost all of our purchasing decisions. According to the 2010 Cone Consumer New Media Study, companies have to work very hard to engage with loyal consumers online and even harder to keep them. Consumers demonstrate affinity online (e.g., ?like? on Facebook, ?follow? on Twitter or subscribing to an RSS feed) for an average of only 4.6 companies and 59% of them say they won?t hesitate to punish companies by disengaging if the company acts irresponsibly toward its consumers (58%), over-communicates with them (58%) or provides irrelevant content (53%). They also consider under-communicating (36%) and censoring user-generated content (28%) as deal breakers.

According to the aforementioned study, consumers who engage with companies online are more likely to share information about the company across their own social networks (62%), feel a stronger connection to the company (61%), feel better served by the company (60%) and purchase the company?s products or services (59%).

Building a strong long-term relationship with the consumers goes beyond the traditional loyalty programs into a holistic customer experience, entailing superb customer service, integrity in communication and focus on engagement. Loyalty programs however have not disappeared but rather evolved with the use of social media for marketing purposes. Let?s take a look at the use of social media brands have done so far to initiate a shopping lockdown.

Exclusive Offers: Many hate shopping, but no one hates sales. As you all know ?the rent is too damn high?, so people are always on the watch for offers and sales alerts. Special offers to your fans may be an incentive to keep them ?hooked? on your feed. For instance 1800Flowers has a 20% off the next order for people that like the brand on Facebook as well as weekly giveaways along with flower tips, while Radioshack provides exclusive in-store discounts for its Foursquare friends as well as a special holiday badge that equals 20% off for unlocking it.

Premieres: Whether it?s limited edition items or products that are not yet available in-stores, exclusive distribution to fans creates a special bond. Many artists have used this tactic, like Alicia Keys that rewarded the loyalty of her Facebook fans by allowing them to listen to her new album before anyone could even buy it. And e-retailer for independent designers, Moxsie gives its members early access to upcoming collections.

Special Service: Social media present brands with an amazing opportunity to identify their loyal customers and tailor their services to their needs and tastes. Dell is taking advantage of this with the Tag Team Facebook application that helps its fans discover how others use their technology, discover the right products for them, get advice by friends and share their Dell experience. Another example is Target, which with the MyTargetWeekly Facebook application provides its fans a customized shopping experience with in-store deals that fit their wants and needs through a recommendation system that gets ?smarter? as they use it.

Exclusive events: What keeps a family?s bond strong is holidays and family dinners. Brands bond with their customers through special events that mix the warmth of family with the exclusivity of a private club. Lululemon Athletica keeps customers up to date through its Facebook page on local events and activities like marathons and yoga events organized by the brand. The special events may take place online like the Angel Chat by Victoria?s Secret. The Victoria?s Secret Facebook fans can RSVP for webcasts starring the brand?s famous angels.

Online communities: On top of their social media accounts many brands have built custom made social networks to connect further with their customers. Patrón tequila has built its own social network integrated with Facebook connect. The club organizes covert dining experiences featuring Patrón cocktails, paired with special menus in hip spaces in different cities. The members have access to cocktail guides and special treats if they identify a bottle by entering a bottle?s number. Best Buy has built its own community forum for its members to get fast resolution to customer service issues and keep an ongoing conversation about technology in day-to-day life.

Recognition: Who doesn?t like hearing how special he or she is especially in public? Royal Dutch Airline KLMas we posted recently, surprises travellers that check into KLM locations via Foursquare with personal gifts after some snooping around their social networking profiles. Toys ?R? Us chose a simpler way to honour its fans by featuring a different fan in its Facebook?s profile picture every week.

Crowdsource Ideas: It?s always nice to feel that not only your wallet is appreciated, but also your ideas and creativity. Brands are reaching out more often to their customers, asking for their contribution to new product design or help in mapping the brand?s future. Starbucks engaged their customers in an open dialogue about ways to improve Starbucks through My Starbucks Idea and LEGO with LEGO click reached out to them through a collaboration platform for new ideas relating to toys and technology. LEGO enthusiasts are also encouraged to share their click moments through tweets tagged with #legoclick or posts on its Facebook page.

Are the above actions enough to get to your consumers? hearts? Not completely. They will, however, be appreciated and along with a consistent customer service and continuous exploration of new and more effective ways of communication could lead to what Kevin Roberts calls ?loyalty beyond reason?.

What do you think, is loyalty dead?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/11/29/is-loyalty-dead-unlocking-its-secrets-with-social-media/

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This is by far the best way to search for Windows Phone 7 apps [TNW Microsoft]

When Windows Phone 7 first came out it was difficult to search the app store unless you were holding a device in your hand. No more. We have brought to you two previous methods of browsing, but today we bring you the best.

