More Than 100 Bloggers Worldwide Collaborate on e-Book to Benefit Charity

More Than 100 Bloggers Worldwide Collaborate on e-Book to Benefit Charity

DES MOINES, Iowa, July 16 /PRNewswire/ --

In what may be a first-of-its- kind online collaboration, 103 marketing professionals have joined together to write The Age of Conversation, a book being released today. The book is available in a downloadable e-version and in hardcover and softcover. All proceeds will be donated to Variety, the international children's charity.The book has an unusual story behind it, involving online connections between people around the world who have never met each other.

Drew McLellan, who heads McLellan Marketing Group, an advertising agency here, has been writing a blog online since last September. His blog, http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/ is among the 25 most-read marketing blogs. McLellan's partner in this adventure is another marketing blogger in the top 25, Gavin Heaton, Interactive Director at marketing agency Creata, in Sidney, Australia. Heaton blogs at http://www.servantofchaos.com/.

In March, McLellan wrote about Wharton University's effort to create a collaborative book and Heaton suggested online that they get a few bloggers to try it."Three e-mails later, we had named the book and the charity. It just fell into place," McLellan said. "The Age of Conversation was the perfect topic. The marketing industry is abuzz about how the citizen marketers are changing the landscape. This book captures that new phenomenon."McLellan and Heaton, through their blogs, invited other marketing professionals to commit to writing essays about conversation. They set what they thought would be an impossible goal -- 100 bloggers. Within seven days they had commitments from 103."What began as a comment online has grown into a major collaborative effort by bloggers from 24 states and eight other nations," said McLellan."We've been amazed at the variety of approaches that have been taken, and with hardly any duplication or overlap," said Heaton. "This book explores the art of conversation and how it is changing the face of marketing from virtually every angle possible.

"The Age of Conversation is available in all three formats. Prices are: e-book: $9.99 ($7.99 going to charity)paperback book: $16.95 ($8.10 to charity)hardback book: $29.99 ($8.55 to charity)

Orders are being taken online at http://stores.lulu.com/ageofconversation. Source: McLellan Marketing Group CONTACT: David Reich of Reich Communications, +1-212 573-6000,david@reichcommunications.com, for McLellan Marketing GroupWeb site: http://stores.lulu.com/ageofconversation http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/ http://www.servantofchaos.com/

Washington Post Report on "Ransoms Fuel Surge in Nigeria Kidnapping"

The Washington Post Thursday report on "Ransoms Fuel Surge in Nigeria Kidnapping" has raised the critical questions we must ask on the escalation of kidnappings of foreign oil workers and members of their families in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The genesis of the Niger Delta crisis has been addressed in "Niger Delta Kidnappers Plc", that was published on the Nigerian Times International Forum in January, 2007 and also published on Conflict in the Niger Delta.

The notorious ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) of Nigeria and well known retired military officers, active naval officers, army officers, state governors and their accomplices are all implicated in the illegal oil bunkering and kidnappings of foreign oil workers in the Niger Delta. The former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odilli and governor of Delta State, Mr. James Ibori employed the gunmen and so called militants operating in the Niger Delta since 1999 to 2007.The two ex-governors should be arrested and tried for their crimes. And the two key witnesses of the crimes of these governors are the two leaders of the Niger Delta militants, Asari Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) and Ateke Tom, the leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV).

The intense confrontation between the NDPVF and NDV seems to have been
brought about by Asari’s political falling out with the NDPVF’s financial
supporter Peter Odili, governor of Rivers State following the April 2003 local
and state elections. After Asari publicly criticized the election process as
fraudulent, the Odili government withdrew its financial support from the NDPVF
and began to support Tom’s NDV, effectively launching a paramilitary campaign
against the NDPVF.

Wikipedia

The US government and European Union must address the engagement of the ruling party in Nigeria in acts of terrorism in the Gulf of Guinea. Because, the Niger Delta kidnappers are sea pirates and ruthless terrorists using illegal oil bunkering to purchase arms as the terrorists in Afghanistan use their illegal trade in opium and heroin to perpetrate acts of terrorism in the Middle East.

Nigeria: Niger Delta Kidnappers Seize Another Three-Year- Old Toddler in Nigeria

Daring unidentified gunmen kidnapped the 3-year-old son of Eze Francis Amadi, a prominent Igbo town chief in the Niger Delta on Thursday, July 12, 2007.

The kidnappers are on rampage in the Niger Delta and becoming more desperate by the day as even the innocent children of expatriates and rich oil contractors are no longer safe in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. But most people in the western world and mainstream western media don't know that the ruling political party in Nigeria is responsible for the lawlessness and terrorism in the oil rich south of the 8th largest oil producer in the world.

Read the full report.

Kidnapped British-Nigerian Toddler Released!

Kidnapped British-Nigerian Toddler Released!

The BBC reports the good news of the release of the three-year-old British-Nigerian girl Margaret Hill in the Niger Delta. She has been reunited with her parents after being freed by kidnappers who had held her for four days.

Margaret Hill's parents, Mike and Oluchi Hill, said she was in good health but "covered in mosquito bites".

More details.

The parents said no ransom was paid. But the fact is no hostage is ever released gratis in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.

The Niger Delta Kidnappers Plc has many stakeholders and shareholders, including prominent chiefs, politicians and gangsters.

World Exclusive: NEWSWEEK Cover: Black & White on Barack Obama

In the July 16 Newsweek cover "Black & White" (on newsstands Monday, July 9), Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe and Correspondent Daren Briscoe report on whether Illinois Senator Barack Obama, who wants to be the nation's first black president, can appeal to both black and white, while still being true to himself. Obama faces many challenges in what he calls his "improbable candidacy," but few are as complex or emotional as the politics of race.

World Exclusive: NEWSWEEK Cover: Black & White on Barack Obama