Latest blog posts by francesco

Building Local Talent for Sustainable Education and Business Development - Christopher Fabian and Roya Mahboob

23 05 2013 21:18:41 +0000

When you are the smartest guy in the room, you are in the wrong room! Today, I was in the right room! This morning, Roya Mahboob and I met with Christoper Fabian, the adviser on innovation to the Executive Director at UNICEF.

Both Roya and Chris were named in the Time 100 Most Influential Pioneers list. Time defined Chris Fabian and his colleague Erika Kochi, development geeks. Jack Dorsey, Twitter's Co-Founder, wrote in his Time 100 review: “Erica and Chris are using technology and accessible, intuitive interfaces to quickly transform the face of humanitarian aid and international development. The world will benefit from their continued efforts.”

The meeting touched several angles of Chris Fabian and Roya Mahboob's work. We found great parallels for the concepts of Innovation Labs and Building Local Talent. Chris handed us a hard copy of the Innovation Labs, A Do-It-Yourself Guide, and we agreed to touch base later in June.

When I got back to my office, I had a series of calls associated with the Examer's expansion in South America with Brazil, a call for a Container Leasing project to support Women's Annex with San Francisco, and a call about data and demographics management with Colorado. I hung up the phone and started browsing the notes of the meeting with Chris Fabian, and two things kept popping in my mind:

I was in a room with two very smart and inspirational people. It's intimidating to write this blog...
Build Local Talent, or even better #buildlocaltalent. I love this ash tag!

The very first line of the guide (page 2) says: “Innovation Labs create global interoperability.”

On page 10, there is an interesting question: Who are the partners of a Lab? and a nice graphic with an interesting answer:

The concepts of Global Interoperability and Collaborative Space connect to the one that brought Afghanistan's network of Internet classrooms or labs: 8 classrooms in the high schools of Herat, West Afghanistan, one Women's Center in Herat, and one in Kabul. This is a network of 35,000 students browsing the web through our classrooms and 5,000 female students registered on the Examer Vocational and Educational Software.

One more aspect about this great inspirational meeting was the concept of the Innovation lab as the moderator and point of contact between local educational institutions or groups of people interested in creating solutions. The students and the scholars are empowered to propose the solutions, and design the curriculum and road map. They elevate the conversation, like with our vision to empower the students of Herat to write film treatment and support their vision with a network of high-schools equipped with 3D printing, stop motion filming, film editing, social media, professional blogging, data and demographic management. Fundamental to the concept of Sustainable Education and Business are also the direct relationships with international businesses like Film Annex and other companies interested in Building Local Talent and paying for their valuable work and achievements.

NO POLITICS, JUST INTERNET, and... Building Local Talent.

Judo and Wrestling, an essential part of Mental and Physical Development and Sustainable Education and Business Development

17 05 2013 12:19:54 +0000

A few days ago, I was invited to attend a round table about the Save Olympic Wrestling movement and how to support the idea to bring back Wrestling into the Olympics. The controversial decision of the IOC to possibly eliminate Wrestling from the Summer Olympics is a haunting thought. During the meeting, a few people advocated to elevate Wrestling to a more entertaining and star-studded sport, connect it further to the professional world of MMA and UFC, and manage it with the same basis as professional team sports like the NFL and the NBA.

My position was different. I proposed a serious development of the educational values of Wrestling. My proposal is to arm the coaches and athletes with media tools like blogs, articles, social media and video production that document the importance of Wrestling in the mental and physical development of athletes of all ages, their economic and educational level, and location, in particular in developing countries and less affluent regions.

This conversation brought to my mind the values of Judo and made me discuss them David Sigg, a Swiss world team member and businessman residing in NYC, and training with me on a regular basis at the NYAC . His reply to my first email was very explanatory: “Judo is more than a sport, it's rather a movement. In my hometown's judo club in Switzerland, we have roughly 350 members, out of which 50% are younger than 16. Roughly 100 people quit doing Judo annually and are replaced with new members. The club celebrated its 50 anniversary. This means that we have at least taught 5,000+ people in Judo (plus their families, etc.). In my hometown in Switzerland, we have 35,000 people, meaning at least 15% of the people did Judo personally. That’s a huge impact...”

This morning, I was training with US Judo National Champion Garry St Leger. He showed me a picture of him training with UFC champion Georges St-Pierre:

My eyes connected it to his belt where he holds the name of his coach, Parnel Legros, one of the most inspirational people I have ever met, and a man with an incredible charisma, a voice that can intimidate any fighter, and who changed the life of thousands of children in Brooklyn, NY.

The reality is simple. Georges St-Pierre benefits from the wisdom and dedication of Parnel Legros through the work of Gary St-Leger. Judo is the glue and the point of contact between people from all over the world, in terms of discipline, mental and physical development.

I would not be where I am if it wasn't for Judo and educators like Parnel Legros. Judo shaped my life and shapes the life of thousand of young girls and boys all over the world. To preserve Judo, Wrestling and other form of amateur sports, it's important to tell the story. Tell the stories of coaches like Parnel Legros and what their work has done for young women and men, tell the stories of what Judo has done for the mental and physical development of millions of people, tell the stories of how Judo has shaped their personal and business lives. It's important to document and explain why we must keep sports like Judo and Wrestling in the Olympics. This is not a matter of TV ratings or individual athletes and stars. It's really all about education, and mental and physical development.

The New York Athletic Club is my club. It was founded to sponsor amateur athletes to achieve National and Olympic success. Today, it's important to document those stories from the ground up, as millions of people walked on those mats and faced an opponent of the same size and age. They fought and overcome the fear of measuring themselves with reality. This is also why Film Annex sponsors the Film Annex and NYAC Judo Cup every year, where athletes from all over the world represent their country with respect and pride:

In the last 12 months, I have been deeply involved in Building Schools in Afghanistan, working with Roya Mahboob to create a network of Internet classrooms so that 35,000 students could connect to the World Wide Web. Of those, 5,000 girls use the Examer Vocational and Educational Software. Many people ask me, "Why such a challenge, why enter such an unusual field with so many risks, and possibly, issues?" Maybe it's because when you are a Judo fighter, you know you can face problems with a different attitude and always find that strength, just like the voice of coach Parnel on the side of the mat for Garry St Leger.

It is not a coincidence that one of the most appreciative people about Roya Mahboob's inclusion in Time 100 was my Judo friend Jimmy Vennitti, a man of great integrity, respect and mental strength that appreciated the achievement as a real Judoka.

Film Annex and Examer Scouting for Stories and Film Production Inspiration - Sustainable Education and Business in Central Asia

17 05 2013 11:07:36 +0000

Film Annex is an online film distribution company that has 300,000 registered users. Of those, 40,000 are registered as professionals of the film industry, and 5,000 are girls from Afghanistan registered also on the Examer Vocational and Educational Software.

Eren Gulfidan, Film Annex's Artistic Director, said, “We share our revenues with independent filmmakers and we distributed over 1.5 million dollars in revenues. Why not including the students of developing countries like Afghanistan?” She also added, “Why not tell stories from the prospective of the students?” I suggest you follow Eren on her Twitter account: https://twitter.com/mumfus.

Semeyon Maltzev and Alexey Levchenko, Film Annex's cinematographers and film editors, suggested inviting film celebrities like Matthew Modine and Abel Ferrara to produce films in Afghanistan, starting from a great script.

Photo by Angela Shah.

This morning, during my subway ride to my Judo training with Gary St Leger, I got inspired to combine the two concepts and structure this:

The first step is to invite Film Annex's best filmmakers featured on Eren's Picks to write a few pages on how they produce their Film Treatments. Wikipedia mentions the following: "A film treatment (or treatment) is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play. It is generally longer and more detailed than an outline (or one-page synopsis), and it may include details of directorial style that an outline omits. Treatments read like a short story, except they are told in the present tense and describe events as they happen."

Then we would take the filmmakers' advice and publish them on the Examer, share them with the students and invite them to create their own treatments. We would ask the teachers in Afghanistan to rate the best written treatments in terms of grammar, and from those, we would select the best and share them with Eren's Picks' filmmakers so that they can vote for their favorite story. We would offer the production of the story to the independent filmmakers and also share with film celebrities like Matthew Modine, Abel Ferrara or Amir Khan.

The young student will be rewarded with a small scholarship. They would be part of the production team and would also benefit from a percentage of the revenues generated by the advertising and sales of the film.

The movie could be produced in Afghanistan and/or other countries.

Film Annex has the human and financial resources to pick the brains of thousands of young Afghan women and students from many other countries in the world. And as Spiderman says, “With power comes responsibility."

I am looking forward to Eren Gulfidan's and Fereshteh Forough's, Film Annex liaison to Central and South Asia, feedback on this project and the parameters proposed by Eren's Picks' filmmakers.

Sustainable Philanthropy, Education and Business Inspired by Roya Mahboob, Biz Stone and Fred Wilson

16 05 2013 12:00:17 +0000

Fred Wilson is one of the best Venture Capitalist in NYC.

He is a very busy and successful man who writes blogs every couple of days, like for example: "A Day Late and a Dollar Short." He is also very active on social media: his Twitter.

Fred Wilson can be an inspiration for all of us that want to make a difference in our business and empower children in Afghanistan and other developing countries. Social media can fuel sustainable education, vocation and business.

For some people, Twitter is a waste of time when used in a generic and random way. But when tweets are focused on specific topics, people and organization, it really makes a difference.

Usually, my hashtags are:
#SustainablePhilanthropy
#SustainableEducation
#SustainableBusiness

Usually, the people and organizations that inspire me are:
@royamahboob
@targetthinking
@womensannex

Please think of what are your tags, and your keywords in your blogs, and make this happen.

We have 5,000 girls in Afghanistan that are already registered on the Examer Educational and Vocational Software. They deserve the opportunity to learn social media. It's free, and if it works for Fred Wilson, it can work for those girls in high school who are getting ready to enter the competitive world of digital media.

We teach them what the tools are. They inspire us with new ideas and frontiers, just like Roya Mahboob, Elaha Mahboob and Fereshteh Forough have done for me in the last 12 months.

In the next few weeks, this blog will be translated in Farsi, Dari, Uzbek, Arabic, Urdu, Bangla, Tamil and Azerbaijani. Fred Wilson, his expertise and social media will possibly change the life of a few or many students in those countries. Today, he will get no financial benefit out of this, but one day, his VC will finance one of those incredible new companies from Central Asia, and he will find out that his tweets really made a difference in someone's life. I am sure this will give him a smile beyond the money made in the deal.

Biz Stone, co-Founder of Twitter, gave us an incredible tool. Let's make sure we use it for the right reasons and make a difference.

Roya Mahboob and Biz Stone.

Elaha Mahboob and Women's Annex invented and developed The Examer Educational and Vocational Software. With it, we teach children social media, including how to use Twitter, and what Biz Stone came up with.

No Politics, Just Internet.

Save Olympic Wrestling With Social and Digital Media - NYAC Round Table

13 05 2013 16:15:40 +0000

Tonight, a special dinner and round table was held at the New York Athletic Club. This dinner was organized by Mario Mercado, Wrestler, WSFO Production Executive, Director of Media Distribution, and Dr. Hamid Kermanshah, wrestler, coach and entrepreneur.

Fereshteh Forough, Film Annex's Liaison to Central and South Asia, Thomas Courtney, Wrestler and President of Models WebTV, and I, attended the dinner. The goal was to define a strategy on how to Save Olympic Wrestling #SOW.

Here is the list of the guests:

Don Sperling, EVP, NY Giants @giants
Cary Glotzer, CEO, Tupelo-Honey
Peter Murray, former CMO, NFL
Ken Aagaard, EVP, CBS Sports @cbssportsnet
Scott Woodward, former CMO, Movado
Michael Wiesman, former President, NBC Sports @nbcsports
Brendan Monaghan, Assoc Publisher, GQ magazine
Jake Herbert, member of the US Olympic wrestling team @jakeherbert84
Dan Gable @dannygable
General Secretaries of National Federations of Russia, Iran
Rich Bender, Director, USA Wrestling
FILA Bureau members: Jim Scherr, Stan Dzezich @Fila_official
Mario Mercado @mariojrmercado
Dr. Hamid Kermansh
Jon Tush, President, NYAC wrestling club
Dave Foxen, Chairman, NYAC wrestling committee
Thomas Courtney @ModelsWebtv

Social media and target thinking can be a great contribution to the conversation and tool to broaden the Olympic wrestling fans and supporters base outside of the circle of those who practice the sport. I also see that FILA's Twitter account has only 2,252 followers and 283 tweets, and a very limited amount of images. This is a clear message of the lack of presence on digital media.

Wrestling is an essential part of education and millions of people world wide practiced or knew someone who practiced wrestling. Its roots are deep in the history of the Olympics and it is one of the best points of contact between three areas of the world: North America, the Middle East and Asia, with leading countries like the USA, Iran and Russia.

I expressed my thoughts of the role of Wrestling in my message to Jacque Rogge on February 13^th.

from the meeting a few things arise:

Its important to tell the story of each Coach and Athlete, though blogs, articles, videos and other forms of Social Media; Film Annex has 40,000 registered filmmakers and can help on this.
Its important to get in touch with local, national and international Journalists and educate them to the values of wrestling, even beyond the results, its sense of discipline, sacrifice and diversity acceptance; with 177 countries practicing the sport; Film Annex has 4,000 registered writers and can help on this.
Its important to apply the basics of Target Thinking to establish local leadership, and apply the rule of a "Big Fish in a Small Pond" where the ponds are the local communities and the big fishes are the coaches and athletes making a difference and becoming role models to the entire community. Target Thinking is one of Film Annex Capital Partners initiatives and services and can help on this strategy.

Tonight we had an important opportunity to make a difference. Lets broaden the spectrum and bring wrestling back into the Olympics.

Afghanistan and Central Asia Advertising Network for Sustainable Business and Education by Women in Technology

12 05 2013 10:03:33 +0000

Please visit the 2013 Time 100 page dedicated to Roya Mahboob. You will see two Citibank advertisements. One is 728x90 and the other one is a 300x250 display banner:

The advertising of companies like Citibank allows TIME Magazine to exist, operate, share ideas, educate. This is a sustainable way to distribute news. Today, thanks to the contemporary Ad-Network technologies like Real Time Bidding and Revenue Sharing, the same concept can apply to individual writers and readers, including young women and men from developing countries like Afghanistan.

In the last few weeks, we have been working on the creation of an Ad-Network and Publisher platform focused on the cultural, geographic and demographic needs of Central and South Asia. The Ad-Network is managed by the Afghan women of Women's Annex, and its revenues benefit the growth of sustainable business and education in the region, starting from initiatives like The Afghan Development Project and the Examer Vocational and Educational Software. We are developing this project with the Advertising representatives of consumer products present in the region, and we are looking to grow their base of advertisers and consumers.

Advertising acts as the fuel to development and education in Central and South Asia. It empowers women to work from their homes or schools, while achieving financial independence within their local cultural traditions. The same advertising revenues that fuel the growth of companies like TIME and Film Annex will benefit female social and digital media experts from Afghanistan.

This is how it all started:

This also allows us to put Afghan young women and men on the digital map of the World Wide Web, define them with specific demographic studies, and develop tailored digital applications and language navigation. We are dealing with payment systems like Mobile Payment Technologies and the possible introduction of online bank accounts and savings.

"All starts from Herat, Afghanistan".... This is the new frontier for Advertising and Online Social and Digital Media. I call it the New Herat:

NO POLITICS, JUST INTERNET.

Examer - Sustainable Education and Development - Social Enterprise for Women in Technology

28 04 2013 14:05:05 +0000

The Examer Educational Software is a fantastic project conceived by Ms. Elaha Mahboob and developed in collaboration with Roya Mahboob, Fereshteh Forough and the Citadel of New York software development team in Italy. The Examer Educational Software allows students from developing countries like Afghanistan to have access to a paperless examination system, world wide education and micro scholarships paid with digital technologies like Mobile Payment Systems.

The software implementation is going beyond Afghanistan, we are working to start our operations in the Caribbeans, Africa and Central America; we are exporting Educational Software conceived and developed by Afghan Women. Here below the animation by Dutch filmmaker Tomas Schats explains the basics of the Examer Educational software:

A student in Herat, Afghanistan, on ins Saint Lucia, Caribbeans, can take an exam in Social Media of Digital Film Production designed by educators and experts based in the USA or Europe, and receive a micro scholarship for his or her performance. The best students are also hired to work as a Digital and Social Media Manager for the companies that support the program.

The Examer Educational Software has three purposes:

Educate the students and reward them with scholarships so that they and their families are further motivated to continue their studies.
Link the students to the world of private enterprise and business, so that even before graduation, they can start direct relationships in the world of business.
Source the best world wide educators and shape their wisdom and knowledge to the needs and circumstances of the students located in developing countries.

Let me make an example:

Captain Edward Zellem is an authority in Afghan Dari Sayings and Proverbs. He is fluent in Dari and was educated in the USA. Through the Examer Educational Software, he shaped his wisdom and knowledge to the needs of the students so that we can educate them, link them to the world of social media, and introduce them directly to the world of business and private enterprise. Captain Edward Zellem benefits from the incredible opportunity to educate the new generation of upcoming Central Asian, Afghan leaders and business people through his direct relationship with the students. The students benefit from the opportunity to be educated by Captain Zellem and his incredible experience and knowledge. Third-party companies like Film Annex benefit from the opportunity to work with both Captain Zellem and the best students in Central Asia. The students exceed expectations and have an incredible drive to improve their education and the world surrounding them. This is the seed to Social Enterprise for Women in Technology.

Let me repeat this again:

The Examer Educational Software allows us to source the BEST EDUCATORS and put them in direct contact with the BEST STUDENTS and BEST EMPLOYERS and CLIENTS. This is a fundamental key to success.

This is why we are introducing the Examer Educational Software to thought leaders and inviting them to shape educational curriculum to pick the brains and educate female and male students in Afghanistan and other developing countries. The project is so successful that we are already negotiating to expand the implementation of the Examer Educational Software in countries outside of Central and South Asia, starting from the Caribbeans and Africa.

Another key to our success is the fact that our motto has been from the very beginning: NO POLITICS, JUST INTERNET and EDUCATION!

It's not a coincidence that Roya Mahboob was listed in the TIME 100 most influential people as an entrepreneur, and not as a political activist. Roya Mahboob is changing the world through education, digital media and technology. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, shares her thoughts on Roya's work here below:

The Examer is a paperless and online-based educational software. It allows us to distribute the software for free and use the wisdom and knowledge of thought leaders and private enterprises by maintaining extremely low costs of development and management. This is how we limited the overhead and management costs of our operation to a very small 5%. The real investment is in the mind and brain of the students logged into the Examer Educational System and the world of digital media. The return on investment is the work and development of the young students of Afghanistan and other developing countries, and the new open markets and business opportunities generated by their ideas and work. This is sustainable education and development.

Here are some numbers:

8 schools in Herat, Afghanistan, 35,000 students on the World Wide Web and 5,000 registered female students working on the Examer. Two Women's Annex Center serving the women of Herat (500,000 citizens) and Kabul (estimated 3 million people). The network will grow to at least 40 schools and more Women's Annex Centers. This is the first step towards a network of development centers inside the high schools and Universities of Afghanistan and other countries in Central Asia. Each school will specialize in specific courses like software development and coding, professional film production and editing, writing and blogging, social media, 3D printing and stop motion productions. This is the first step towards a Digital and Social Media Incubator Network. This will also benefit the further development of the Examer Educational Software, its tools and expertise. We are pushing the envelope to higher targets and expectations.