Say hello to WP7AppList, the website that you have been waiting for if you own a WP7 handset. Not only is it simple, quick, and complete, it also provides some very interesting statistics on the larger WP7 marketplace.

To begin, the interface mimics Apple?s CoverFlow to display a set of applications, while providing lists of top applications across every major genre, and a list of all the top apps, regardless of type.

The website also provides a list of recently updated applications, and a list of applications that have recently enjoyed a price cut. We suspect that the second group just may be the most popular.

What about those statistics? According to the website, the service is ?currently tracking 2784 apps. 29% of them are available for FREE; average price is $1.50. 49 apps are updated on average each day?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2010/11/29/this-is-by-far-the-best-way-to-search-for-windows-phone-7-apps/

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Blog - Card Trick Leads to New Bound on Data Compression

Here's a card trick to impress your friends. Give a deck of cards to a pal and ask him or her to cut the deck, draw six cards and list their colours. You then immediately name the cards that have been drawn.

Magic? Not quite. Instead, it's the next best thing: mathematics. The key is to arrange the deck in advance so that the sequence of the card colours follows a specific pattern called a binary De Bruijn cycle. A De Bruijn sequence is a set from an alphabet in which every possible subsequence appears exactly once.

So when a deck of cards meets this criteria, it uniquely defines any sequences of six consecutive cards. All you have to do to perform the trick is memorise the sequences.

Usually these kinds of tricks come about as the result of some new development in mathematical thinking. Today, Travis Gagie from the University of Chile in Santiago turns the tables. He says that this trick has led him to a new mathematical bound on data compression

Gagie achieves this new bound by considering a related trick. Instead of pre-arranging the cards, you shuffle the pack and then ask your friend to draw seven cards. He or she then lists the cards' colours, replaces them in the pack and cuts the deck. You then examine the deck and say which cards were drawn.

This time you're relying on probability to get the right answer. "It is not hard to show that the probability of two septuples of cards having the same colours in the same order is at most 1/128," say Gagie.

He goes on to consider the probability of correctly predicting the sequence of cards pulled at random from a deck of a certain size and after a few extra steps, finds a lower bound on the probability of doing this correctly.

This turns out to be closely related to various problems of data compression and leads to a lower bound than has been found by any other means.

"We know of no previous lower bounds comparable to [this one]," he says.

That's impressive, a really neat trick in itself.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1011.4609: Bounds from a Card Trick

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=023b7ec7200686447ca34d68f025ac14

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Create your own online store with Goodsie [TNW Apps]

In celebration of Cyber Monday, I?d like to draw your attention to Goodsie, a new web application from the creators of Flavors.me. It?s a simple, beautiful DIY e-commerce service that lets you create your own e-store. Running a store on the Internet has never been easier.

There are no restrictions (other than keep it legal) on the types of products that you can sell on Goodsie. And whether it?s clothing, art work, food, services, pets or MP3s, product uploads are unlimited. The Goodsie set up process is very intuitive: you can easily add products, categories, set prices and add images. If you?re selling clothing, the service gives you the option to sell the item in multiple sizes, colors or prices on the project page.

Goodsie provides custom domain names, site statistics, custom shipping options and optional digital delivery via Fetch for digital products like MP3s. The statistics page is particularly helpful as it shows you a timeline of visitors, where they?re coming from, what they?re doing, what they?re searching for and your site?s bounce rate.

Why Goodsie? A Goodsie site feels more personal than opening up a shop on Etsy, which focuses on the importance of community. It?s beautifully designed too. Every Goodsie account comes equipped with the same dead-simple design panel from Flavors.me. The easy to use interface includes layout options, background uploads, custom color palettes, pages and a range of fonts. Goodsie is a HiiDef product, founded by Jonathan Marcus and David Marcus. The current primary development team is John Wehr, Jefferson McCree and Jack Zerby.

For a visual peak at Goodsie?s operation, watch this video below.

Goodsie is free for the duration of the beta, which is scheduled to be in early 2011 (so sign up before then!). Their current beta product is feature-complete, and allows you to start selling goods from anywhere in the world. Payments for products can be made through PayPal, Google Checkout or Amazon Payments. N.B. I found it a lot easier to set up PayPal and Google rather than Amazon Payments.

To get started with a free account, sign up at https://goodsie.com/signup. And if you need some inspiration, check out their blog for a list of current Goodsie stores.