The Herat Network:

NO POLITICS, JUST INTERNET and EDUCATION.

Time100 Gala and Social Enterprise for Women in Technology by Roya Mahboob

26 04 2013 00:21:17 +0000

The Time 100 Gala was a fantastic event packed with celebrities and pioneers. Today, three days later, I am in DC and able for the first time to gather my thoughts about the incredible development of the last 12 months. I am looking back and thinking how Roya Mahboob became the best example of social enterprise for women in technology for the entire world.

On March 2012, we started working with Roya Mahboob, from Afghanistan. On April 23^rd, 2013, 13 months later, she is celebrated in Time 100 most influential people and included in the list of 21 Pioneers. To top this off, Roya Mahboob's social media following has brought her in the top 8 most liked people of the list. Vice President Joe Biden mentioned her name and story in his speech at the Gala. Roya's introduction was written by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and a great inspiration for social enterprise for women in technology and business.

Three days passed and it's already time to look ahead and define relationships, alliances and collaborations to scale Roya's work to the next level. It's time to be disciplined about who we can collaborate with, expedite the process and BUILD more SCHOOLS with Internet classrooms and Digital Film Studios in AFGHANISTAN and other developing countries.

Each classroom benefits up to 4,000 students and educates them to become writers and filmmakers. They learn how to write professional blogs in their native languages and in English, how to shoot and edit professional videos, and enter the ”professional” world of digital media.

This is the essence of social enterprise for women in technology. It's powered by human resources, financial support and ideas from Afghanistan, Italy and the USA. Today, Roya Mahboob can count on her infrastructure in Afghanistan and her offices in Italy and the USA.

Thanks Roya.

Time 100 Most Influential People and Pioneers in the World, Roya Mahboob, Afghanistan Education and Digital Media Entrepreneur

20 04 2013 09:40:12 +0000

The 2013 Time 100 most influential people in the world list is out! Roya Mahboob is listed in the Pioneers along with other 20 people. Her introduction was written by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, and great inspiration for women's empowerment and technology.

I look back at the end of 2011 when I watched for the first time Roya's interview on NATO TV, and I think of February 2012, when we discussed our collaboration:

I think of the day she mentioned the following magic suggestions:

Build Internet classrooms in Herat, Afghanistan: now we have 8 built in Herat with 35,000 students browsing the World Wide Web, and growing to 40 schools and 160,000 students:

A few weeks later she said:

Implement the Examer Educational System for online education: now we have 5,000 registered users and growing to 40,000. They are taking tests and qualifying for micro scholarships:

A few months later :

Build digital video studios in Herat and Kabul, Afghanistan: now we have one in Herat and one in Kabul. We called them Women's Annex Centers and there, we produce and upload videos directed by young Afghan women.

Sponsor Afghan soccer and sports: now we sponsor the Esteqlal male team, and are in the process to start with the newly founded female team where the star is a 9 year old incredible girl called Mona Amini:

Broaden the languages and countries: now we are operating Film Annex and its content in Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Arabic, Russian and Azerbaijani.

Roya's vision was always and is always beyond my expected limits. Her drive and knowledge is impressive, her intelligence superb.

Photo by Angela Shah.

On the other hand, I can say that she is not the angel that people see in Time's 100 picture. When she gets mad, especially when she has not been eating for a few hours, and when she is not getting what she expects, she can be as dangerous as a 200 lbs Olympic Judo Champion, and few people can stop her temper.

Photo by Alena Soboleva.

The genius behind Roya's vision is the direct link between education and employment, the low cost of implementation, the educational and economic opportunity for women, the respect of cultural traditions and the speed of implementation.

For a basic cost of $20K, we can build an Internet classroom in Afghanistan. For an additional $10K, a video digital studio. The installation and management is mostly handled by Afghan women. The margin and net revenue for Roya's management of the operation is only 5%. Consequently, the costs are very limited and affordable to scale. She is making our life very very very easy.

International sponsors like Film Annex provide the funding and pay for the travel costs from Afghanistan to further facilitate the communication. There is no need for Western representatives to travel to Afghanistan. All is managed by Afghan women who are trusted with small but significant investments, as the purchase of computers and equipment. Every step of the way is documented with videos and blogs. The international press is involved in the viral promotion of the projects. The investment of Film Annex is recaptured by advertising revenues generated by the videos, and by Target Thinking services generated by the articles and blogs written by the Afghan, Central and South Asian writers trained and hired by our schools and Women's Annex centers.

The 5,000 students registered on the Examer are tested on traditional school curriculum but also introduced to social media and digital filmmaking tests and essays. The best students are rewarded with micro-scholarships and paid with mobile money payment systems.

Roya Mahboob conceived, created and now manages an incredible educational system with a direct contact to the sustainable industry of digital and social media. Here, the goal is to create and employ an army of female and male young Afghan, Central and South Asian students, and make them self efficient so they can compete internationally.

Afghanistan, Central and South Asia are destined to be the cradle of social and digital media growth. It is not a coincidence that Roya's page on Time100 has over 4,200 likes:

while musician Jay Z is at 1,300 likes:

and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at 287 likes (she runs Facebook!):

The obvious success of Roya Mahboob in digital and social media is due to her professionalism. It's a clear demonstration of how a bright business vision can change the world, fuel education and business opportunities for all, starting from women from developing countries who are passionate and motivated to make a change.

My job now is to walk along the path she drew and make sure that she can work in serenity. I mentioned a few details on this matter in my previous article: Target Thinking for Afghanistan, Women Empowerment, Education for Girls and Boys.

The Renaissance and Crossroads of Philanthropy - Digital and Social Media - Target Thinking

11 04 2013 17:11:50 +0000

I was born in Florence, Italy, an incredible city also known as the cradle of Renaissance. My grandfather, Edoardo Meriggi, past away in 1977 leaving my grandmother Stamura Giannoni a widow. She spent an incredible amount of time with me and my brother. I think about her every day.

Stamura had an incredible passion for the history of Florence and an admiration for the Medici family. My grandmother spent endless hours talking to us about the Medici family's history and took us to many cultural visits in and outside Florence associated to the Medici family's history and the Italian Renaissance.

Medici Family Coat of Arms

I invite you to spend 10 minutes reading the Wikipedia page of the Medici family, a banking and political family that achieved royalty recognition. It raised to power in the late 14^th century thanks to the work of Cosimo De' Medici. The family was originally from the Tuscan countryside. They established the Medici Bank, and in the 15^th century became the largest European bank, gaining incredible political power in Florence, although they maintained the status of simple citizens instead of Monarchs. In four occasions, the elected Pope was a Medici family member. They dedicated an incredible attention to the sponsorship of art, what we call in Italy Mecenatismo!

The legacy of the Medici family in the world of arts changed the world. It's thanks to their vision that today, millions of people can enjoy the beauty of Italian Renaissance. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel in 1534. The intention of the Medici family wasn't to reach millions of people but to please the eyes of a few powerful friends of the family and the Vatican. Later on, democracy and technology broadened the scope and allowed billions of people to enjoy the beauty of art, including Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel as you can see from this link to an interactive site.

Today, social and digital media allow us to browse the web, scout images, articles and videos, comment, copy, paste, embed and much more. Today, Michelangelo is closer to us than if we had lived in the 15^th century. Digital media, social media and target thinking are the tools to achieve the Renaissance of Philanthropy. Scott Jackson, CEO of Global Impact, mentions that we are at the Crossroads of Philanthropy.

New technology is opening new doors and opportunities for Global Philanthropy. We are at the beginning of Afghanistan, Central and South Asian Renaissance. It's incredibly exciting to witness its development and passion for the future.

Get inspired:

All this brings me back to my mentor and inspiration, Ms. Roya Mahboob, the real essence of a Renaissance woman, a visionary in technology, arts and media. She is the person who opened my eyes about the incredible potential of Afghanistan.

BATMAN's Sustainable Philanthropy for Afghanistan Education and Women Empowerment

06 04 2013 21:34:53 +0000

Yesterday, I went to JFK airport to pick up Roya Mahboob, our partner and CEO of the Afghan Citadel Software Company. She was with her sister Elaha Mahboob, director of the Herat office and supervisor of the 7 schools and one of the Women's Annex locations that we built for a total of 35,000 students and looking to expand to 40 schools and up to 160,000 students by the end of 2014. Are they overachievers or super heroes?

They were flying in from Kabul and the flight was above 30 minutes late, but unfortunately, they were in customs for the next two and half hours. During my wait at JFK, I run into Batman. Yes, Batman, the famous super hero! He was also waiting for super hero friends coming from Afghanistan. They had traveled there to help Afghan Super Hero Sooraya Qadir, also known as Dust.

Considering that Batman and I had a few hours to spend together, we spoke about what we are both doing with Afghanistan. When he heard that we are Building Schools in Afghanistan, he got very interested in the Afghan Development Project and Women's Annex operations. He asked me several questions about the investment and its results. When I told him that for a cost of $20-30,000, we connect up to 4,000 students to the World Wide Web, and that with the Examer Educational Software, we train young Afghan women and men to become social media experts, writers and filmmakers, his eyes doubled in size and got brighter. He bombarded me with questions and we spoke about Target Thinking for Afghanistan, Women Empowerment and Education for Boys and Girls.

Keep in mind that Batman has been around since 1939 and he is now 74 years old. Consequently, the all concept of chasing traditional villains and fighting crime is getting old for him. Batman might enjoy some new motivations.

Batman mentioned his intention to introduce me to Mr. Bruce Wayne, an American billionaire, playboy, industrialist, and philanthropist. For many years, Bruce Wayne has been meticulously investing in his work, image and message to the people of Gotham and the rest of the world,. He understands the power of education and target thinking. Recently, Robin, Batman's faithful partner, has moved on to a more prominent position and he is considering upgrading his image to a thought leader instead of the eternal sidekick. Who wants to be Robin when you can be Batman?

Roya and Elaha arrived. I said bye to Batman and we decided to touch base later next week, possibly for a coffee at our Film Studio in Manhattan. Maybe Film Annex's Liaison to Central and South Asia, Ms. Fereshteh Forough, will interview him. I will keep you posted.

Once I got back to the office, I read a very inspirational article by one of Film Annex's filmmakers, Semyon Maltsev. The article was titled: Becoming BATMAN or why Film Production is so important.

Looking back to my conversation with Batman, I immediately saw that a large part of his investment and success in the last 74 years was his super hero experience. He understood immediately the incredible potential of supporting education and women's empowerment in Afghanistan and other developing countries. In addition, last week was announced that Angelina Jolie, also known as Lara Croft, is sponsoring a school for girls in Afghanistan with the proceeds from her jewelry line.

I am a firm believer that, in life, it's important to embrace philanthropic projects to bring people happiness, and that the help of super heroes like Batman, Robin, Sooraya Qadir and Lara Croft can be of a great help to also bring a smile and further motivation.

With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility - Spider Man

Target Thinking for Afghanistan, Women Empowerment and Education for Boys and Girls

04 04 2013 11:30:57 +0000

Real estate prices fluctuate upon demand. The same concept works for World Wide Web real estate.

Today, the first page of a search for Free Films in English is worth much more than the same search in Dari, Farsi, Tajik or Pashto. Today, in Afghanistan and many other developing countries, the number of people and demand online is limited, but it's growing exponentially, so with it, grows the web real estate value of the property. The exponential growth is the real economic opportunity of Afghanistan and other countries with limited Internet access.

For women, it's important to acquire today this real estate to consolidate immediate revenues and cash-flow, and also establish a valuable real estate value that they can use in the future for even bigger projects.

The short term return on the investment is to be paid to write articles and blogs, and to manage social media and generate revenues with advertising. This is what Film Annex does.
The medium term return is to control the first pages of a search and establish business opportunities associated to each keywords. For example: Free Films = be a thought leader in Free Films Distribution, reviews and advertising. Another example: Sharing on Social Media : be a thought leader in Social Media strategies for government, private and international clients. This is what Target Thinking does.

I don't look at Afghanistan just as a country, but as a conglomerate of 34 million individual users who have different prospective and needs. I look at it as a geo-location with thousands of towns, villages, families and I.P. addresses. Consequently, I can optimize thousands of keywords to establish an early leadership in thousands of topics, opinions and trades. Today, when the number of users online is limited, the cost to produce the content and leadership is very very low. The control can be easily given to women who benefit financially from the revenues of creating the content, uploading it, and in medium term, benefit from the return on the investment in addition to the advertising revenues.

Today, if I write an article on Free Films and Cinema in Herat in Farsi, I am 99% sure to be on the first page. If I do the same for Social Media Services in Herat, it's the same story, etc. Those keywords are very valuable in the Western world because millions of people search for it. It's a matter of months or years until it will be the same for Farsi speakers in Herat, or Pashto speakers in Kabul, etc.

Here below is the staggering growth for Key Telecom parameters of Afghanistan. This growth reflects directly on the value and investment of the web real estate properties that I mentioned above.

Our imminent goal is to target 10,000 valuable keywords in English and each of the native languages of Afghanistan, and extensively of Central and South Asia. We want to arm women with the tools to create and manage the content and with it, control the revenues and future value of the property. By doing so, their financial power will grow along with the growth of Internet and mobile services. In 2011, this growth was respectively 44% and 25%.

To achieve this goal, we must scale our efforts in Afghanistan and the rest of Central and South Asia. The best partners for this are educational institutions starting from the Film Annex schools in Afghanistan, the other 1,000 schools that need Internet access, and the 8 million students that can produce content to support this project.

By doing so, we empower the youth of Afghanistan, both girls and boys, so they learn how to create valuable digital content, blogs, articles and videos. This is the mission of the Examer Education Software created by Citadel of New York in collaboration with the Afghan Citadel and Film Annex. Along with this, we can provide women with the management of the content to generate revenues, manage social media, create additional content, and pay them for their work as writers and filmmakers.

Each Internet classroom is an investment of about $20,000 and allows up to 4,000 students to step into the world of the World Wide Web. Each digital film studio is an additional investment of $10,000 and allows the students and women to generate valuable video content, starting from corporate interviews to mini documentaries and how to videos. It goes along the path of the content available on the Khan Academy.

Thanks to Roya Mahboob's work since March 2012 we built 8 INTERNET classrooms, connected 35,000 students to the World Wide Web, registered 5,000 female students to the Examer educational software, opened two Women's Annex centers for Filmmaking and uploading in Herat and Kabul, selected and trained independent writers and film editors. Check the video below for a 1 minute introduction to our work.

Maura O'Neil, Chief Innovation officer at USAID, says it clearly: “I think that as women, we need to step up and step out”. From my experience at Film Annex, that has about 50 million monthly viewers, the best way to achieve this goal is with Digital Media and Target Thinking.

Online Film Distribution, Building Schools in Afghanistan, Afghanistan Economy, Sustainable Philanthropy

31 03 2013 18:38:23 +0000

Do you know why I like this picture by Angela Shah* so much? Just read below.

In 2006. I started Film Annex with the intent to support independent filmmakers financially and allow them to generate revenues on the Internet. The concept was simple. Only professional film content and no user generated content was allowed on Film Annex. Today, we have 300,000 registered users and of those, 40,000 are film industry professionals.

Eren Gulfidan's role has been vital to Film Annex. She is the Creative Director and with the help of her editorial team, she surveys each film being posted online. Nothing goes live unless Eren Gulfidan or her team reviews the content and allows it to be live. This is a costly and time consuming process but today, we are proud to say that 100% of our content is professional and that NO USER GENERATED content is allowed on Film Annex. Today, Film Annex's library has 36,704 professional films. This allows Film Annex to work with the top Video Ad-Networks in the world and fill 95% of our traffic, while competitors like YouTube can't fill beyond a 10%, as most of their content is user generated and not deemed professional. Another competitor is Vimeo. It allows user generated content and has no plans to share advertising revenues. Consequently, both platforms are irrelevant to independent filmmakers, producers and distributors. YouTube was so desperate to turn the boat around that it sponsored 100 professional channels, and spent millions of dollars for the start up concept. The result was disappointing and it left the filmmakers without concrete revenue stream. Basically, once the lucky filmmakers spent their million dollar, they had no future revenue stream. This is very different from Eren's Picks and the philosophy behind Film Annex's revenue share model.

The Power of Digital Media:

In the beginning of 2012, Film Annex joined forces with Roya Mahboob's Afghan Citadel Software company. In 2013, we started working with Fereshteh Forough as the liaison to Central and South Asia. All this thanks to a NATO video called "A businesswoman in Herat" that I watched at the end of 2011:

Unless there was a video produced by NATO about the story of Roya Mahboob and this video was posted online, I would have never come across Roya Mahboob's work in Afghanistan. I might have never started with her the Afghan Development Project and Women's Annex. Consequently, last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry might have not entertained an interesting conversation with Roya Mahboob about Afghanistan Economy and Development. John Kerry might have not discovered that Roya Mahboob and her team of Afghan women software developers connected 35,000 Afghan students to the World Wide Web, with an extended target of 140,000 students by the end of 2014. All this thanks to the simple access to a story through a digital video file, a 4-minute video posted online.

The Power of Advertising:

My first instinct was to get young Afghans online and teach them how to become film promoters, distributors and producers so that they would not only be the subject of Internet press and videos, but they would also benefit of its revenues. “Afghan students and women can make money online!”

Let me give a recent example of how young women from Central and South Asia today are the subject of the media but have no real benefit and only risks:

Do you remember Malala, the Pakistani girl who became a blogger on the BBC and was shot by the Taliban? Unfortunately, she, just like many other young women online, was never rewarded for her work. The BBC never planned to share its revenues. Consequently, Malala was one isolated case of a girl who took her chances. If the BBC had planned on sharing its revenues, maybe there would be 10,000 Malala's today and it would make the Taliban's life very hard as there would be too many girls to go after. Here, the questions is not why the Taliban are so ruthless, but why the BBC would not support financially women like Malala before they get shot in the head. As you can see below, the BBC displays nice advertising banners on their pages. Chase is advertising the same page where Malala's stories are published:

The Power of Premium Content:

Thanks to the incredible work of Eren Gulfidan, Film Annex has an amazing library of professional content. Of this, over 6,000 titles are public domain and attribution only films that are an incredible value to people who are not filmmakers but are willing to promote and distribute this content on social media. This incredible library of content is the key to our success in Afghanistan and where we based our first step to collaborate with female writers, filmmakers and social media experts. This library is here and available to generate revenues for all, starting from Afghan women and students. We call this the Open Film Library.

The recipe of our concept and current success is simple:

Professional Films = Premium Content
Premium Content = Premium Ad-Networks (Video and Display)
Premium Ad-Networks = Premium Revenues
Premium Revenues = Premium Revenues for Filmmakers and Film Promoters and Distributors

How can we get more Content, Promoters, Distributors and Filmmakers? ... with:

The Power of Afghanistan and other developing countries:

Training Afghan, Central and South Asian women and students to become professional writers, filmmakers and social media experts and promoters!

More Afghan, Central and South Asian women and students = More Film Promoters and Distributors and Filmmakers
More Film Promoters and Distributors = More traffic and more revenues
More Filmmakers = More Professional Films = More Premium Content
More Premium Content = More Premium Ad-Networks
More Premium Ad-Networks = More Premium Revenues

The key to shift gear and outpace the competition (ex. YouTube and Vimeo) is not in the hands of professional filmmakers based in NYC, Los Angeles, London and Rome, but in the hands of women and students from Afghanistan and other developing countries.