Customers can follow Goodsie on Twitter and Facebook.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/11/29/create-your-own-online-store-with-goodsie/

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SmartFuel: Location-aware gas pricing, on your route. [TNW Apps]

Between group buying apps and coupons and every other way that we can save money, the App Store is loaded with applications that are trying to help you save a buck or two. SmartFuel is the latest that we?ve seen and it?s hugely impressive in how it absolutely will save you money on gas.

Until now, we?ve seen a number of choices for applications that try to find you the lowest prices on gas. The problem is that the most popular (GasBuddy) relies on crowdsourcing to come up with pricing. The obvious disadvantage here is that any crowdsourced system can be gamed by the users, and is reliant on accurate user reports to be of use.

The first major offering from Nasvhille-based Iridium Development, SmartFuel is a location-aware application that Iridium likes to think of as ?Gas 2.0?. Using GPS routing from Navteq, SmartFuel does a great job at combining what you?re looking for with an easy way to get you there once you?ve found it.

This might sound familiar to you, given the TripTik application from the AAA. However, SmartFuel manages to do what TripTik does, but better. Instead of simply showing you local gas prices, SmartFuel actually pays attention to your route, showing you the best prices that are within a variation from your route that you choose to set. It also, because of an agreement to acquire credit card transaction data, avoids the problems that are inherent to crowdsourced applications when it comes to accuracy.

Need a closer look? I had a chance to sit down with George Sibble from Iridium to talk about SmartFuel and the different ways in which it can help you stretch a dollar:

So SmartFuel will cost you $1.99. However, you?re going to be able to use it for 60 days to see how well it works. Chances are, you?re going to more than cover the cost of the application in your first fill-up. Then, after the 60 days, SmartFuel will only run you $1 per month in order to continue to use its service. It?s locked up in Apple?s approval process right now, but will be available for download very soon and we?ll let you know as soon as it is.

From what we?ve seen, there?s nothing else in the App Store that does what SmartFuel does, and does it equally as well. In talking to Sibble about SmartFuel, he validates its use like this:

We give relevant andcontextualized information since we look along your route instead of in a radius around you, making the decision process much simpler. We also track savings over time and present the selection of stations with savings amounts rather than just prices.

SmartFuel is simple to use and is so streamlined that it takes only two clicks and 10 seconds to show you the cheapest stations along your route.

From what we?ve seen, there?s nothing else in the App Store that does what SmartFuel does and does it nearly as well. Keep an eye on the App Store, as SmartFuel will be released in the coming week. Of course, we?ll let you know via @TNWApps on Twitter the moment that it hits.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/11/29/smartfuel-location-aware-gas-pricing-on-your-route/

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After Thwarted Attack, Question Is ?Why Portland??

But on Sunday, two days after federal law enforcement officials arrested Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, and accused him of plotting to bomb the square during a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, it was more subdued.

Workers were preparing the brick-covered plaza for the 15th annual Holiday Ale Festival that starts on Wednesday. Private security officers patrolled the area. And visitors were still puzzled by the news of the plot.

?Who would want to bomb here?? said Naoki Hirai, a 29-year-old from Japan who is a graduate student at Portland State University. Betty Behrens, a tourist from Seattle, said, ?I was astounded.?

In response to the thwarted plot, Mayor Sam Adams has floated the idea of cooperating more fully with federal law enforcement agencies. In 2005, the Portland City Council passed an ordinance that put conditions on the city?s continued participation in the F.B.I. Joint Terrorism Task Force out of concern for the civil liberties of residents.

Now Mr. Adams said he was prepared to reconsider his opposition. ?It?s been five years since our last policy review,? he said.

City officials said they were also concerned about the safety of Portland?s Muslim population. The police authorized additional patrols around Muslim community centers, said Sgt. Peter Simpson, a police spokesman.

At a news conference outside City Hall attended by the mayor and Muslim leaders, Kayse Jama, executive director of Portland?s Center for Intercultural Organizing, condemned the bombing attempt. ?We left Somalia because of war,? Mr. Jama said, ?and we would like to live in peace.?

Mr. Mohamud is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday morning. ?Eventually there will be due process,? said Amanda Fritz, a city commissioner. ?In the meantime, we need to make sure innocent people aren?t blamed or victimized.?

Until this weekend, Portland?s biggest concern about Pioneer Courthouse Square was the presence of assertive panhandlers and homeless people. The Portland Business Alliance pressed for city rules that would clear sidewalks of perceived nuisances in the shopping district.

In May, after months of public outreach on the thorny topic, city leaders approved what they called a compromise on sidewalk use, restricting sitting within certain zones.