Today, Afghan, Central and South Asian women and students work with us to produce more professional content. With more professional content, they consolidate and increase their revenues, and with their revenues, they support their families, buy more computers and more cameras. With more support from their families, they tell more stories, with more computers they write more blogs, with more cameras they produce more professional films and video blogs. There is an army of Malala's ready to conquer the World Wide Web and make a living out of it.

Professional story telling generates professional income. Professional Income allows women and students from developing countries to have a future that goes beyond the borders of their countries. I can't care less about citizenship and geo-location. I find the concept of citizenship obsolete and only a hurdle to development! I care about good story telling and professional editing, so that once an Afghan contributor gets on our platform, she can make more money than someone based in NYC or Los Angeles. Why more money? Simply because her stories from Afghanistan are MORE INTERESTING, MORE INTRIGUING, MORE REAL, MORE AND MORE AND MORE of everything.

This is Good Business and Sustainable Philanthropy.

Spend a minute watching this video below and you will be inspired:

Those are the three keywords I work for:

Building Schools in Afghanistan:

Afghanistan Economy:

Sustainable Philanthropy:

Want to help?

Mentor an Afghan woman or a student to improve their writing, filmmaking and social media skills! You can do it by email and Skype. That might be more important than watching a movie on HBO.

NO POLITICS, JUST INTERNET.

*Angela Shah is a freelance journalist based in Dubai. She has written for The New York Times, TIME magazine, Newsweek and Institutional Investor magazine, among other publications. Angela is the author of "In Afghanistan, Roya Mahboob Connects Girls With Computers".

Secretary of State John Kerry and Roya Mahboob Discuss Afghanistan Economy, Education and Social Media Development

28 03 2013 23:01:14 +0000

Last week, Roya Mahboob was in Dubai celebrating the Persian New Year. At the same time, I was travelling to D.C. with Fereshteh Forough, Film Annex's liaison to Central and South Asia, and Semyon Maltzev and Alexey Levchenko, Film Annex's filmmakers and editors, to attend the annual dinner of The American University of Afghanistan. The next day, we interviewed Maura O'Neil about her work as Innovation Chief Officer at USAID,

and Priya Jaisinghani about her work as Head of Mobile Solutions at USAID:

The two days in D.C., in particular the meetings at USAID, inspired me to further develop the concept of Target Thinking.

Friday, Roya called me to let me know that she was asked to cut her vacation short and come back to Kabul for an important meeting and presentation to be held Tuesday of this week. On Monday, she was advised it was a meeting with John Kerry, US Secretary of State. When I heard that, I thought: "Kerry is a lucky man!" and saw 12 months of work with Roya fly by in my mind. One thing looping in front of my eyes was the video of “Building Schools in Afghanistan,” a simple 60-second video that summarizes our work of 12 months. My advice was simply to show him that video as it would talk for itself. A few hours later, she was in a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

When I look at the picture of Kerry talking to Roya, I hope he understands the great opportunity he was given. John Kerry, along with many other Americans and Europeans, needs Roya Mahboob, her knowledge, skills and network of young Afghan women writers, software developers and social media experts, to move his agenda forward. Roya discussed with John Kerry about Afghanistan economy, education, women's empowerment through social media development, the Afghan Development Project and Women's Annex. Roya resembles Kerry's solution.

After her meeting with John Kerry followed an interview with Voice of America and a list of journalists that I will share when the articles are published. Here is a quote from Roya Mahboob:

"The IT and social media give this power to women to be independent and have confidence to share their ideas because in social networks no one tells them 'Why are you outside the home?' 'Why are you talking with the men?' because no one knows them."

NO POLITICS, JUST ROYA.

USAID IDEA's with Education, Target Thinking and Private Enterprises in Afghanistan

25 03 2013 16:00:10 +0000

Based on my latest article on our visit to USAID from last week called "USAID Target Thinking, Economy Development, Humanitarian Assistance in Afghanistan and beyond," I decided to publish a separate set of considerations focused on the business prospective and what would be the result of linking USAID's work and IDEA's to Education, Target Thinking and the work of private and for profit enterprises in Afghanistan.

From Film Annex's point of view, the Afghan Development Project built 8 Internet classrooms in Herat and 2 Women's Annex Centers for Social Media and Filmmaking in Herat and Kabul. It has 35,000 students connected to the World Wide Web with a target of 160,000 by 2014. USAID's content and guidance would be very valuable within the Examer Educational Software and Curriculum and could be easily applied with Target Thinking.

Target Thinking leads to Target Education and is easily quantifiable, allowing many other companies operating in Social Media and Advertising to join forces with Film Annex. For example, Film Annex Ad-Networks represent a growing on-line advertising industry eager to expand its services and reach to Central and South Asia. The 35,000 students mentioned above are an incredible asset to Film Annex and other Ad and Film Networks.

USAID has the IDEAs and Finances. The Online Social Media and Advertising Industries have the tools and Finances. Afghanistan has the human resources and its own IDEAs. Combining those factors can easily employ the Afghan youth and empower women and girls towards a brighter and independent future. This also empowers for-profit companies like Film Annex and other film and advertising networks to prosper their business and grow their sales.

10 years ago, Afghanistan had no cell phones. Today, it has 18 million cell phones!

10 years ago, Afghanistan had only one TV station. Today, it has 78 TV stations!

10 years ago, Afghanistan had a few thousands students in school, only boys. Today, it has 8 million students and of those, 38% are girls!

There is no developed country that can offer this growth and opportunity!

Afghanistan and the rest of Central and South Asia are a great business opportunity, especially if empowered by the great IDEAs of USAID.

NO POLITICS - JUST INTERNET.

USAID, Target Thinking, Economic Development, Humanitarian Assistance in Afghanistan and Beyond

25 03 2013 12:47:22 +0000

Target Thinking is very addictive!

Last week, we visited USAID to film two important and inspirational interviews. The first was with Ms. Maura O'Neil, Chief Innovation Officer, and the second with Ms. Priya Jaisinghani, Director of Mobile Solutions. During both interviews, I kept seeing important references to Target Concepts that linked back to the vision of Target Thinking and Target Marketing. Film Annex's editing team is working on the interviews to post them live and broadcast them to Film Annex's 50 million monthly viewers, especially the 5 million interested and involved in the Afghan Development Project and Women's Annex platform.

Let me explain what USAID is first of all: United States Agency for International Development.

The keyword here is “international development.” Their motto is “from the American people.” Taking in consideration USAID's broad reach and range of activities, there is a potential to identify a very large number of important long tail keywords like:

“civilian foreign aid administration”

“foreign policy guidance of the Secretary of State”

“economic, development and humanitarian assistance”

During our visit to the offices of Priya Jaisinghani, I saw a very broad use of keywords associated to their work for Mobile Solutions, in particular a board with a list of possibly 300 different terms associated to very specific projects and IDEAS. Did I just say IDEAs? Then, check out the IDEA department at USAid, Innovation and Development Alliances (IDEA).

From there, you can enter the World of Target Thinking and Long Tail Keywords:

For example, here are some meaningful keywords on the first page:

Innovation

Partnership

Impact

Development

Cost-efficiency

Sustainably

Development impact

High-impact development

The above keywords are short tail keywords and very generic, so it would be very hard to rank high on a search of those keywords. If targeted correctly, they would assure immediate success. For example, instead of “Development Impact,” we should explore the concept of “not incremental development impact.” We call this Target Thinking!

With this same Target Thinking Strategy, we defined our goal of “Building Schools in Afghanistan,” instead of a more generic term “Afghanistan Education.” This allowed Film Annex to establish its leadership in a relative short time and position 8 videos out of 10 on the first page of a video search, and one or two results on the generic Google search.

Now, go back to the IDEA website. Click on the links to:

- Idea Divisions

- Development Innovation Ventures

and enjoy the incredible range of Target Ideas, Keywords and Marketing potential of this organization.

Scroll down and look at the Mobile Solutions page. From there, open a further targeted range of ideas, keywords and marketing potential for this specific department and organization. This brings back to the 300 keywords board at the USAID office.

What strikes me is the importance of the subjects, and the incredible variety of content and concepts to target. The only thing that is missing is the online real-estate associated to each target. In fact, the three hundred keywords I am referring to could and “should” be translated in the local languages of the beneficiaries of those programs. This would assure the first page of results and an incredible online real-estate for each one of the keywords and their combinations in a variety of locations including Afghanistan and the rest of Central and South Asia.

Go online and Google “sharing on social media” in Farsi and see who is in the first page of this search:

Ideally, I would like to go back to that magic board with Priya Jaisinghani and her team of experts. We would define the first 5 keywords, develop a full Target Thinking and Marketing strategy and start positioning USAID as a though leader on the subjects listed, along with acquiring valuable Internet real-estate in English, Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Bangla, and any other language whose citizens can benefit from USAID's work and IDEA's.

From my prospective, especially after listening to Maura O'Neil's and Priya Jaisinghani's conversations and interviews with Fereshteh Forough, USAID and its team of experts are the most valuable organization to provide development and eliminate forms of terror and discrimination. Military action has an incredible cost in lives and resources. Great IDEA's provide peaceful solutions and are sustainable as long as beneficiaries are educated to access them.

Now start having some fun and Google: Building Schools in Afghanistan in Farsi.

or in Urdu, we are above Wikipedia:

Locate Film Annex domain... Shouldn't USAID have that ranking, especially for the magic 300 keywords that matter to innovation?

NO POLITICS - JUST INTERNET.

2013 NY Open Judo Cup, Olympic Combat Sport, Entertainment and Education

24 03 2013 14:20:46 +0000

The New York Open Judo competition held on March 3rd at the New York Athletic Club and sponsored by Film Annex was a great success. This year, we were able to invite 6 national teams: France, Germany, Canada, Russia and 2 teams representing the USA. Judo, 柔道 jūdō, which means "gentle way", is a core Olympic combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most relevant aspect is its competitive element. The objective is to throw an opponent:

Immobilize an opponent with his shoulders to the ground for 20 seconds:

Photograph by Deborah Shapiro.

Or force an opponent to submit with a joint arm lock:

Photograph by Deborah Shapiro.

Or a choke:

The 2013 NY Judo Open Cup featured music and an interesting mix of guests including NYAC members, Film Annex clients, partners, filmmakers, actors and models from the international agency Major Models invited by Models Web TV. The event's live commentary was handled by two times US Judo Olympian Taraje Williams-Murray and US Judo World team representative Justin Flores. The cinematography and editing of the film production was handled by Film Annex's film production team, Semyon Maltsev, Judo black belt and avid Judo competitor, and Alexey Levchenko.

Film Annex's contribution was a financial sponsorship along with the supply and definition of significant aspects of the event including:

Music concept and DJ
Tickets and Program Design
Video production and distribution
Beer and refreshments
Branded Banners and Seat Covers
Background for photo and video portraits, Step and Repeat
NYAC Judo Apparel
Trophy, now hosted on the 6^th floor main Gym window case
VIP guests and management

Key contributors to the success to this event were the following people:

Tournament Director and Major Sponsor Dr. Arthur Canario, a NYAC Judo member, National Champion and Master World Champion. Dr. Canario is also an avid art collector and supporter to the performing arts.

Tournament director and Olympic Judo Referee Dr. Mel Applebaum. He coordinated the referees and several aspects of the event, including the introduction of United Water, another major sponsor of the NY Open Judo Cup.

Tournament director John Walla, seasoned Judo competitor and one of the most patient and professional people I have ever worked with. His vision elevated the NY Open Judo to the highest levels of organization and fame.

Sponsor and Judoka Charles Wall, Vice President of United Water and strong supporter of the New York Judo Open Cup. Mr Wall's and United Water's contribution was fundamental to the success of the event and allowed the organization of the NY Open Judo Cup to invite additional international representatives to elevate the level of competition and entertainment.

In addition to the Judo competition, Film Annex coordinated the interviews of several Judo players, coaches, Olympians, and fans in support to my message to IOC President Jacques Rogge on the importance of Wrestling, in particular for developing countries in need of strong role models.

I invite you to watch the 2013 New York Judo Cup Super Final to discover who was the winner of this year’s event. I hope you will appreciate our vision of the sport of Judo, in my opinion, one of the highest expressions of athleticism and entertainment in the world of combat and grappling sports.

Judo is the ultimate example of martial art. The Do' element of the Philosophy combines discipline, respect and drive to win, the essential components for young women and men to achieve and surpass their goals in life, especially for citizens of developing countries where the need of role models is highly necessary and at times missing.

I started practicing Judo in September 1985, in Florence, Italy. When I look at the wall of my office where my four black belt degrees are displayed, I recognize the sport of Judo as my University in life. Much of what I have done would not be possible if it wasn't thanks to the mental and physical strength I have achieved through the sport of Judo. I consider combat sports like Judo and Wrestling essential elements for education and development.

From a business prospective, the sponsorship of a Judo event is part of a Film Annex's Risk Management strategy. I invite you to read more on this matter with Risk Management with Judo and Amateur Sports -Target Marketing and Philanthropy, published on March 6th, 2013.

10,000 fights after September 1985, I am still craving for more.

Dr. Rajiv Shah, Ambassadors Crocker and Jawad, Sustainable Education with The American University of Afghanistan

21 03 2013 00:35:38 +0000

Happy Afghan New Year, 1392!

Today, in addition to celebrate the Afghan New Year, Nowruz, we traveled to Washington DC to attend the annual dinner fundraiser to celebrate The American University of Afghanistan, Women Scholars and The International Center for Afghan Women's Economic Development.

Fereshteh Forough, Film Annex's Liaison to Central and South Asia, Semyon Maltsev and Alexey Levchenko, Film Annex's filmmakers, attended the event with me and run the interviews of leading diplomats, USAid Administrator Rajiv Shah, Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, among others. It was time for me to step back and let them run the event, establish relationships and define the goals. The result was above all expectations and proved the dynamism of our international team.

I spent some time with different diplomats and people involved in the educational system of Afghanistan, in particular the American University of Afghanistan. I shared with them the concept of Sustainable Education and Philanthropy, the value of educating Afghanistan students in the world of social media, digital media and filmmaking. Today, for Film Annex, Afghanistan is an incredible source of opportunities with young Afghan writing articles, producing videos, editing film content and uploading hundreds of films and interviews from public domain libraries. This is thanks to Roya Mahboob's excellent vision and professionalism, and the energy and focus of young Afghan and international contributors like Fereshteh Forough, Alexey Levchenko and Semyon Maltsev.

Tomorrow, we will meet with USAid representatives, starting from Ms. Maura O'Neil, Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Counselor, Ms. Kathleen McGowan, USAid Senior Adviser on Afghanistan, and Ms. Priya Jaisinghiani, USAid Director of Mobile Solution, for a new round of great interviews and inspirational concepts to consolidate Sustainable forms of Education, Social Responsibility and Philanthropy in Afghanistan and the rest of Central and South Asia.

Next week, I will follow up on our conversation with American University of Afghanistan's Director Dr. Michael Smith, with the purpose of opening the doors to a collaboration between his faculty and Film Annex, to financially support writers, journalists and filmmakers interested in collaborating with the Afghan Development Project, Women's Annex, The Annex Press and Film Annex's networks.

Good Night and Good Luck.

Afghanistan Film and Cultural Inspiration by Director and Animator Ignacio Ruiz Alvarez

16 03 2013 09:32:09 +0000

Ignacio Ruiz Alvarez is a film director and animator from Chile. He has been part of Film Annex for quite a long time. His work on the platform has generated nearly $9,000 in revenues with advertising endorsement. This week, Ignacio Ruiz Alvarez uploaded an interesting motivational video dedicated to young women and men who are looking to join the world of filmmaking. Ignacio's message was so compelling and interesting that I coordinated a collaboration between him and Fereshteh Forough, Film Annex liaison to Central and South Asia, for the translation of the video subtitles in Farsi, one the native languages of Iran and Afghanistan. This will allow Afghanistan students, women and men, to understand his message and enter the world of filmmaking, starting from the 35,000 Afghanistan students connected to the Afghan Development Project and the Examer Educational Software.

The power of digital media is incredible. It has no limits and is the engine to a new form of education and economy. Digital media, including articles like this blog that you are reading, inspirational videos like what Ignacio Ruiz Alvarez produced, and the thousands of professional films and videos available on the Film Annex network, is the seed to this new form of development.

The concept of Building Schools in Afghanistan is no longer limited to the traditional concept of brick and wood made schools. It is now connected to the new concept of World Wide Web and digital media presence, growth and financing. The computer screen on which you are reading this article is the door to the world of Education and Economic Development of every person in the world. Film Annex's contribution to this is also to associate the digital media with advertising that benefits the artists, viewers, fans, students, women and men of Afghanistan or other developing countries in need of financial support and motivation. It initiates what I call the Renaissance of Afghanistan or any other developing country. The $9,000 generated in revenues by Ignacio's Web TV allow him to produce more of his educational and entertaining content to take further our mission of education and financial independence for Afghanistan women, men and students.

In the vision of multimedia artist Yazmany Arboleda in his project We Believe in Balloons, each message of hope written by the donors of the balloons on the artist's website is later on translated and located inside each balloon so that, at the end of the day, the citizens of Kabul can pop the balloon and access the message that allows people to connect thoughts and initiatives. This morning, I logged in from my apartment in Manhattan, purchased one balloon and wrote my message that will be translated and delivered to a citizen of Kabul on the day of the event, this coming Spring. This will establish a very symbolic connection between me and another person in Afghanistan. This will motivate this person to follow my example, create further digital content and reach outside of Afghanistan to educate others about the wisdom and history of this incredible country.

Yazmany Arboleda photographed during his Monday Morning installation in Nairobi, Kenya.

This article, once translated in Farsi, Dari, Arabic, Pashto, Urdu, Tamil, Azerbaijani, Russian and many more languages, will cross-educate people of different cultures and language, inspire them to write articles and express their opinions and make them accessible to me so that I can further learn from them. Film Annex's education includes a clear hint on what each young woman and man of developing countries can do to access education and economic independence. This includes advertising revenues from the Film Annex online film platform paid to filmmakers and social media experts for the management and distribution of videos on their personal Web TVs, and The Annex Press' writing fees paid to selected writers for their contribution.

Check some of Ignacio's work on his Film Annex Web TV.

No Politics, Just Internet.

Afghanistan Renaissance, Culture and Education: Multimedia Artist Yazmany Arboleda, We Believe in Balloons

16 03 2013 08:46:55 +0000

Thousands of years of history teach us that art is the vehicle to development. Art is the key factor to world changing events like the Renaissance. What I have done in my life is directly connected to the art and history of my hometown, Florence, Italy, the cradle of Italian Renaissance. Art is the vehicle to Afghanistan Renaissance as it was for Italy and the rest of the world. Can thousands of balloons help this process? Read on...

Yazmany Arboleda photographed during his Monday Morning installation in Nairobi, Kenya.

This week, Film and TV production expert and TV/Film/Video & Multimedia Producer at United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Ariadna Alvarado, introduced me to Colombian American multimedia artist Yazmany Arboleda, the creator of the 10,000 balloons project for Kabul, Afghanistan, following the same concept in Kenya, India and Japan. The initiative is called We Believe in Balloons, and the tag line is “A campaign to share 10,000 pink balloons with the people of Kabul, Afghanistan.” This Spring, one Monday morning, 100 volunteers will handout 10,000 hot pink biodegradable balloons to the people of Kabul. It will change the architectural landscape of the city and make the city and its population part of the multimedia art project, by projecting its architecture and people in the world of contemporary art.

Monday Morning concept, Glassless Glasses Studio.

Yazmany Arboleda's project motivates me and Film Annex to create a direct connection between our community of artists, film fans, writers and business people, and Afghan women and men. Ideally, each person can express their thoughts through articles, blogs and video interviews associated with this project and other forms of art. They can populate the World Wide Web with their vision and educate each other by opening a constructive conversation on arts, human rights, creativity, gender identity and humanity. This is a fundamental part of what I would call Afghanistan Renaissance. Just like balloons will be part of the Kabul architectural landscape, once released in the air, they will become part of a broader World Wide Web of opportunities and inspirations.

Film Annex is an online platform with over 300,000 register users, and of those, 40,000 are professional artists and creators, including 4,742 film directors, 9,782 actors, 2,739 film editors, 1,892 cinematographers, 251 make up artists, 761 photographers, 1,252 musicians and composers, 1,988 sound experts and mixers, 1,577 costume designers and 4,309 writers. Professional and independent artists are the engine of Film Annex with their ideas, creations and digital content.

This week, one more artist influenced me with his ideas and thoughts. His name is Ignacio Ruiz Alvarez and he is a Chilean filmmaker. Check my separate article on his initiative.

Film Annex Strategies: Building Schools in Afghanistan, Women's Empowerment, Writers Earning Money Online

09 03 2013 21:31:53 +0000

In the last 12 months, the business of online film distribution and advertising led us to the creation and funding of the Afghan Development Project. One of the inspirations for this project were the 18 interviews held in Jacksonville, North Carolina, at the end of 2011, where 18 Marines shared their personal experience in Afghanistan, explaining what lay ahead in their life and their entrepreneurial projects.

As part of the Afghan Development Project and its development, we have established the Afghan Business Incubator with nearly 50 interviews of various Thought Leaders and Partners, the online Web TV of Women's Annex with hundreds of professional films and videos managed by Afghan women, the sponsorship of the Esteqlal Soccer team from Kabul, and Citadel of New York, a full service company to provide support to Afghan and international companies interested in operating within and outside of Afghanistan. They are all managed by professional Afghan women like Roya Mahboob.

Last week, Film Annex's liaison to Central and South Asia, Ms. Fereshteh Forough, mentioned in her weekly program, The Afghan Perspective, Marine Luke Deer and his project of a Health and Fitness Gym based on his experience in the Marines.

I decided to get in touch with Luke Deer and see what he is doing now, after his retirement from the Marines. Luke Deer explained that he is back in Albany, working and taking online college courses. He also mentioned that he is interested in getting back into writing for The Annex Press as one of the professional writers of the platform. Luke Deer's question on what are the leading topics of interest for The Annex Press led me to write this article on our current status and interests.

Most of the strategies and projects of Film Annex are actually the result of strategies defined by Film Annex Capital Partners and in particular, the managing partner, Michael Sweeney. With Michael Sweeney, we have defined a series of priorities in the subjects of:

- Film distribution and financing – Film Annex

- Professional and paid online blogging and publications – The Annex Press

- Afghanistan, Central and South Asia education and business development – The Afghan Development Project

Picture courtesy of Angela Shah*

- Free Educational Software development and scholarships – The Examer

- Women empowerment starting from Afghanistan, Central and South Asia – Women's Annex

Other projects are defined by long tail keyword studies including: Military, Peacekeeping, Culinary, Fashion, Sports and Beauty in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The above subjects are developed with 500 long tail keywords that can be used in the titles and bodies of the articles translated in Russian, Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Arabic, Tamil, Bangla, Azerbaijani and Uzbek. They are supported by the work of writers located in the USA, Europe, Afghanistan and other parts of Central and South Asia. A selection of articles is also translated in Russian, Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Arabic, Tamil, Bangla, Azerbaijani and Uzbek to further the reach of Film Annex Capital Partners' strategies.

Each one of the 3,900 registered writers on Film Annex can participate in the conversation and apply to The Annex Press platform to benefit from the Annex Press distribution and financial retribution. But only a few writers are included, based on the quality and the topics of their writing. A particular attention is given to women located in Afghanistan, Azerbaijani, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, or other developing countries.

Each writer is ranked by the Film Annex Buzz Score and rewarded accordingly. The higher the Buzz Score, the higher the payment for their work. The Buzz Score is a reflection of the quality and social media reach of their blogs. Consequently, the best writers with the broader and most influential reach benefit from a higher Buzz Score and higher payment. The same rules apply in the USA and Afghanistan or other developing countries. Consequently, an Afghan or a Pakistani writer can compete with US and European writers and be rewarded the same amounts. If The Buzz Score is 90, the writer gets paid $90, and so on...

We also had the chance to meet and start working with Captain Edward Zellem, editor and publisher of two great books on Afghan Dari Proverbs. The genius of Captain Zellem's work with proverbs is a simple and effective way to connect different cultures and create a common ground for understanding and development. Captain Zellem is also our liaison to personalities like historian and archeologist Nancy Dupree. Please read his latest article, Newtonian Physics, Galileo, Film Annex and Afghan Proverbs to better understand his genius.

Women's Day with Wrestler Leigh Jaynes and Judoka Kyla Harrison, Role Models to Afghanistan Girls

08 03 2013 14:08:12 +0000

March 8^th is International Women's Day, a celebration all over the world in support to women and their role in society. For thousands of years, women had a seldom appearance and a limited role outside of the family circle. In contemporary and evolved societies, women establish educational, business and sports role models with an incredible dynamism and success. March 8^th International Women's Day has a bitter-sweet taste. It's a reminder of the difference and disparity between men and women. This should not be an issue in our time. We must still remind ourselves of the sacrifice of women who deserve freedom but still struggle to reach it. In my country of birth, Italy, it's a tradition to associate this special day to the mimosa flower, a small present handed today to every woman.

Today, I spent time on the phone with female wrestler and possible candidate for the 2015 Olympics, Leigh Jaynes. We spoke about her career and the future of Wrestling now that it's in danger of being excluded from the 2020 Olympics. Ironically, International Women's Day, women's empowerment and #SaveOlympicWrestling share a common path of struggle and uncertainty. The picture of Leigh Jaynes here below tells the story of what is at stake.

Another incredible female athlete that I admire and would love to have as part of Film Annex's team of role models for our students in Afghanistan and other developing countries is Judo Olympic and World Champion Kayla Harrison. She is a NYAC athlete and a point of reference for any male athlete in the world.

Both those female athletes portray the ultimate expression of sports and women's empowerment. They can be a role model and inspiration to young women in Afghanistan and the rest of the world, share their experience and thoughts about victory and defeat, their culinary habits, their training regime, and their world travel experience to face their opponents from other countries. Those advice can open the eyes of millions of young women who face the balance between traditional upbringing and a public role in society.

I am looking forward to the day where we will NOT need to celebrate Women's International Day and the disparities between male and female will be forgotten.

Sustainable Philanthropy and Social Responsibility - Risk Management with Education

06 03 2013 18:21:02 +0000

Film Annex is an online film platform with over 300,000 users, of which 40,000 are professionals from the film industry. Each one of them has by default a Web TV that generates revenues with advertising. Film Annex shares the advertising profits 50/50 with each user, depending on the number of viewers watching the films assigned to each Web TV and the Buzz Score associated to the user. When users are not filmmakers, they can use the 6,000 films available in the Open Film Library with Public Domain and Attribution Only films.

Film Annex also has a professional platform for writers, called The Annex Press, where writers can be hired and paid upon their Buzz Score, up to $100 per article. If the Buzz Score is 70, the writer will get paid $70 per blog.

Be Aware! Each user creates its own microcosm and together, they create a macrocosm that attract 50 million viewers every month!

The quality of the films and blogs is monitored by Film Annex's editorial team so that all content is deemed professional and not offensive, with NO USER GENERATED CONTENT! Because of the professional quality of the Film Annex film library and the screening of Film Annex articles, over 30 leading Ad-Networks feed advertising on the Film Annex platform. Those ads are the same you can watch on NYTimes.com or CNN.com.

Quality Content = Quality Ads = Quality Revenues.

Film Annex is working with Roya Mahboob to educate and train Afghan women about the world of digital media, including social media, professional blogging and filmmaking. In essence, Film Annex, Women's Annex, and Citadel of New York, arm young Afghan women with the tools necessary to create a self sustaining income system. We invest in them and “philanthropy” becomes “community building”. Consequently, it creates a rational, profitable, self sustaining business venture. The return on the investment are articles, blogs and videos, upload services and quality control of media from all over the world.

Philanthropy, and with it the support to education in developing countries, are the base of a Risk Management policy that allows Film Annex to grow without fear.

Read more about this at Target Marketing + Self Sustaining Philanthropy = The Quan @ Citadel of New York by Michael Sweeney.

Closing with a proverb from Captain Edward Zellem's book Zarbul Masalha:

زیبایی در سادگی است

Zebaa-yee dar saadagee ast.

Literal: The beauty is in the simplicity.

"The best things are often the simplest."

Risk Management with Judo and Amateur Sports - Target Marketing and Philanthropy

06 03 2013 17:53:37 +0000

Last Sunday, Film Annex joined forces with the prestigious New York Athletic Club in the sponsorship of the New York Open Judo Cup, a team tournament between USA, Canada, France, Germany and Russia. France got the first place, Germany the second and USA the third. Film Annex's interest in non-professional sports is also in Afghanistan where it is the main sponsor and part owner of Esteqlal soccer team. Film Annex's interest and investment in non-professional sports are part of its Risk Management and Target Marketing Strategies.

Nike invested in Lance Armstrong and exposed its brand to a high risk and exposure. The same applies to any sponsorship of professional sports. Sooner or later, a drug scandal or a celebrity crisis will hit one of the athletes and it will reflect on the image of the sponsor who will be forced to pull its support overnight and negate what was standing for years.

The power of Film Annex are the 300,000 unique, individual, special people that registered to the platform, created and managed a special, unique and niche content. This content attracts 50 million viewers looking for education and entertainment, in the USA, Europe, South America, Central South Asia and more. It is also the strength of the Olympics, where thousands of athletes from all over the world face each other in non-professional sports to achieve small but immense dreams of victory. The financial compensation is not the priority. The priority is the sentiment of victory and the art of the sport. The Olympics lost athletes for doping on several occasions, but the Olympics saved their soul, fans and sponsorships thanks to the support of the thousands of athletes from minor sports, where drugs are not part of the culture. In essence, non-professional sports compensate for the mistakes of professional sports.

Please read a great article by Michael Sweeney, titled "Target Marketing + Self Sustaining Philanthropy = The Quan @ Citadel of New York".

Philanthropy, and with it the support to non-professional sports like Judo and amateur soccer in developing countries, are the base of a Risk Management policy that allows Film Annex to grow without fear.

Closing with a proverb taken from Captain Edward Zellem's book Zarbul Masalha:

یا تخت است، یا تابوت

Yaa takht ast, yaa taaboot.

Literal: Either throne, or coffin.

“It’s all or nothing.”

Film Productions, Wisdom on Digital Media, Solution to Fiscal Cliff, Budget Sequestration, International Financial Markets

24 02 2013 10:53:08 +0000

I have no interest in becoming an expert on US and international finance. But all I can hear in the news are conversations about Fiscal Cliff and Budget Sequestration. The leading industrialized countries are linked by Domino effect economies. If one goes down, the others follow. The financial markets are on stand by waiting for countries like Spain and Italy to figure out their economy problems.

It seems very obvious to me that the concept of “Countries” is outdated. The old concept of borders and nationality is a geographic limitation that influences cultural and economic behaviors. In my case, as a New York resident since 1992 born in Italy and who moved to the USA at 21, I consider myself a citizen of the World Wide Web first and a New Yorker second. My Italian and American citizenships are of use only when I pass through customs. Diversity is the engine of life and passports and nationalities are restrictive and outdated ways to regulate people's lives.

The World Wide Web is an easy way out of this “geographical insanity and restriction.” I love using Google Earth so I can visually travel the world in a few seconds and not worry about visas and passports. I love sharing images, videos and written concepts with others all over the world. I really love seeing my articles translated in Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, Russian and other languages that are so far from my upbringing and reach people of such different cultures. I need and crave reading their comments and suggestions.

Today, I exchanged a few emails with Dutch animator Tomas Schats, who is working on an inspirational animation for the Afghan Development Project and Examer Educational Software's students in Herat and possibly the rest of the world. The goal of this animation is to inspire the students to become filmmakers and animators, so that they can contribute with their stories and ideas to the World Wide Web and consolidate an inspirational and profitable platform. With an animation of less than 3 minutes, Tomas Schats will pick the brains of thousands and thousands of young students. With the Examer Educational Software, we will be able to educate them in the world of social media, film and animation production. With the support of Captain Zellem, we will motivate them with the Wisdom Curriculum inspired by his publications of Afghan Dari Proverbs.

This eclectic collaboration combines the effort of people in Afghanistan, Holland, Italy, the USA, without the need to get on an airplane, with no travel costs, a clear picture of what is produced, a measurement of its reach and influence on the Web, the sentiment generated by this operation and many more factors that we can document and identify. While our lawmakers can't figure out how to resolve trillions of dollars and euros in deficit, while international economists are hung up on colossal mistakes they can't reverse, we are moving forward on creating a new concept of citizenship based on content production and worldwide measurement of its influence, reach and sentiment.

In the next US elections, the candidates will again spend 1-2 billion dollars to be elected and again will promise lower taxes and higher standards of life. We know that the solution is not in their hands but the hands of millions of worldwide citizens and students that can collaborate together to a new world. People like Tomas Schats can resolve part of the budget problems, save money and time, rationalize international efforts and spend more time building constructive relationships and educating and producing valuable digital content.

People like Captain Zellem who published books on Afghan Dari Proverbs and are working on other languages and countries' proverbs research, can supply cultural armors to international peacekeeping forces and allow them to connect with people, understand their culture and develop trust and collaboration not available with traditional body armors and military equipment. Proverbs are a free contribution of thousands of years of cultural wisdom and development. The only costs involved are publishing costs of books and electronic applications. It is nothing compared to what we spend for the production of traditional weapons and defense systems.

Another inspiring news was an online digital video from ABC about an American Wrestler being cheered and welcomed to fight in Iran and congratulated by Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad, a political rival to Western countries over nuclear weapons and a fierce Wrestling fan. Maybe it's time to sit down with Ahmadinejad and consolidate a collaboration to convince the Olympic Committee to reinstate Wrestling for the 2020 Olympics and, in parallel, ask a more open World Wide Web access for Iranian citizens for further production of quality content pertaining the strength and beauty of Iran, starting from Iran's outstanding Wrestling power and traditions.

No Politics, Just Internet.

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Afghanistan Women Education and Empowerment with Online Transparency, Professional Blogging and Video Distribution

23 02 2013 15:12:50 +0000

Transparency is the key to developed countries' success, in particular in the world of Internet, Social Media and Online Advertising. Transparency takes commitment and the key elements are professionalism and work ethic.

At Film Annex, over a year ago, we decided to go public on our internal activities starting from the very simple step to publish weekly articles and blogs by each of the Film Annex's people based in New York City. Every Friday, our 50 million viewers can read and watch what happens at Film Annex and in particular what Eren, Fereshteh, Jennifer, Semyon, Alexey, Mike, Tom and I did throughout the week. During the week, we also publish interviews and updates, share thoughts and seek conversation and suggestions.

Another important factor to transparency is to have a consistent and continuous work ethic on building content that illustrates and documents personal and the company's activities. Every few days, we update our blogs, our social media pages and we cross promote each others' articles to further enrich the knowledge of our viewers. I rarely write long emails and focus on publishing articles and blogs like this one, so that others can read and see what my thoughts are. By doing so, my thoughts and invested time go beyond my circle of 10-15 close collaborators and friends and reach people from all over the world. It also establishes credibility and liability.

My dear friend Alessandro Hamada mentioned that several people like him, half Japanese and half Brazilian, decide to move to Japan to pursue a successful working career. Because of Japan's transparency and business credibility, they save substantial amounts of money that they want to reinvest in Brazil, where their heart is. But the Brazilian economic system is very confusing and at times corrupted. It is definitely not as transparent. Consequently, they encounter problems and at times, loose their investment. The lack of transparency unfortunately facilitates corruption and the lack of accountability, especially in developing countries. Afghanistan's major enemies today are not the Taliban but the lack of transparency and consolidated work ethic, and an excessive corruption.

Our work in Afghanistan has the purpose to empower Afghan women and Afghan students and youth with the ability to work in social media, create a meaningful digital imprint, participate in the global conversation and market of the World Wide Web and with it, embrace transparency and strong work ethics. Each person who is part of the Film Annex's company and network is rated with a Buzz Score. The Buzz Score grows upon the social media interaction, reach and content quantity and quality published on Film Annex. Lazy people fall behind and are rewarded less than those that a have strong work ethic and quality content and production.

Today my Buzz Score is 91:

What is your Buzz Score today?

The Examer Educational Software designed and developed by Afghan women and financed by Citadel of New York and Film Annex has the purpose to educate young people on producing substantial professional written and video content, have a strong impact in social media and create a strong digital imprint and leadership. Let me clarify. One skimpy blog a week doesn't cut it. The real success is based on constant research and development of new valuable content and the substantial revenues its distribution will generate. As I mentioned in my previous article, we are transitioning from Research and Development to Research, Development and Monetization.

Each person has a story to tell and a point of view to share. Each person can teach others lessons that are valuable and has the responsibility to share them to educate others and help them grow in the right direction. Those who don't share content, don't write and create interesting videos and films, shelter themselves from new opportunities.We are back to the concept of Peer to Peer Education, Governance and Economic Development. 8 million students in Afghanistan can easily seek help and support from 1.6 billion worldwide connections. 1.6 billion people can seek inspiration and the social media support of 8 million Afghan students. It's a two-way street where all benefit.

In the last few months, I learned a lot from the comments and suggestions of readers on my articles and blogs. It is not a coincidence that film companies and journalists from all over the world have contacted me with the intention to establish business and mentor relationships. I rarely call people, they call me. I spend time studying what people propose instead of wasting time seeking clients and partners. This is called In-Bound Marketing. Mike Sweeney, managing partner at Target Marketing Annex, is my mentor and inspiration and I strive every day to exceed his expectations.

Film Annex operates in Afghanistan through Afghan Citadel and the work of our team of Citadel of New York. The team in Afghanistan is sourced and managed by Roya Mahboob and Elaha Mahboob who are our main points of contact in the region. Roya and Elaha's work is also to write weekly updates online about their activities and the activities of our 7 schools and two Women's Annex Centers in Herat and Kabul. They also train and require that our social media managers, teachers, filmmakers and students create content and publish updates in forms of blogs on a weekly and possibly bi-weekly basis. Unfortunately, our Afghan team's Buzz Scores are way below the target and I am working hard to motivate them to publish regularly and create a network of writers around themselves. A selected group of Afghan women are our first step to change Afghanistan, Central and South Asian perception of lack of transparency and work ethic.

The constant update of information, the use of targeted long tail keywords, the translation of articles from Farsi to English, from English to Urdu, from Pashto to Uzbek, etc. allow our organization to produce large amounts of SEO friendly content and multiply it on various language platforms. By doing so, the writers, filmmakers and Film Annex's team achieve further SEO supremacy and increase the inbound marketing and advertising revenues.

Increasing advertising revenues means increasing revenues for the students and women who publish professional articles, blogs and professional videos. It also increases Film Annex's capacity to hire additional writers for The Annex Press platform and reward them upon their Buzz Score. The higher the Buzz Score, the higher the reward. If your Buzz Score is 90, you get paid $90 for your article! Imagine the impact in a country like Afghanistan where the average per capita annual income is $900/year!