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Blog - Poker n' Face

Massachusetts Antismoking Plan Gets Attention

BOSTON — When Massachusetts began offering virtually free treatments to help poor residents of the state stop smoking in 2006, proponents hoped the new Medicaid program would someday reap benefits.

Skip to next paragraph

Federal lawmakers are pushing for similar Medicaid coverage.

Gretchen Pohl, center, works on smoking issues with Medicaid recipients in New Bedford, Mass.

But state officials never expected it would happen so soon.

New state data show a steep drop in the smoking rate among poor people. When the program started, about 38 percent of poor Massachusetts residents smoked. By 2008, the smoking rate for poor residents had dropped to about 28 percent, a decrease of about 30,000 people in two and a half years, or one in six smokers, said Lois Keithly, director of the state?s Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program.

There are also indications that the drop has lowered rates of hospitalization for heart attacks and emergency room visits for asthma attacks, she said.

The data has not yet been peer-reviewed. But the numbers have already grabbed national attention, with several United States senators and antismoking advocates using the data to push for similar new Medicaid coverage for tobacco addiction in the national health care legislation.

Senators Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, have introduced an amendment that would do so, and the Senate could vote on it by the weekend.

If the amendment fails, Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, said he would try another avenue: seeking an expansion through a conference committee that will ultimately reconcile the House and Senate bills.

?We should be able to find an opening,? Mr. Harkin said in an interview. ?This is one demonstrable way we can actually bend the cost curve and keep people healthy.?

The Massachusetts program, part of the state?s landmark universal health care law, covers almost the entire cost of counseling and prescription drugs for Medicaid enrollees trying to quit smoking. Most states do not provide nearly as much help for poor smokers.

The rate of smoking among Medicaid patients had not changed in a decade before the program was introduced. It was much higher than the rate in the general population, which stands at about 18 percent.

Under the current Senate health care bill, only pregnant women on Medicaid would qualify for comprehensive smoking-cessation treatment, including drugs and counseling.

The bill passed by the House last month would provide broader Medicaid coverage of such treatment, and antismoking groups are lobbying the Senate to adopt that approach.

Under the Massachusetts program, Medicaid recipients from age 18 to 64 are eligible for 180 days of antismoking drugs, including Chantix and bupropion, and 16 counseling sessions per year. Co-payments do not exceed $3, Ms. Keithly said. The state spent $11 million on the program in its first two years, she said.

Insurance plans for higher-income residents provide less coverage for smoking-cessation treatment, Ms. Keithly said, or none at all.

?This is really the gold standard,? she said.

Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, said the main finding — a significant drop in the smoking rate of Medicaid recipients — was ?very compelling.?

State researchers also looked at the smoking rate for uninsured residents, who also tend to be poor, over the same period and found it did not change.

?That?s something you need to see,? Dr. Siegel said, ?because if they had just found that the rate among Medicaid recipients dropped, it might be coincidental or dropping among everyone.?

The researchers found that smokers who took advantage of the cessation program had much lower rates of hospitalization for heart attacks and emergency room visits for asthma attacks than before starting the treatment.

But Dr. Siegel and other researchers said those findings were not as persuasive because the state had not used a control group.

?It?s intriguing but still quite preliminary,? said Dr. Nancy A. Rigotti, director of the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Still, Dr. Rigotti said, Congress should take the Massachusetts data seriously as it debates health care reform.

She said that pregnant women — the only Medicaid recipients who would receive broad smoking-cessation benefits under the Senate plan — are often advised to avoid stop-smoking drugs.

Senator Harkin said that even though the Congressional Budget Office has predicted that covering smoking-cessation treatment for pregnant women alone would save $100 million in health care costs over 10 years, concern about upfront costs has made many senators reluctant to expand the benefits to all Medicaid recipients.

?It?s very frustrating,? he said.

According to the American Lung Association, Massachusetts is among only six states that offer extensive stop-smoking benefits for Medicaid recipients. The others are Indiana, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

Massachusetts is the only one of those states that has reported a significant drop in the smoking rate for Medicaid patients; several experts said the others might not have promoted their programs as aggressively or kept track of results.

Terry F. Pechacek, associate director for science for the Office on Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, said he had reviewed the Massachusetts data and found the numbers ?shocking? given that smoking rates around the nation have barely budged since 2004.

About 20.6 percent of Americans were smokers in 2008, the C.D.C. reported last month, down from 20.9 percent in 2004.

Smoking-related illnesses cost the Medicaid system more than $22 billion a year, Dr. Pechacek said — about 11 percent of overall Medicaid expenditures.

?The fact is we need to expand it to everyone,? he said of the type of coverage offered in Massachusetts.

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