As the President of Film Annex, I dedicate time to create content and distribute it on my social media platforms. My Buzz Score is in the 90's. I am looking forward to others that can take the lead and hope that they will be women from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, where their leadership is needed and their example of work ethic and transparency can change the destiny and perception of their countries.

In a few words, here is my message to young people of Central-South Asia and other developing countries: Prove your work ethic, be accountable for your work, be transparent with your writing and films. I will be motivated to invest in your ideas and projects.

Unless this is done, it's unthinkable that investors will come to invest in developing countries like Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, where, in many cases, institutions are not transparent and accessible to all. People like me don't rely on Government grants and outside donors. I rely on individual counterparts that show their work ethic and concepts by publishing articles and professional videos to open a constructive and profitable conversation. Even in the USA and Europe, I don’t waste my time discussing politics and economy with those who don't publish their thoughts. Talk is cheap and the first step to accountability is putting ideas and projects in writing and pay the consequences or learn the lessons from it.

People know my position on Education, Gun Control, Military Intervention and many other touchy topics by reading my articles and blogs. My writing and work talk for themselves. I expect the same from those who want to communicate with me and build new ideas. It doesn't matter if it's a Fashion clothing line or a real-estate development. To come to a realization, every project needs planning and accountability. It needs sophisticated articles and video documentation to illustrate products, concepts and the potential to growth. In today's' world, Digital Perception is Reality and Talk is Cheap.

Building Schools in Afghanistan and Women Empowerment can be done with contemporary and quantifiable tools such as blogging and professional film and video distribution.

Let me close with Captain Zellem's comment and wisdom through one of the Afghan Dari Proverbs of his publications:

قدر زر را زرگر می‏داند.

"Qadr-e zar-raa zargar mey-danad"

Literal: A goldsmith knows the value of gold.

To see people or things and sense their real value.

Rhythm and Rhyme Children Books for Libraries and Schools, Kenya and Afghanistan Schools for Girls and Boys

20 02 2013 09:36:05 +0000

This week, I am staying in Miami with my family. We are guests of a friend. His apartment is located in a very quaint part of South Beach, far from the night life of South Miami Beach. The only problem with this location is that, to get a decent cappuccino in the morning, sometimes I must go to Starbucks and I break my rule not to purchase products from the big chain instead of benefiting small businesses. Mea culpa, mea culpa!

This morning, I run into Esther Nelson, owner and writer for the company Granny Pres s, specialized in Rhythm and Rhyme books for children. With Esther, we spoke about her work in education and my work in Afghanistan schools for girls and boys and other developing countries. From there, we discussed how independent publications like her books can be distributed or promoted online. This is when we spoke about the value of Target Marketing and the use of Long Tail Keywords and why my card says Building Schools in Afghanistan.

I shared with Esther the concept of understanding clients keywords so that she can use them in the title and body of articles and blogs that mention her books and other matters associated to children education. Her target are librarians and teachers and her specialization are rhythm and rhyme children books like the one she gave me for my children. The title is “Chairs are to sit” and is available online.

Esther also mentioned that some of her books are available in Kenya's libraries and schools. This is when I advised her to focus on success stories like her Kenyan project, where she can easily achieve keyword leadership. For example, she can use Kenya Rhythm and Rhyme Children Books or Rhythm and Rhyme Children Books for Libraries and Schools that I am using in this article's title. Esther reaction was “wow , you open my mind to a much bigger picture of what my business can do.” Right then, I stopped and said, “Esther wait, you must think smaller for now, focus on niche markets, maybe keywords searched only by 100 or 500 people a month, not too many more. Once you conquer that first page result, you move on to the next set of keywords. Once you conquered the first 100 page rankings, then you can say you won 100 battles and you can think broader as you conquered so much Internet real estate."

The above is exactly what we are teaching to Afghan women and students through the Examer Social media curriculum, so that young people and women in Afghanistan and other developing countries can learn a trade that can finance their studies and work projects. Companies like Granny Press need this type of support. They can easily work with people from all over the world in the promotion and distribution of books and online educational media, like the Magical Story Times collection that includes DVD's, CD's and books. Esther is a NYU alumni. Her next step will be to find a student interested in an internship to get this project off the ground. For now, she must seat down with her partner Davida Hirsh and think of the long tail keywords that will make her leadership online prominent to educators and librarians where her books are distributed.

This coincidentally happened today, when Captain Edward Zellem advised that 250 proverb books have arrived in Kabul. They are now making arrangements for delivery to the Afghan Center at Kabul University, as a personal donation from Captain Zellem to this great organization and project founded by Historian and Archeologist Nancy Hatch Dupree; great generosity for a great cause. As Zellem mentioned on his last email to me "Makes it all worthwhile".

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Professional Video and Written Content, Generates Professional Revenues and Financial Independence

18 02 2013 15:16:27 +0000

In the last weeks, the conversations with Ad-Networks, film production partners and writers have been focused on content and quality.

In spite of YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook that allow user-generated content, here at Film Annex, our philosophy is exactly the opposite and NO user-generated content (UGC) is allowed on Film Annex.

Film Annex has a team of editorial experts that checks and grades the quality of written and video content before they go live. Film Annex allows only PROFESSIONAL VIDEO AND FILM CONTENT. Consequently, it's the opposite of YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook that monitor their content only after it's live and base their decision on the flagging by users. In addition, they do not discriminate between user-generated and professional content, leaving live low quality productions and personal videos.

On Film Annex, NOT a single video or film can go live unless it's professionally produced. Only a limited quantity of PROFESSIONAL articles are allowed on The Annex Press, Film Annex's leading platform for professional writers and bloggers.

The reason why Film Annex has attracted 40,000 filmmakers and 4,000 writers is due to the fact that it pays filmmakers and writers for their work, with both advertising revenue share and project compensations. For example, The Annex Press and Film Annex pay professional writers while The Huffington Post is notorious for NOT paying even some of their best writers and bloggers.

Film Annex's strict quality policy allows Advertisers and Ad-Networks to be associated with the best content and avoid issues that happen often on user-generated content platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Film Annex is smaller but its quality ratio is 100% professional, while on YouTube, the professional content is below 1% of the entire library. YouTube's low quality ratio results on low Advertising fill rate, meaning very few ads for the content being streamed. Usually, filmmakers make 6 to 8 times less revenue on YouTube than on Film Annex, and make no revenue at all on Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Let's now talk about Film Annex's working concept:

First of all, on Film Annex, PROFESSIONAL CONTENT IS KING! Video and written professional content attracts professional users, filmmakers and writers. It generates professional articles and films. It attracts professional and high end advertisers and advertising campaigns, with professional advertising rates and fill rates. This generates great online advertising revenues for both Film Annex and its content providers and partners.

Film Annex's main partners are the professional filmmakers and the leading international professional Ad-Networks. The Ad-Networks presented on Film Annex do not post user generated advertising like Google AdSense Ad, or Text Links Ads where any user can advertise. Film Annex and its professional Ad-Networks only broadcast high end professional video ads (PreRolls) and professional display ads (728x90 and 300x250 display banners). The same quality is available on CBS, ABC, CNN, and Fox, to name a few other publishers aligned with Film Annex's quality.

The second very important factor that makes Film Annex special is the ratio 95% third party content / 5% in-house production content.

For every 5 interviews, short films and documentaries produced by Film Annex, 95 more professional videos and films are presented by professional filmmakers that partner with Film Annex in promotion and revenue sharing. By doing so, the production costs are relatively low and Film Annex can focus on professional promotion and distribution. This assures great online advertising revenues to Film Annex's partners, Ad-Networks, content providers, and professional filmmakers and writers. Check out Film Annex's Success Stories.

In the last few years, I was asked and proposed to take over the management and sales of several external networks and publishing platforms but I always refused to maintain Film Annex's quality and integrity. Growing faster in terms of quantity would damage the Film Annex network's quality and consequently, would affect the relationship with Advertising Networks and content providers. Filmmakers love making money but they also need to watch the quality of their content and the platforms they reside on. Professional filmmakers need to be on the same platforms as other PROFESSIONAL filmmakers, not to share the space with un-monitored user-generated content like what is available on YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook. YouTube has been shut down over and over in several countries. This affects the message of institutions, companies and professional filmmakers that trust the platform and lose months or years of potential viewers. For example, in the case of Afghanistan, Egypt and Russia, Film Annex was never shut down because its editors monitor the content and eliminate offensive content that might create issues with religious and political views.

The parameters described above are also part of The Examer Educational Curriculum designed to educate women and young students in Afghanistan and other developing countries like Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The difference between professionalism and amateurism is an important factor that defines our mission of women's empowerment and youth education.

For many years, people have been invited to create low quality content on social networks like YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook. It's time to reverse the trend and teach users, especially from developing countries, the parameters necessary to create professional content and generate professional revenues, instead of contributing to the growth of big social networks without any benefits and revenue share. Every minute you spend on Facebook is a present to Mark Zuckerberg and his investors. There is no return for you. Every minute you spend on Google+ is a present to Larry Page, Sergey Bring and their investors. There is no return for you.

Create professional content, demand professional revenues.

Women Empowerment with Video Blogging, Advertising, Online Film Distribution and Production, Afghanistan and Beyond

16 02 2013 22:39:01 +0000

Women empowerment in Afghanistan is synonymous of cultural evolution and revolution. It's the first step towards economic prosperity, development and self efficiency. All cultural changes that are successful and last in time must come from within the family circle. They can't be imposed by foreign intervention. In the last 10 years, Western countries, including the USA, Italy, Germany, Spain and France, contributed to the construction of Afghanistan's infrastructure including Internet networks. This allowed Film Annex to operate and invest in building schools in Afghanistan with Internet classrooms, upload centers and film studios, connect 35,000 students to the World Wide Web, with a broader goal of 40 schools and 160,000 children by the end of 2014. This allows Afghan women and students to access the global community of the World Wide Web and with it, universal education and financial independence.

The key factors to achieve success in this cultural evolution are the INTERNET, PROFESSIONAL WRITING, FILM PRODUCTION AND ADVERTISING. This initiative is called the Afghan Development Project. It gives Afghan students access to the World Wide Web, teaches them how to write blogs and articles, produce and edit professional film content, develop SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly written content, and connects them to the world of online advertising so that their efforts can be monetized to further sponsor their studies and business projects.

Thanks to the work and inspiration of visionary Afghan business women like Roya Mahboob, Fereshteh Forough and Elaha Mahboob, Film Annex and the Afghan Citadel have joined forces in the development and implementation of the Examer Educational Software. The Examer is a free online educational software that offers new and innovative curriculum, including Social Media and Digital Filmmaking, empowering students of the latest tools for Research, Development and Monetization. From the traditional concept of R&D to the new concept of R&D&M = Research, Development and Monetization. The Examer Educational Software is designed and developed by Afghan women in the full respect of the cultural traditions of Afghanistan and its citizens.

Along with the Examer Educational software, Film Annex and Citadel of New York's two parallel initiatives Women's Annex and the Afghan Development Project empower women to establish their social media and digital imprint and achieve full financial independence in full respect of the cultural requirements of their families. Men continue with their life and work, while women handle the promotion of the business online, create inbound marketing opportunities for their family businesses, establish international alliances, broaden the market place and generate substantial revenues for themselves and their families.

Once women achieve financial self efficiency, it is their choice to decide to consolidate the cultural evolution and revolution that leads to the new generation of women empowerment. It's a decision matured from within the family, without external influence.

If someone came to my door and told me how I should run my life, my family and my business, he might obtain the opposite result. If this change were a natural development due to in home conversation and educated considerations on economics and advantages, this would lead to a smoother and more organic transition, within the cultural expectation of each family.

As suggested by Captain Edward Zellem, author of Zarbul Masalha and Afghan Proverbs Illustrated, here is some Afghan wisdom:

ااز ریگ روغن کشیدن.

Az reyg roghan kashee-dan. Literal: Extracting oil from sand.

Describes someone who is very smart, professional, competent or hardworking. Someone who can create something from nothing.

Jacques Rogge, I.O.C. Must Reverse its Decision to Drop Wrestling from the Olympics, Empowering Developing Countries

13 02 2013 09:40:11 +0000

Wrestling is the very first sport of the Olympiad. It goes back to 708 B.C. In the recent years, Olympic Wrestling opened its doors to female competitors with exceptional results in terms of education and entertainment, and consequently women empowerment and role models for both genders. My sport is Judo and I know that there would probably be no Judo if there was no Wrestling. I also know that many wars were defused on the Wrestling mats, where people and countries faced each other in the ultimate combat sport. They won and lost, they respected their opponent and moved on to improve their skills.

The IOC is right about the fact that it is time to move forward, adapt the Olympiad to the new necessities of the world and shape new role models for the new generations.

In 2012, in London, Wrestling played an essential part in the Olympiad in particular for developing countries of the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and many former Soviet Union countries. To name a few, here is the list, including the country median age, a very important factor to understand the growth potential:

Iran – median age 27.4

Azerbaijan – median age 29.5

Uzbekistan – median age 26.2

Armenia – median age 32.6

India – median age 26.5

Kazakhstan – median age 29.3

Wrestling is the oldest sport for a reason. It's the most natural form of competitive sport. Children wrestle with their siblings and friends. They do it naturally and instinctively. Wrestling is the perfect sport for developing countries where there is a lack of equipment and financial support. But not all countries and institutions grew their rankings of female Athletes as other sports did. For example, countries like Iran didn't present female Athletes in Wrestling. This might be the main reason behind the decision of the International Olympic Committee to drop Wrestling from the 2020 Olympics. Judo had a different path of development, and thanks to visionary women like Rusty Kanakogi, female Athletes populated the sport of Judo equally with men, with incredible results as the recent victory of Kayla Harrison at the 2012 Olympics.

Golf and Rugby are supposed to be added to the Olympiad in 2016. This means that they are replacing Wrestling. Both Golf and Rugby are played predominantly in Western countries. See below a list of countries with the median age of its citizens:

England – median age 40.2

Australia – median age 37.9

New Zealand – median age 37.2

France – median age 40.4

If you Google Golf Champions, here is the most popular image:

Tiger Woods has a Net Worth of $600 Million.

Here is a snapshot of Golf's popularity in the world:

Rugby is also popular in the United Kingdom, France, Australia and New Zealand.

My conclusion is that Wrestling is an essential part of the Olympic mission in the world, in particular for the consolidation of role models for developing countries, where very young people need direction and to be included in the international community of the world. Golf doesn't need the Olympics. It already has a highly developed professional and amateur circuit in the most developed countries in the world. It is not a coincidence that in Afghanistan, there is only one golf course. It's nearly an oxymoron to propose the expansion of Golf in a country where even Wrestling is barely accessible.

U.S. wrestlers train regularly in Former Soviet Union countries. The bond between American and Iranian wrestlers surpasses politics and international arguments. Wrestling is the point of contact between the West and the East. Eliminating Wrestling will result on the elimination of the best ambassadors of goodwill, the Athletes, between countries that need peace and common role models. Alexander Karelin is a legendary Soviet wrestler and a role model for millions of Athletes in any country of the world, starting from Iran, Russia and the USA.

The International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) mission and role are:

The stated mission of the I.O.C. is to promote Olympism throughout the world and to lead the Olympic Movement.

The I.O.C.'s role is to:

Encourage and support the promotion of ethics and good governance in sports, as well as education of the youth through sports and to dedicate its efforts to ensure that, in sports, the spirit of fair play prevails and violence is banned
Encourage and support the organization, development and coordination of sports and sports competitions
Ensure the regular celebration of the Olympic Games
Cooperate with the competent public or private organizations and authorities in the endeavor to place sports at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace
Take action in order to strengthen the unity, to protect the independence of the Olympic Movement, and to preserve the autonomy of sports
Act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement
Encourage and support the promotion of women in sports at all levels and in all structures with a view to implement the principle of equality of men and women
Lead the fight against doping in sporting
Encourage and support measures protecting the health of athletes
Oppose any political or commercial abuse of sports and athletes
Encourage and support the efforts of sports organizations and public authorities to provide for the social and professional future of athletes
Encourage and support the development of sports for all
Encourage and support a responsible concern for environmental issues, to promote sustainable development in sports and to require that the Olympic Games are held accordingly
Promote a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the host cities and host countries
Encourage and support initiatives blending sports with culture and education
Encourage and support the activities of the International Olympic Academy (IOA) and other institutions which dedicate themselves to Olympic education.

Film Annex's mission in Central and South Asia is to empower young people and in particular women to enter the world of digital media, browse the World Wide Web, design and scout new ideas, establish financial self efficiency and grow their educational and economic systems.

Today, Wrestling is a direct point of contact between most Central and South Asia countries and the worldwide community of the Olympic Games. Middle Eastern, Central and South Asian countries, Iran, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia, India, Egypt, Kazakhstan, gathered nearly 30 medals in London, while the U.S.A. earned 4 medals and Western Europe 3 medals. I invite you to read an article I published last summer during the London Summer Olympics, Afghanistan and Central Asia Diversity for Olympic Success.

Here is a screen shot from the London 2012 website that shows how Wrestling puts developed and developing countries on the same level and why it is an absolute necessity to keep Wrestling in the Olympics.

Count Jacques Rogge,

It's necessary that you and the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) reverses its decision to eliminate Wrestling and encourage further development of this sport in countries all over the world to further unify the minds and hearts of people too often confused by political rhetoric. It's not the role of the I.O.C. to embargo Iran but it's its role to welcome its Athletes in the world of the Olympiad and help the country have international role models. I heard that one of the factors involved in this I.O.C.'s decision to drop Wrestling is TV ratings. It is actually necessary to focus on the needs of those who do not have a TV and do not satisfy the economic needs of large media networks that are able to control the Olympics' news and media.

To the Wrestler I send this message suggested by Captain Edward Zellem and taken from his book of Afghan Proverbs:

در سختی، صبر پیشه کن.

Dar sakhtee, sabr pesha kun

Literal: During hardship, be patient

No Politics, Just Sports

Afghanistan Wisdom and History Can Help The Wall Street Journal to Become a Role Model

10 02 2013 23:22:03 +0000

The weekend is when I spend time with family and friends, possibly rest and enjoy quality time. For me, the weekend is also the time to get great inspirations for future ideas and innovation.

This morning, I was picking up coffee, newspaper and bread at a bakery in Southampton, NY, when I glanced over the shoulder of another customer purchasing the newspaper. She was reading the headlines of the Wall Street Journal. Once I saw the title, I said “The Wall Street Journal puts you in a good mood?” She was puzzled and stared at me like if I was a little crazy.

Let me explain my train of thoughts:

The Wall Street Journal is the most popular newspaper in the USA with a circulation of over 2 million readers a day. This weekend's headline read: Push to expand US 'Kill-List'. The term Kill-List was created by the press and is associated to a fictional list of people that the US Government has allegedly the intention to kill. If you visit Wikipedia and search for Kill-List, it brings up the title of a 2011 horror movie. This gives you a measure of how unreal and deceiving that title is. Maybe the Kill-List can be a horror movie, but definitely not a political nor a diplomatic tool.

On the other hand, there is The Financial Times, the most popular international financial newspaper outside of the USA, with over 2 million readers per day worldwide. This weekend's headline read: Chinese New Year Slips into View. Chinese New Year is celebrated all over the world by over 1.4 billion people and its cultural meaning is deep and interesting.

One day, I would love to sit down with Gerard Baker, the new managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, and ask him what motivated his team to label the US Government with non existing policy terms and influence the perception of billions of people on what American stand for. I would also love to invite Gillian Tett, the US managing editor of The Financial Times and ask her why her team decided to publish the headline of a celebration, above death related terms that might have increased the FT sales for the weekend. Two competing managing editors, two competing financial newspapers, two very different perceptions and points of view about life.

Here at Film Annex, with the help of Roya Mahboob and her team of Afghan women, we built 8 Internet classrooms and one Women's Annex Learning Center in the last 9 months, connecting 35,000 young Afghan students to the World Wide Web. Today, our priority is also to identify role models and inspirations for the students. Maybe it is best to stay away from “daily” news and focus on Centennial wisdom and history, some concepts that have real fundamentals and last more than 24 hours!

Tow great books are Zarbul Masalha, 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs and Afghan Proverbs Illustrated, both written by US Navy Captain Edward Zellem, that are the real guidance to the world of Wisdom and History of Afghanistan, Central and South Asia. Captain Zellem is a real inspiration and role model.

Ideally, I would love to invite Captain Zellem at the meeting with Gerard Baker of the Wall Street Journal and Gillian Tett of The Financial Times, listen to their conversation about the values of being a role model and hear how they are planning to inspire the youth of developing countries like Afghanistan.

Captain Edward Zellem is also the designer of the Wisdom Curriculum, part of the Examer Educational Software, and Film Annex's writer and liaison to the story of American Archeologist Nancy Dupree.

Target Marketing Defined My Goals - Self Sustaining Philanthropy and Women's Empowerment

08 02 2013 13:01:41 +0000

There was a time when successful companies held lavish parties. Executives flew in first class, wore Gold Rolex and drove European sport cars. Today, thanks to people like Bill Gates, success goes hand in hand with philanthropy and conversations are focused on social responsibility.

Bill Gates and his wife Melinda started their foundation in 1994 and today the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a 36.2 billion endowment. Warren Buffet joined forces with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation in 2006.

Today, the world is very small. We can hop on Skype and communicate with our partners in Afghanistan, Italy or any other part of the world. We can wire funds and, through digital media, we can watch videos of the work done. We can read blogs and articles in any language and translate them simultaneously. Today, we can also spread the news on social media and change the perception of a country as what we are doing with Women's Annex and the Afghan Development Project.

The new evolution has been creating sustainable philanthropy and education, so that the beneficiaries benefit from a growing self-sustaining business models. To achieve this goal, the first step is to embrace the new and rapidly growing world of social media and technical approaches to target marketing. These create efficiencies, cost savings and almost always reduce travel costs, which in turn provides more capital for investment and thus builds on itself over time like compound interest in a bank account. This is the reason why I never traveled to Afghanistan and why I put my trust in the hands of Roya Mahboob and her team of female entrepreneurs, software developers and writers.

Mike Sweeney and his services of Target Marketing allowed me to focus on specific topics like “Building Schools in Afghanistan”, track the social media buzz created by the initiative and put further and further energy into the project. The same strategy has united several Ad-Networks to drive awareness and users to the platform so that Women's Annex could be financially self-efficient and self-sustaining.

Mike Sweeney and Target Marketing Annex shaped the vision and created the rails where this incredible train could run. Due to the fact that the technology and business model is a working and profitable model, it's also giving its returns on the investment so that the same beneficiaries can now benefit from this growth.

Due to my competitive Judo background, I see life 5 minutes at a time. At the end of those minutes, someone must come out as a winner and someone as a looser. Procrastination and postponement are not an option as they lead to sure defeat. This is why the concept is simple:

Do you have a successful business?
Do you want to broaden your horizon and diversify your business?
What is your philanthropy and how “self sustainable” is it?
If your business stops generating revenues, will your philanthropy stop with it?

Target Marketing resolved all doubts by arming successful CEO's, writers and filmmakers in developing countries with the same tools to achieve keyword supremacy in English, Dari, Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, Tamil, Bangla and many more languages and dialects. The day that Film Annex and I will not perform at the same level as what we are doing today, the writers and filmmakers working with us will still move forward in their life and generate substantial return on their work and investment. This is an assurance dictated by the logic of Target Marketing and its master mind Mike Sweeney.

Our journey started with the concept of broadening Film Annex's horizons to Asia. We transitioned to China, we entered the world of Veteran Entrepreneurship and we defined the strategy of the Afghan Development Project. We learned all about Afghanistan from Roya Mahboob and Fereshteh Forough and we broaden the vision to the rest of Central and South Asia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. We entered the world of education with the development of the Examer Educational Software, and we introduced the concept of Mobile Payment systems as suggested by USAid and its visionary team of experts, Kathleen McGowan and Priya Jaisinghani.

Good ideas have no limits. This is why Target Marketing Annex measured and documented the success of the multiple ventures and educated us and our partners on the potential to grow Central and South Asia as a fantastic place for commerce and education. We learned one very important thing:

Empowering women is the key to universal success. They are the step where human nature achieves its best. Trusting their work, funding their visions, growing their independence is the key to success, a philanthropic and a business success.

Now, please grab a seat, and read what Women's Annex is and stands for by clicking on the logo above or visit www.WomensAnnex.com.

Let me close by saying one thing. Central and South Asia is populated by nearly two billions people in the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. As an example, the median age in Afghanistan is 18 years old, versus a median age of 36 in the USA and 37 in Europe. The growth is incredible there and sustainable philanthropy transforms itself into incredible business opportunities. It is not a surprise that Film Annex's website has navigation in Farsi, Dari and Pashto, and we are already working on Urdu, Bangla and Tamil.

Going back to Bill Gates, the former Microsoft's CEO:

Bill Gates made a conscious decision not to invest in glamorous stores and marketing strategies like Steve Jobs and Apple did. But he invested his reputation and money in the development of a 36 billion dollar philanthropic endowment that is now the back bone and engine of several developing countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It is not a surprise that today, Microsoft software is what is mostly used in those developing countries and Film Annex is installing personal computers powered by Microsoft software. Great Philanthropy lead to Great Business.

I'm looking forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.

Women Empowerment with Online Film Distribution and Social Media, Starting From Afghanistan, Central and South Asia

31 01 2013 10:55:16 +0000

The key to women empowerment is to provide women media distribution control. This includes social media, film and news production and distribution. Film distribution is the most financial rewarding part of the film industry. Online film distribution and social media allow women from any parts of the world to generate money and consolidate their cultural and financial independence. By doing so, women will not depend on men when it comes to distribute digital content online or TV, and they will be financially self efficient.

Women's Annex is the first platform fully dedicated, managed and financially controlled by women from Central and South Asia. Women's Annex's goal is to provide a platform for distribution and financial independence to women in Central and South Asia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Film Annex provides Women's Annex access to 35,000 professional films, a network of 300,000 registered users, of which 40,000 professional filmmakers and 3,900 writers, and an audience of 50 million viewers a month. Film Annex also provides a network of over 30 international Ad-Networks that feed advertising and with it, money shared with the women administrating, producing and distribution the content, regardless if they are doing it for their own content or content from other filmmakers.

Let me explain it further:

A filmmaker in Germany or the USA can be promoted and his or her films distributed by a woman in Afghanistan. The filmmaker will receive the advertising revenues of his or her Web TV. The Afghan woman will receive the advertising revenues of her Web TV hosting and promoting the filmmaker content. Two separate Web TVs sharing the same content and promotion, but with two separate beneficiaries. The filmmaker gets free promotion and with it more revenues. The woman in Afghanistan gets revenues from the filmmaker's work posted on her Web TV.

Afghan women will also produce their own content and this will further enrich their Web TVs. This is why filmmaking is part of the Social Media Curriculum of the Examer educational software in the schools where Film Annex is building Internet classrooms. Along with social media, this is what we are teaching to thousands of children, mostly girls, in high schools in Herat. The best students are rewarded with micro scholarships paid by mobile money and the best graduate students are also enrolled as writers, social media experts and Web TV managers for the Film Annex network and its clients. This is why the best independent filmmakers featured on the Film Annex network are designing the Filmmaking Curriculum for the Examer Educational Software and producing motivational videos like this one:

Film Annex's priority today is also to scout independent female filmmakers from all over the world, interview them about their personal experiences, sponsor their future productions, distribute their work on Film Annex and Women's Annex platforms, and make them aware of their power in terms of media distribution and financial independence. Film Annex's Creative Director Eren Gulfidan and Fereshteh Forough, Film Annex's Liaison to Central and South Asia, along with Roya Mahboob and her team in Afghanistan, are working to achieve this goal: Sponsoring Female Filmmakers and Women Empowerment in Afghanistan, Central and South Asia.

People ask me: What do you need to make this happen? How can we help you?

It's happening, but we can do more. To do more, we need help to install more Internet classrooms, provide more digital cameras, and more educators on how to use social media and produce films and documentaries. Roya Mahboob is our partner in Afghanistan and our key person to make this happen, with the help of private investors like Film Annex, and grants and donations from Government and Non Government Agencies. Here is a taste of what we are doing there with our own sponsorship. We want to scale this to 1,000 schools, 8 million students, and with it, generate 1.6 billion social media connections. It's a real powerhouse in terms of cultural growth for both female and male youth of Afghanistan and the rest of Central and South Asia.

No Politics, Just Internet.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Social Media Supremacy with CBS' 60 Minutes Interview, a 2016 Election Investment

27 01 2013 19:48:08 +0000

CBS' 60 Minutes interview of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is an incredible insight on this administration's capacity to leverage the world of social media. President Obama and his advisers have been masters in the world of social media from the very first election when they structured a great online strategy that facilitated Obama's first Presidential win.

In 2008, President Obama allowed users to download high definition electoral videos and, once he was elected, he did the same for all videos associated to the White House. Thanks to this simple social media strategy, Film Annex has a White House Web TV with over 1600 videos which have been seen by millions of Film Annex's viewers. By educating them step by step on the President and his cabinet decisions, this contributed to Obama's second win. I invite you to read my article about the Elections Results from November 7th 2012. Both Obama's opponents, Republican Presidential candidates John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012, didn't allow any access to video content for download. This impaired them from a second and third party promotion and consequently resulted in less voters and less fundraising.

An example of the value of this public domain content is the latest episode of The Afghan Perspective on Justice Sotomayor, in part enriched by the content available for download at the White House website and now available on the White House Web TV on Film Annex.

The news of a change of the Secretary of State has been a controversial decision due to the timing and the circumstances including the U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi a few days ago. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have faced the issue. Instead of allowing others to lead the conversation and interpret the circumstances, they have immediately voiced their opinion on CBS' 60 Minutes so that people like you and me can hit the Web, write about it, cover the news and long tail keywords real estate associated to those specific topics. Watch the White House Press conference on the Benghazi attack on Film Annex.

From a long tail keyword point of view, this Presidential interview on 60 Minutes has been a fantastic move, as it motivates thousands of writers to report the event, discuss the interview and cover keywords that will be extremely valuable in the years to come. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are already seeding the next election by acquiring valuable Web real estate that, 4 years from now, will be difficult to claim from others. This interview showed the commitment of both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to maintain a strong alliance that will develop further and further on social media.

The title of this article, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Social Media Supremacy with CBS' 60 Minutes Interview, a 2016 Election Investment, is an example of series of long tail keywords that, in the years to come, could benefit President Barack Obama in selling more memoir books, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in being elected as next President of the United States, and possibly Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama in starting a social media business. You never know!

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is ranked the second most influential woman in the world by Forbes, along with personalities like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff and philanthropist Melinda Gates. It is something very interesting from the perspective of what Women's Annex is doing today in terms of women's empowerment in Central and South Asia. Fereshteh Forough, the liaison to Central and South Asia, will probably invite Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for an interview at The Afghan Perspective once she moves back permanently to New York City.

NO POLITICS, JUST INTERNET.

Keywords Leadership of Afghan Writers in Central and South Asia with Online Film Distribution Financial Support

25 01 2013 16:44:26 +0000

I look at Afghanistan and I think of the 8 million students in school and the country's median age of 18 years old, versus 36 in the USA and 37 in Europe. The human potential is incredible. The results will be staggering.

With the advent of digital and social media, there is a new world where companies, institutions and people share ideas and confront opinions. It's the World Wide Web. NATO and the Taliban face each other on Twitter. Democracies and dictatorships confront on the Web. We can track the number of followers, feelings on the conversations, demographics, growth, view-through rate, and much more. Today's ideas and beliefs can be quantified! Even the last US elections had a predictable outcome. Read my article on the Obama – Romney election outcome.

The way we can establish leadership starts from long and medium tail keywords. Based on the keywords ranking, we can figure out the leadership on a specific topic, language and location. My keyword is Building Schools In Afghanistan, and it's also my business card!

Below is the Film Annex performance of the long tail keyword Building schools in Afghanistan :

Go online and search for the term Sharing on Social Media and you will not find Film Annex on the first page. Search for its translation in Farsi, به اشتراک گذاری در شبکه های اجتماعی and you will find Film Annex as the top two results of the first page! This means we established leadership in a keyword for a specific language and audience. Film Annex is a Thought Leader in Sharing on Social Media به اشتراک گذاری در شبکه های اجتماعی in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Here at Film Annex, we are providing the tools to learn and execute social media strategies to female and male students in Afghanistan and other countries in Central and South Asia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. We do this through the Examer Educational Software. We also reward the best students with micro scholarships and after graduation, we hire them to become writers and social media strategists for Film Annex and its network of clients and partners.

Teaching a student the use of Film Annex, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+ is the first step to introduce them to the world of social media.
The second step is to invite them to translate meaningful articles and blogs from English into their native languages.
The third step is to invite them to write their own opinion and suggestions, and from there, reward them with Micro Scholarship delivered by mobile Payment Systems, upon their quality, influence and reach on social media, by measuring their work with social media tools like the Buzz Score.

Let's talk about Women's Empowerment in Afghanistan and other developing countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Women have higher communication skills by nature. They can exchange information and maintain conversations alive and interesting. Women in Central and South Asia spend more time online due to their cultures. Consequently, they are very fast learner and have a great performance on social media with much higher social media scores than their counterparts in Europe and North America. Teaching women how to benefit financially from social media is the route to bring cultural and financial independence to women in the region of Central and South Asia. Strengthening women's social media skills is also in the interest of men who need support for their traditional businesses. It brings them new opportunities and clients, all managed by their female employees, wives and daughters. Males benefit financially from females' social media power and skills. It opens new markets and diversifies the sources of income for the family and its businesses.

Film Annex and Citadel of New York are working with Roya Mahboob and her team at the Afghan Citadel in the installation of Internet classrooms in the high schools of Herat with the intent to provide Internet connection to as many students as possible. Today, we are at 35,000 students and 8 schools connected. Our goal is 40 schools and 160,000 students by the end of 2014. We are looking for partners to expand this project to over 1,000 schools and connect all Afghan female and male students to the World Wide Web.

We also developed the third generation of the Examer educational software to educate at no cost the students on social media, filmmaking and other subjects associated to our projects. Some of the best independent filmmakers in the world are already providing curriculum materials for the filmmaking classes. Film Annex's social media team has designed the Social Media Curriculum. Captain Edward Zellem is working on the Wisdom Curriculum based on his book and knowledge on 151 Dari Proverbs, taking full benefit of thousands of years of history and wisdom of the Afghan culture. Edward Zellem is one of the brightest people I have ever met in my life. I invite you to read his interview of Nancy Hatch Dupree, the American expatriate, adventurer, author, historian and founder of the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University (ACKU).

In addition to the above, the Peer to Peer governance will connect 8 million young students to at least 1.6 billion people and will allow them to compete and learn from other societies, cultures and sources of information. The debate is welcome and instead of fueling the anger into war and terrorist operations, people can share ideas, disagree and confront them, give strength to their opinions and establish constructive collaborations.

All this is supported by an organic and ever growing online Advertising industry that doesn't depend on government grants and people's donations. It leverages its power based on demographic studies and redistribution of information for consumer products and digital services. In essence, you don't need to fill out a grant application to make money, you can just do what CNN, CBS, and Film Annex do. You can use the revenues of online Advertising companies like Yume and ADAP.

You can use those online advertising revenues to fuel new education and business opportunities. Just like independent filmmakers do with Film Annex and Eren's Picks:

This is why Film Annex puts at disposal of Afghan women and men or people from other developing countries its library of 35,000 professional films so that they can create their own social media following and Web TV and generate their own revenues.

How difficult is it to create a social media following? Do it simply by clicking on a button like this:

No Politics, Just Internet.

Post-2014, NATO Withdrawal, The World Film Industry and Watch Free Movies Online for the Future of Afghanistan

23 01 2013 18:30:57 +0000

It's now 2013 and the conversations are moving towards the Post-2014, NATO withdrawal and the Future of Afghanistan. I am looking forward to that date. It's definitely time for the Afghans to take full control of their security, economy, education system ad entertainment platforms!

After WWII, when the allies left Italy, they were replaced by the American and English entertainment industry. Basically, within a few years, the war was what Tyrone Power, Betty Grable, John Wayne and Anthony Queen resembled in their movies. Italian, German and even Japanese citizens embraced the world of entertainment and put aside their old war feelings. In the 1950's, Italy established a progressive film industry and started the new wave of Italian Neo Realism, with leading filmmakers figures like Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Cesare Zavattini, Luchino Visconti, Giuseppe De Santis, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, and Federico Fellini.

Today, thanks to new technologies and to the World Wide Web, we can replace foreign military presence with computers and Internet connections and allow 8 million students in Afghanistan to browse the Web and access the World Film Industry, including fiction and documentaries, educational content and animations. It will enable them to go beyond the scars of war and move forward in their dreams and projects. They can be innovators and an inspiration for tomorrow's filmmakers and maybe the new Afghan Neo-Realism?

My background is fashion and entertainment and as I told Angela Shah from Newsweek, “Angry Birds will defeat the Taliban.” But along with videos games come the 35,000 professional films that Film Annex online film distribution platform has to offer. Each one is monitored to comply with Afghan cultural expectations. It's not a coincidence that some of Film Annex's leading independent filmmakers are actively contributing to the creation of the Social Media and Film making Curriculum for the Examer Educational System, now implemented for 8 schools and nearly 35,000 students in the area of Herat, with a goal to connect 40 schools and 160,000 students.

Yes, we will replace the foreign forces in Afghanistan with computers and we will provide quality educational and entertaining content that will pick the brains of the young minds of Afghan women and men.

In addition to project Afghanistan youth into the future, it will empower women with social media tools to achieve social and financial independence in respect of the cultural traditions of Afghanistan and the other countries in Central and South Asia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Eren Gulfidan, Film Annex's Creative Director and gate keeper of Eren's Picks on the Film Annex platform, is giving us great hints on what is new and exciting in the world of filmmaking. It's our job to bring this to the youth of Afghanistan and ask for their content and comments, so that they can build their own platforms and projects. A recent example of what digital media can do is our new production, The Afghan Perspective, hosted by Fereshteh Forough, with commentaries about CBS' 60 Minutes.

One more example of Afghanistan's inspiration is the recent Oscar nomination for the film Buzkashi Boys, directed by Sam French who joined us in the Film Annex studio a few months ago. Below is Sam French's interview.

Helping Injured Children of War with Pediatric Prosthetic Therapy - GMRF Children - Elissa Montanti

20 01 2013 22:53:40 +0000

Last week, Fereshteh Forough, Film Annex's liaison to Central and South Asia, the Film Annex film crew and I visited the Global Medical Relief Fund's new home in Staten Island. The founder, Ms. Elissa Montanti, introduced us to 4 fantastic children from Afghanistan, Syria, Nepal and Iraq.

Abed, 11 years old, from Syria, lost his leg.

Marzia, 6 years old, from Afghanistan, lost her eye.

Ahmed, 15 years old, from Iraq, lost his sight and arm. I met him previously in 2006 when he was 8 years old.

and

Ngwang, 15 years old, Tibetan from India, lost both arms.

In 1997, Elissa Montanti founded the Global Medical Relief Fund with the intent to help children wounded by war and natural disaster from all over the world. Some lost their arms, legs, eyes and had major damage to their face and skin. I have known Elissa since 2002 and every time I talk to her and meet with her, I realize how little I have done in my life. Elissa is an amazing role model. We are in the process to create a dedicated channel for her work on Women's Annex, so that women from all over the world can learn more about her mission.

We spent time at the house, interviewed the children, discovered their personal interests, their feelings about their visits to America, their love for Elissa and their dedication to recover. Each child that was helped by Elissa Montanti has a story. Each child has a future and contributes greatly to our society. It's important to arm them with the best tools so they can succeed in their personal and business life. Each child is the best Ambassador of America's good will in countries often in conflict with the USA and other developed countries and cultures.

On march 2011, CBS's 60 Minutes broadcast the first of two episodes called "One Child at the time" on Elissa Montanti's work and a young boy from Iraq, named Wa'ad. It's very important to watch that episode to understand the importance of Elissa Montanti's work. It's important to read her book, “I'll stand by You,” and take a step further into Elissa's reality and see the children she helps every day.

Elissa Montanti is the healing ambassador of America. She has coordinated the relationship between hundreds of wounded children from countries like Nepal, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, etc. and highly specialized American doctors and institutions giving both a future and love.

We are now coordinating a strategy to empower the Global Medical Relief Fund with a broader reach and support so it can grow stronger. In the future, if circumstances allow, I would like to explore the opportunity to introduce the children and their families to the Film Annex platform and Examer Educational Software so that they can tell their stories and define a future source of income. They could possibly work as writers on the Film Annex's writers platform, The Annex Press or on other social media platforms.

Building Internet schools in Afghanistan has brought Film Annex on a parallel route to Elissa's work. Film Annex operates in Central and South Asia, in countries that are sadly often in need of the Global Medical Relief Fund and Elissa's help. Film Annex, along with its platform Women Annex, can provide support and promotion to the Global Medical Relief Fund. Film Annex can also provide support to the children that were wounded by teaching them a trade that might help them in life. Elissa's work and dedication is incomparable to any other effort we might ever be able to provide. But Film Annex can give its humble help in the studies and business execution of Social Media, Filmmaking and Blogging.

For further information on GMRF children, please visit their website and Film Annex Web TV.

Free Movies, Free Films, Social Media Sharing and Empowering Women and Men in Central and South Asia, Starting from YOU!

20 01 2013 11:26:00 +0000

Film Annex's mission to distribute Free Movies and Free Films is now connecting Central and South Asia to the rest of the world. The World of Entertainment is now merging with the World of Education and Business Development. Film Annex's mission is to finance, hire and reward the best writers and filmmakers in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Female filmmakers will also be featured in the new and extremely successful Women's Annex platform. Please register as soon as possible to Film Annex. Our editorial team will work with you. Our email is info@filmannex.com.

Women and men from all over the world browse the Internet to get information, education, create business opportunities and relationships, learn how to cook or find out about sports. The variety of topics and relationships established are endless.

Afghanistan alone has 8 million students. If each one of them establishes 200 connections on social media, it will generate 1.6 billion relationships. If each one posts one article or comment per week, it will generate 83 billion pages and messages. What more can we ask? Now imagine this expanded beyond the borders of Afghanistan and established for the rest of South and Central Asia, in particular the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The power of social media can be expressed starting from the Film Annex network of Interet schools that we are building in Afghanistan, where today 35,000 students are able to browse the World Wide Web and log into the Examer Educational Software to get education, receive micro scholarships and enter the world of business at the end of their studies.

The power of social media sharing and influence can be measured and documented to others including online Ad-Networks that feed ads and fuel the system with advertising money. This allows the writers, filmmakers and content providers to generate revenues and create an organic and ever growing business opportunity. In particular, it helps women gain independence and empowerment as I detailed in my article Women Empowerment in Afghanistan economy, governance and leadership.

Today, the power of social media allows a company like Film Annex to establish leadership in the digital media world of Central and South Asia, cross borders and create international opportunities. In case you are curious to see the side effects, check what Eren's Picks has done for independent filmmakers from all over the world and the work of professional writers on the Annex Press rewarded for their work and promoted to 50 million monthly viewers and readers.

NO POLITICS, JUST INTERNET.

Lance Armstrong, Thanks! Your life will be a great lesson for sports in developing countries like Afghanistan

20 01 2013 00:19:10 +0000

Thanks Lance Armstrong, you made us an incredibly big favor!

Yesterday, my dear friend and Annex Press contributor Giacomo Cresti published his latest article, “Why I will never feel sorry for you, Lance Armstrong." Giacomo listed a sequence of sad events, lies, medical insanities and the brutal reality of professional sports. Today, I was at the New York Athletic Club teaching Judo to the children of the Saturday Morning Program. I exchanged a few words with the father of one of my students, a former professional bicycle racer. The conversation made me realize that Lance Armstrong made us a big favor!

In case there was any doubt, Lance Armstrong opened our eyes about the incompatibility of money with sports. Armstrong confirmed that where there is too much money, there can't be sports. This is the reason why I stand by non-professional sports and have no interest for sports where at the finish line are piled millions of dollars.

Film Annex's investment in the Esteqlal Soccer team in Afghanistan was done under the premises that Afghan soccer players are NOT full time professionals and are NOT paid absurd amounts of money. The investment in Afghanistan sports, as in other developing countries, has an educational meaning with the intent to achieve simple and healthy results:

Promote sports, healthy life style and sportsmanship
Support Women's Empowerment providing digital sport content, so that they can benefit from the advertising revenues generated by it.
Establish role models for young women and men in Afghanistan and other developing countries.

Its time to move the attention away from the unreal world of professional sports and focus on healthy role models, where sportsmanship and participation are more important than new records and absurd physical performances. The true beautiful story is in the high school gym or on the mat of a local wrestling tournament, not at the finish line of the Tour de France or the Touch Down line of the Super Bowl.

Building Schools in Afghanistan with Internet classrooms allows tens of thousands of Afghan children to connect to the World Wide Web. They will have the opportunity to read about Lance Armstrong's story and his great lies. They will be documented about the insanity of blood doping and the damages caused by doping substances. Ultimately, they will see the failure of a “professional sport”. It's important to remind us and them that the real heroes in sports are not those who break records but those who participate with modesty and dedication.

The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. De Coubertin, father of the Modern Olympic Games.

Here is a quote from a female students from Kabul about her Cycling experience: "I participated in a race to just see if I could cycle, but I won first place," Omid said. "It really encouraged me and so my love for cycling grew. Then I took 14th place among 40 countries participating in the South Asian Athletics Federation race in Bangladesh."

I invite you to read this article by Wafa Wafaurahman, "Cyclist power up".

Now, I am tempted to start a cycling team in the schools in Afghanistan. We can show that cycling is a great sport when managed with the healthy principles listed above. I really hope that NONE of my Afghan students will win the Tour De France or Giro d'Italia.

Eren's Picks, How to get Film Distribution and Financing on Film Annex

14 01 2013 21:22:16 +0000

In the last two years, Film Annex distributed over 1.5 million dollars in sponsorship and revenue share to independent filmmakers and professional video content providers. The best filmmakers and videos contribute to create the best Web TVs. The best Web TVs are selected by Film Annex’s Creative Director Eren Gulfidan to be part of Eren’s Picks.

Once a Web TV is part of Eren’s Picks, it is featured on Film Annex's main pages proportionally to its Buzz Score. The higher the Buzz Score, the more exposure, and the more revenues and sponsorship.

The first step is to meet Eren Gulfidan’s quality and content expectations. Eren has complete control of the platform. She has the last word. Many filmmakers, once they find out I am the Founder and C.E.O. of Film Annex, come to me asking how they can be featured on Film Annex. I always reply that they must satisfy Eren's expectations in terms of quality and quantity.

I have been with Eren since the very beginning of her work with Film Annex, so I can share with you my humble opinion about her expectation. Assuming she is satisfied and impressed by the filmmaker’s work quality and production, she will look at the functionality of his or her work on Film Annex platform and its social media impact. Here is a list of what I believe can impact her and her editorial team's decision:

a) A great user and filmmaker profile, including a great picture or logo, a biography, hyperlinks to websites and social media platforms.

b) The number of films and videos uploaded. I would suggest at least 8, including the film, interviews and making of’s.

c) The film length. The videos, or the majority of them, should be at least 3 minutes long. They should have nice titles, great production quality, and a compelling story so that they could stand well on their own. In essence, it should NOT be a series of random episodes with no beginning and conclusion or without a clear message.

d) Great picture galleries with interesting images correlated to the films and blogs being presented and discussed.

e) Articles and Blogs. Each video and in particular each film should have great articles and blogs associated to them in the blog section, possibly 5 for each film and video. Actors, producers and directors can help each other write articles and blogs about the project, production and distribution experience. Blogs and articles should have at least 300 words and a great variety of pictures and embedded videos to better define the message in the article or blog.

f) A Buzz score of 50 or higher, so that a great social media presence generates a great following, interest and debate. A higher Buzz Score will also allow Film Annex's algorithms to feature the Web TV on a higher frequency and consequently will generate more revenues. Great films with low following, interest and debate, have low Buzz . This limits exposure and revenue. This is where the filmmaker must be smart in blogging and using Social Media and Inbound Marketing strategies.

The above is a short list that I believe can help support Eren’s decision to feature and promote a specific filmmaker and Web TV. As I said before, Eren Gulfidan has the last word and maybe the advice above are just part of her selection process. I dare mentioning the above because I have worked with her for the last 6 years and my insight might be of help for filmmakers interested in working with Film Annex.

Personally, I don't want filmmakers to take too much of Eren's time. She is very busy with projects and films presented by Film Annex's 40,000 registered filmmakers. Wise filmmakers should understand her needs and present a compelling body of work so that Eren can work in serenity and focus on what is best for the best filmmakers.

I am focused on Women's Annex, the Afghan Development Project and all our educational activities in Central and South Asia, including the development and implementation of the Examer Educational Software in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Our latest production is An Afghan Prospective on CB's 60 Minutes, a weekly column by Film Annex's liaison to Central and South Asia, Ms. Fereshteh Forough.

Good Luck, and Good Night!

Edward Zellem's Afghan Proverbs and Wisdom Curriculum for Afghanistan Education and Cultural Development

12 01 2013 23:07:01 +0000

People ask me why I chose to work with Afghanistan, a country synonymous of war, struggle and cultural tensions. I wrote several articles and blogs about it. Many factors are involved, philanthropy, women empowerment, business, education, social media, sports, technology, etc. Afghanistan is a country with 34 million people and each person is different. Each person has their history and future. Each person must be seen individually and is associated to different opportunities. This is why we can say there are millions of reasons why we got involved with Afghanistan and with it, millions of opportunities.

I have met very interesting and inspirational people. One has been Captain Edward Zellem. Captain Zellem is a very interesting man. He joined the NAVY with the intention to graduate top of his class and he did. Later on, he decided to learn Dari and he became ISAF's senior representative to the Government of Afghanistan's National Security Council staff. He's a humble and extremely intelligent and successful man. From what I learn by working and talking to Captain Edward Zellem, there are three factors that make him a very interesting and special person:

critical thinking
curiosity
capacity to learn

The best compliment I got about our work with Afghanistan was this statement from Captain Edward Zellem:

"I also saw that Francesco had a proven passion for helping Afghanistan, but it was much more than just “glamorous conversation.” There were tangible results behind the big ideas."

Reading his latest article on the Annex Press confirmed my thoughts about him and his work. It also details aspects of his nature and vision that can't be replicated by others:

“Maahee-ra har waqt az aab biggeree, taaza ast.” or “When you take a fish from water, it is always fresh.”

ماهی را هروقت از آب بگیری ، تازه است

Three ways to write, two languages, one universal message.

In my opinion, Captain Edward Zellem has identified the Proverbs as the master key and solution to a social and cultural dilemma. It's an algorithm that allows people to communicate peacefully and exchange ideas in perfect harmony and respect of thousands of years of experience and traditions.

Edward Zellem's contribution to the design and development of the Wisdom Curriculum for the Examer Educational Software is extremely important. It allows young women and men to have access to the cultural and social solution. It opens their eyes about the wisdom of the past and the opportunities of the future. It reinforces the self-esteem and appreciation for the culture and history of their own country.

Today's great opportunity is to combine Proverbs and Wisdom with Social and Digital Media. It allows us to reach millions of people, share millions of ideas, create millions of solutions. It's a very fertile environment where Proverbs and Wisdom can flourish without limits, an environment where we can quantify growth, success and opportunities.

Women's Annex, Women Empowerment in Afghanistan, Central and South Asia, and Great Business

10 01 2013 17:59:30 +0000

Yesterday, we launched Women's Annex, an online platform that promotes and supports women's empowerment in and outside Central and South Asia with videos and articles focused on education, sports, business, and many other topics. WomensAnnex.com supports women in developing countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan to be financially independent and achieve their entrepreneurship goals.

Today, my dear friend John David Layton pointed me towards this interesting news: “In the USA, for the first time in recorded history, women outnumber men on the nation’s payrolls.”

Looking back, here is a series of events that influenced my business and personal life in the last two years:

On September 20^th 2011, Ms. Zornitza Venkova, head of NATO TV, contacted me offering the NATO TV content for distribution on the Film Annex network. A few weeks later, I watched the NATO video “A Business Woman in Herat”. It was my first encounter with Roya Mahboob and her operations in Afghanistan.

Roya Mahboob by Alena Soboleva.

On January 15^th 2012, I started communicating with Roya Mahboob and she educated me on the incredible opportunities of Afghanistan, Central and South Asia Education and Economies. Roya is the person who suggested opening Internet classrooms in the high schools of the city of Herat. Today, we have 8 schools and 30,000 connected children. And this is growing to 40 schools and 160,000 children by 2014.

Through Roya Mahboob, I was also introduced to the concept of the Examer Educational System. Thanks to Elaha Mahboob's vision, we decided to develop the third generation of this incredible free educational software.

Here is a video of Fereshteh Forough and myself introducing the Examer Educational Software:

On February 2^nd 2012, I was introduced to Fereshteh Forough. Today, Fereshteh is Film Annex and Women's Annex's liaison to Central and South Asia. She manages all our interviews of "Thought Leaders" and she is the writer of the weekly column An Afghan Prospective on CBS's 60 Minutes.

Fereshteh Forough by Alena Soboleva.

It was in April that Film Annex's Creative Director and writer Ms. Eren Gulfidan introduced me to USAid. On April 15^th, I started exchanging emails with Ms. Kay McGowan about Mobile Payment system and its potential for Afghanistan and other countries in Central and South Asia.

Looking back to the last two years, I can see the pattern that led myself, Film Annex and its partners to the creation of the Afghan Development Project. Yesterday, it led me to a broader project called Women's Annex where women are rewarded for their ideas, superior strategic and creative qualities, empowered with advanced social media tools and financed with advertising revenues generated by their work on and off the Web.

In a world where physical size and strength have a relative value, in a world where strategic and critical thinking is the key of success, it's the undeniable truth that women lead the pack. Smart men recognize and support women's empowerment, independence and self esteem. It's mutually beneficial and an incredible opportunity of growth for both genders.

Just like men, let's talk Sports!

Four months ago, Roya Mahboob introduced us to the Esteqlal soccer team. Today, Film Annex is the official sponsor and part owner of the team. WomensAnnex.com is the official online distributor of Esteqlal Football Team's games, interviews, and videos. In the traditionally male-dominated world of international soccer, Esteqlal Football Team is in a unique place as its online advertising, promotion, and social media strategy are managed by Afghan women. In this way, Esteqlal acts as a special case study in international football. Esteqlal benefits from the exceptional social media and software development skills of female experts at Women's Annex, which has over 3 million unique monthly viewers. Esteqlal Football Team currently has over 30,000 fans on its Esteqlal Facebook page.

This brings back to Jennifer Bourne, Film Annex's social media expert's comment on her latest article: “Social media can play a big role in helping women find their goals and reach them. In developed countries, social media is more of a recreational way to connect with people and express thoughts. Technology + Education + Social Media= Goals and Opportunities for Women.”

Women's Annex is the natural evolution to our business model.

Tailored Long Tail Keywords, Target Thinking and Marketing Strategies to Understand Who You Are

04 01 2013 16:58:19 +0000

I just gave Jon Pastor access to the keywords list for the Film Annex and the MTI USA Inc. teams.
It's my interest to drill down through very specific long tail keywords tailored for every person working with us at Film Annex.

Here is the list of the people I am starting with:

Francesco Rulli: all keywords but focus on Afghanistan, Central and South Asia, Education (I am Italian)

Jennifer Bourne : film and social media (She is French)

Eren Gulfidan: film production, film distribution, film critic (She is Turkish)

Semyon Maltzev and Alexey Levchenko: film production and film editing (They are Russian)

Thomas Courtney: fashion and modeling (He is American)

Fereshteh Forough: education and economy in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (She is Afghan and she is also writing every week about CBS 60 minutes)

Tommaso Rulli and the MTI Team: fashion production, textile production, garment production, not usual fashion. This is the tech side of the industry.

Captain Edward Zellem: Afghan Proverbs and Saying, Dari and Farsi Education, Sociocultural analysis and ethnolinguistics

By doing so, each person gets their own list and we measure each person in what they do and how they do it.
Here is the latest search ranking for the long tail keyword building schools in Afghanistan for the FilmAnnex.com domain:

I am ready to start this process so that people can see the progress of my keywords and compare with their performance. Once this is tuned, we will expand the concept to the writers and students in Afghanistan, the rest of Central and South Asia, the Caribbeans and beyond.

In addition to use tailored long tail keywords, we will need to express interesting opinions and attract people who are looking for constructive conversations and arguments. Interesting people with interesting opinions make interesting media! Once the interesting opinion is expressed and documented, we can promote it on external social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn groups and fuel further debate and conversation. Imagine taking my article on the Sandy Hook Massacre and promoting it to "pro-gun" Facebook users and LinkedIn groups, or promoting my article on women's empowerment to Facebook and LinkedIn users and groups focused on such topic. Debates build awareness and create solutions.

In a company, the CEO and President's job is to empower others to reach their thought leadership, so that we can all grow together. When you are a black belt in Judo, you want to train with World champions like Mike Swain. This is how you improve, even if you get thrown all over the place. Training (working) with green belts only gets you injured and you can't improve your skills. My dear friend John David Layton always says: "You don't want to be the smartest person in the room," as there is nothing for you to learn. It's in your interest to fill that room with people that are smarter than you, people who express interesting opinions. My note: the copy and paste culture is dead! You must express interesting opinions.

BTW, Do you like Fishing?

To grasp my attention and obtain my support, you can use a simple technique that I call Fishing. You write an interesting blog and mention my name. By doing so, you "fish" me and grab my attention. I will have an urge to write about your interesting opinion and further fuel the conversation or debate on that specific topic using specific tailored long tail keywords that you fed me in your initial blog or article. By doing so, I will support and improve your social media ranking. You can use the same Fishing technique with journalists, CEO's and politicians. They will read it and reach back to you, assuming you expressed an interesting opinion! This is called "Inbound Marketing," and this is the reason why, since I started working with Mike Sweeney, I never need to call people. People call me. For example, Roya Mahboob's life story and work is so much more interesting than mine that I found myself involved into keywords like Building schools in Afghanistan or Afghanistan Economy. Roya Mahboob and her work in Afghanistan, Central and South Asia, is the subject of 70% of my articles because she shared the right information to build this organic digital collaboration.

Once I have done my work on selecting the right tailored long tail keywords, written my article, established the conversation and expressed interesting opinions, I can take my blogs about Roya's work, promote them on social networks like Facebook, and obtain incredible results. For example, as of today, my article on Women Empowerment in Afghanistan has : Can you beat that ?

NO POLITICS, JUST INTERNET.

Katherin Schlegel, Confidence, Malkovich and NIRVANA, How to Make Interesting Media

04 01 2013 11:51:40 +0000

This winter, NIRVANA has played a large part in my mornings. Today in particular, I kept listening to Come As You Are.

In the last few days, I heard from model and actress Katherin Elizabeth Schlegel who worked with Film Annex and Model's Web TV in the production of a video called Katherin Schlegel, Confidence. Katherin is definitely talented and I am brainstorming on what we can do with her. This brings my mind back to an article I wrote a few days ago, “Interesting people with interesting opinions make interesting media.” With it I am projected back to 2001 when I met John Malkovich and started with him a fashion company and a clothing line called Uncle Kimono.

I remember John Malkovich telling me that actors usually don't have passions beyond their own personalities. Contrary to most actors, John Malkovich was interested in projects that transcend from his name and image. He was directing theater plays and movies, but also venturing with me in the world of fashion design. A few months later, we met in Venice at the International Film Festival. There I brought the first samples designed by him for his friend and film director Bernardo Bertolucci, and for Javier Bardem, protagonist of the movie Dancer's Upstairs, directed by John Malkovich and premiered at the festival.

Flipping Uncle Kimono, Milan Fashion Show:

I traveled to Venice with my wife-to-be Cara, and we spent two beautiful days as guests of our dear friend Paolo Landi, in an intimate apartment in the historical part of Venice, just across from the festival. We traveled on traditional Venice boat taxis, attended the premiere, walked down the red carpet and spent the rest of the night having dinner with John Malkovich and the cast and crew of the film, including Javier Bardem and Laura Morante. During dinner, Cara looked at Javier Bardem and asked the charming Spanish actor, 2007 Oscar winner for his role in No Country for Old Men, “What are you hobbies? How do you spend your time when you are not working on a film?” Javier was taken off guard and stared at Cara for a few seconds, while John Malkovich, seated next to me, was chuckling reminding me of what he said about actors. A few seconds later, Javier improvised this answer: “I spend time with my friends.” Cara, persistent and slightly evil reinforced said: “Francesco has a passion for Judo, regular training and competitions. Are you sure there is nothing specific that interests you?” Javier had no way out, smiled and said “smoking with my friends...”

Looking back to that evening, it was just the beginning. For the next 5 years, I spent an incredible amount of time with John Malkovich. Along with creating and distributing a fashion line together, we spent time talking about politics and religion. Those deep conversations even annoyed a writer from Gawker.com with the following comment: “Sunday (Oct 31) at 10 at 60 Thomson — Kittichai outdoor seating area: John Malkovich wearing all white, drinking red wine and smoking Marlboro lights — in a two-hour long, intense political conversation with three twenty-something guys and one tall blond (who looked like Sandy from "Grease") — not sure who the three guys were, but they looked models or actors or something. The debate (which seemed to be about everything from Bush / Kerry to world religious trends) raged on pretty intensely — I watched from a nearby seat until I could take no more, at about 12:30AM. Malkovich looked good, but not as good as the twenty-somethings.” I am glad they thought I was a young actor and Cara was compared to “Sandy from Grease”, but what was interesting is that the reporter could not take it anymore... John Malkovich is an interesting person with interesting opinions who can make interesting media!

At this point, I think the route is simple: connect Kurt Cobain's song “Come as you are” to Katherin Elizabeth Schlegel and ask her to expand on her own words. “I think some people search their all life for confidence and never achieve it... and some people have it, some people are born that way... some people can live life confidently with their heads high, and than some people always look down."

At my 14^th street subway stop, I also took a picture of a dismantled payphone to remind me that portable smartphones and social media are replacing the old tools of communication,

while in my head, NIRVANA keeps telling me:

Come
As you are
As you were
As I want you to be
As a friend
As a friend
As an old enemy
Take your time
Hurry up
The choice is your
Don't be late
Take a rest
As a friend
As an old memoria
Memoria
Memoria
Memoria

Come
Dowsed in mud
Soaked in bleach
As I want you to be
As a trend
As a friend
As an old memoria
Memoria
Memoria
Memoria

And I swear
That I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
Memoria
Memoria
Memoria {don't have a gun}

And I swear
That I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun

Memoria
Memoria

If we can just connect the dots and create interesting media, we can also entertain and educate young women and men from developing countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Actors and models embrace their profession to interpret roles and express the vision of a film director or a screenwriter. Actors with interesting opinions combined with their interpretation skills are those that inspire millions.

This is a good start:

“I think some people search their all life for confidence and never achieve it... and some people have it, some people are born that way... some people can live life confidently with their heads high, and than some people always look down.” Katherin Schlegel, January 20th 2010.

2013, Films, Education, Afghanistan - Central and South Asia, Women's Empowerment, Fashion

03 01 2013 11:24:54 +0000

Yesterday, Mike Sweeney sat down with me at a local restaurant and pulled a small piece of paper reminding me of the 5 topics for 2013 that I have mentioned before the holidays:

Films
Education
Afghanistan - Central and South Asia
Women's Empowerment
Fashion

He looked at me and asked, "what's the plan?" I looked at the list and promised that I will write about this in the next few hours.

The common denominator to all 5 subjects is Education. Yes, Education in Filmmaking, Education in Afghanistan, Central and South Asia, Education to sustain Women's Empowerment, Education in Fashion and Lifestyle.

Three things that we ask clients of Target Marketing Annex are:

Are you a thought leader?
On what subject?
How do you quantify it?

A good way to quantify Thought Leadership is the capacity to educate others on what you do best, share the knowledge, and with it, the wealth.

Eren Gulfidan is the Creative Director of Film Annex. She has done a marvelous job on scouting great independent filmmakers, include them in the Eren's Picks basket and sponsor their future work. She has also invited them to create their own Filmmaking Curriculum for our network of schools in Afghanistan and the 30,000 students connected to the World Wide Web through the Examer Educational Software. The filmmakers can count on the support of the students on social media platforms, their feedback, and technical and artistic support.

Entering Afghanistan, Central and South Asia as a sponsor for Education was a suggestion of Roya Mahboob. She is a visionary female CEO from Afghanistan who shared her ideas and helped us make a difference for the lives of 30,000 students, with a target of 160,000 students by 2014. Those are 30,000 young women and men that one day will be leading social media projects, write online blogs and articles, shoot films, documentaries and interviews, generate revenues and sustain their life and education, and create new jobs and opportunities. They are compensated with the same parameters as American and European writers and filmmakers.

Women's empowerment is a hot topic in the region and a delicate balance between traditions and progress. Social and digital media are the perfect tool to establish progress and sustain women's empowerment in the respect of local traditions. I explained it in my article Women Empowerment in Afghanistan, Human Rights, Government and Leadership. Here are a few thought from that article:

Nobody can beat women in communication skills, social media, and data exchange.

More videos and more written content = More Female Management = More Opportunities for Women

My brother and I have been in fashion since birth. Our father, Roberto Rulli, was a textile agent. We spent our youth playing with fabric swatches and attending textile shows in Florence, Milan and Paris. To this date, we own MTI USA Inc, a textile and garment manufacturing company that operates in the USA, Europe and Asia. Fashion has always been part of our lives and is a clear engine of Italian women empowerment and economic growth. I wrote a few thoughts on the article “Supporting Afghanistan’s fashion Industry is a Job for Italians” and I am looking forward to what Fashion can and will do for Central and South Asia. Educating the youth of Afghanistan on what Fashion is and empowering women to design, produce, distribute and monetize their ideas is the next step. Social and digital media can empower them and us using this great opportunity with limited costs and great upsides.

Social media is the perfect tool to create peer to peer education and economic opportunities. Sustainability is assured by digital media and advertising. Read my notes on how Afghan students can create a sustainable network of 1.6 billion people and empower Afghanistan's economy: “Peer to Peer Governance for Afghanistan, Central and South Asian Economy and Educational System."

Lastly, a reminder:

Interesting People With Interesting Opinions Make Interesting Media.

Sharing your wisdom and knowledge with young women and men from countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan will allow you to define your goals. They will be the ultimate judges of your thought leadership. Don't Be Afraid.

Interesting People With Interesting Opinions Make Interesting Media

28 12 2012 20:13:59 +0000

I have been in Florence for 9 days and my Florentine self is taking over. This town is dangerous for me. There are so much history and so many opinions. It's hard to rest my thoughts. Florentine people can have caratteraccio e grande ingegno. They can be argumentative and have great creativity. They carry thousands of years of history and were raised in the cradle of Renaissance. Good or bad, I am a primary example. I spent the first 21 years of my life in Florence and, of the last 23 in the USA, 21 in New York City, another opinionated and creative city.

When I read an article or engage in a conversation, I am craving the opinion. Above all, I want and need to learn how people's mind works. The subject and the conclusion of the conversation is important but secondary. What comes first is the mind, regardless if it's is in agreement with me or not. In other words, I need to be intrigued by the cook to enjoy his or her food.

Aesthetics, justice, and truth share similar parameters. But what make them special are people's opinions and traditions. This is why personal points of view matter. Simply reporting with neutrality and political correctness softens the interests and kills the motivation. Interesting opinions give it a special flavor and taste.

Paolo Frosini of Resolvo opened my mind about Corporate Social Responsibility, Grants and Financing. Paolo shared with me his company's philosophy, his constant work towards quality, new challenges and ideas. Paolo combines the Tuscan acumen and curiosity with contemporary and international management skills that seem to match perfectly with what we are doing in the USA, and Central and South Asia.

Maria Meriggi is a painter specialized in Renaissance, Flemish and Old Masters Reinterpretations. She inspired me in planning the shooting of a series of documentaries on Florence's artists. Maria Meriggi's Art Studio is in Via Guicciardini, between Il Ponte Vecchio and Il Palazzo Pitti. The perfect story in the perfect location. It is something that must be told to thousands of children in developing countries like Afghanistan, where arts are a fundamental piece of educational and economical development, and where women like Maria can gain freedom of expression and establish profitable businesses through intelligent Social Media Education.

Interesting People with Interesting Opinions make Interesting Media.

Eli Robins, my friend, mentor and attorney

27 12 2012 19:49:47 +0000

Eli Robins, my friend, mentor and attorney of many years passed the way with a massive heart attack.
I read the message earlier in the day when I was out with my family here in Florence, I stared astonished and motionless at my cellphone, I got back in the house and collect my thoughts late at night.

Selfishly I would have loved him to live forever and ever but maybe it was time for him to put away his old body and move forward in a new life. I am very sorry for his family loss; I am also in the hope one day, to cross path again with Eli and see again the spark in his eyes and hear again the acumen of his words.

With his everlasting kindness and smart advise Eli contributes everyday to my work and success.

Grazie Eli.

Accademia Belle Arti di Firenze, Communication Strategies Lab, Film Annex, Afghan Development Project, grandi opportunita'

22 12 2012 13:05:59 +0000

Questa settimana il mio amico e collaboratore Tiziano Bonanni mi ha presentato a due Professori, Luca Toschi, direttore Communication Strategies Lab dell'Universita di Firenze, e Giuseppe Andriani, Direttore dell'Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze; con loro abbiamo scambiato informazioni sulle attivita' di Film Annex.

Dopo il nostro incontro ho scritto un articolo in Inglese e distribuito sul network di Film Annex per informare i miei collaboratori in America, Asia e visitatori dal resto del mondo: Florence, Afghanistan and Film Annex sharing students and citizens creativity. Cerco di spiegare in poche parole il concetto in Italiano per facilitare la comunicazione con I miei referenti in Italia:

Firenze ha 370.000 abitanti ed e' la culla del Rinascimento con oltre 2.000 anni di storia, infatti milioni di turisti visitano Firenze tutti gli anni.
Film Annex ha 283.000 utenti registrati e oltre 50 milioni di visitatori al mese, per dare un'idea di quante persone siano il New York Times ne ha 18 milioni.

E' nostra intenzione educare i 50 milioni di visitatori mensili di Film Annex sulla storia di Firenze e le idee dei suoi giovani studenti, in particolare dell'Accademia d'arte, con i loro contenuti scritti e video e generare proventi.

Il catalogo dello Start Point dell'Accademia d'arte e' un esempio perfetto di contenuti che potrebbero interessare lettori e visitatori, intrattenere ed educare giovani e studenti di tutto il mondo, idealmente affiancati da video, mini documentari ed interviste a studenti e docenti.

Film Annex desidera sponsorizzare l'Accademia di Belle Arti, l'Universita di Firenze e i suoi migliori studenti per finanziare nuove idee e nuovi progetti. Questo un link alle Webtv di altri artisti e quanto stanno generando come proventi e sponsorizzazioni: Eren's Picks. Ad oggi abbiamo distribuito oltre 1.5 Milioni di Dollari.

Oltre a questo Film Annex ha creato l'Afghan Development Project, un network di 30.000 studenti in Afghanistan, su 7 scuole, che poi cresceranno a 160.000, su 40 scuole entro il 2014; questi studenti sono educati con un software chiamato Examer dove insegnamo Social Media e saremmo interessati ad aggiungere Curriculum inerenti alle attivita' didattiche e lavorative di Firenze, cosi' che gli studenti Afghani possano creare collaborazioni con quelli di Firenze e promuovere queste idee sui loro network di Social Media. Questo apre le porte a delle incredibili sinergie di creativita' produzione e distribuzione fra due mondi molto lontani ma in qualche modo simili.

Le divisioni Feudali dell'Italia hanno dato adito alla creativita' degli Italiani, il Rinascimento e' stato il culmine iniziando nel 1400; oggi il calendario Persiano segna il 1391, siamo agli albori del Rinascimento del Centro e Sud Oriente ed e' il ruolo perfetto di Firenze gestire la transizione di questi paesi: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Gli studenti Fiorentini potranno condividere con quelli Afghani, del Bangladesh, Tajikistan ecc. idee e produzione crescendo nuove strategie e progetti. l'Afghanistan ha un'eta media di 18 anni contro i 44 dell"italia ed i 37 dell'Europa, il potenziale e' incredibile.

fotografia gentilmente fornita da Angela Shah*

Questi esempi di organizzazioni con cui stiamo gia' collaborando:
NATO , USAid, Journal of Clinical Investigation (interview to Nobel Prizes and Giants of Medicine).

Unire la technologia alla cultura e' un'arma incredibile, aggiungendoci 2.000 anni di storia di Firenze crea questo progetto infallibile.

*Angela Shah e' una giornalista con sede a Dubai. Lei ha scritto per il New York Times, TIME magazine, Newsweek e l'Institutional Investor magazine. Angela e' l'autore di "In Afghanistan, Roya Mahboob Connects Girls With Computers".

Florence, Afghanistan and Film Annex Sharing Students and Citizens Creativity

21 12 2012 11:05:46 +0000

Florence is my city of birth. With 370,702 inhabitants and thousands of years of history, it is known as the cradle of Renaissance. With thousands of medieval buildings and monuments, Florence is the destination of millions of tourists every year. They come to admire the work of artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci. Every statue, palace, every stone and red roof of Florence deserve to tell its story, a digital story that was never told.

Film Annex is my city today with 283,658 registered users and inhabitants, of those 40,000 filmmakers, with many supreme artists and innovators. Film Annex's inhabitants created 3.5 million pages and uploaded 35,000 professional films. The citizens of Film Annex, their work of art, articles and films, attract 60 million unique viewers and tourists every month, generating advertising revenues from over 30 international Ad-Networks.

One of my points of reference in my life has always been Tiziano Bonanni, friend, Judoka and artist. We discussed in depth what Film Annex is doing in Central and South Asia, the value of education and the importance of the Afghan Development Project. In Tiziano's opinion, Florence gives eternity to those that contribute to its history. This inspired me to take a further step on my current visit to Italy. I want to connect the eternity of Florence with the reality of Film Annex.

This morning, Tiziano Bonanni and I visited Professor Luca Toschi of the University of Florence and later in the day Giuseppe Andreani, director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence. We invited Florence's students to enter the city of Film Annex and participate in its life and business. We invited them to become citizens of the city of Film Annex, share their stories and the stories of Florence with Film Annex's world.

The citizenship of Film Annex depends on special circumstances and the conditions are very interesting:

- Film Annex's citizens receive payment for their citizenship. They are paid 50% of the advertising revenues generated by their properties, articles and films. The income is determined by the quality and quantity of their content and by the social media impact on the World Wide Web. We call it the Buzz Score.

- Film Annex's citizens improve their status and income by adding professional articles, video and films. Images are also welcome when presented with a professional article.

The University of Florence and the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence have the type of citizens that Film Annex needs. They host valuable information, ideas and know-how to enrich Film Annex's library and the Examer educational software, dedicated to the development of Central and South Asia, the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Today, 30,000 Afghan students connected by the Examer Educational software can learn from educational institutions like the University of Florence and the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence. The Afghan students contribute with new creative ideas and their massive social media impact, we are also working to connect 160,000 students by 2014 and enter the world of 3D printing and put at best use the 2,000 years of artistic experience of Florence.

The work groups are composed by individual students collaborating worldwide through digital files like this article or the videos embedded in this article. The pages created by Film Annex users and inhabitants are the equivalent of real-estate properties. The advertising revenues generated by the pages are the equivalent of rent income from the properties. The more creative, entertaining and educational the content and properties are, the more page views are collected and consequently the more advertising income is received. Imagine 3 students and professionals interacting between Kabul, Florence and New York City, the exchange of ideas and the realization. Here is an example that comes to my mind: 3D printing + Stop Motion productions + Advertising + Creativity of Florentine and Afghan Students.

Florence's incredible beauty and art attract millions of people. Film Annex's professional films and articles attract million of viewers. Florence's inhabitants charge tourists for their services and generate revenues with traditional businesses like retail and hospitality. Film Annex's inhabitants generate revenues with advertising banners and video pre-rolls (15-30-45 second ads before a video, just like TV commercials). The higher the quality and quantity, the more eyeballs and page views per visit, the more income.

The students upload their articles, describe their ideas and concepts, they film their documentaries and interviews. The students take their digital knowledge further and create more valuable content. They upload the articles, films and videos, attracting more eyeballs, creating more awareness, generating more revenues and recording very valuable demographic data on their viewers and followers. Quantifying the demographics of your viewership is more valuable than the monetary income. It's the insurance of a great financial security and the way to better understand people's opinions and reactions to art and visual concepts. Demographics is what advertising companies want to buy. The world of advertising is a 700-billion dollar industry growing every year online and slowing down every year in the print world.

This same concept can also apply to other areas in Italy. Professor Toschi mentioned in his recent visit to the polytechnic of Scampia how determined and creative the children of this controversial city near Naples are. This city is sadly known for the power of the Camorra and organized crime. The students' determination can be fueled into the creation of valuable articles and films or videos that can populate the city of Film Annex and provide them with an income. This is what we are doing in Afghanistan with the Afghan Development Project, where the creativity and will of young women like Roya Mahboob, Fereshteh Forough and Elaha Mahboob allowed the creation of a platform with over 4 million monthly viewers, a monthly cash-flow of over $35,000, and a community of 30,000 students, soon to be 160,000.

Spend one minute watching the video here below, titled New Herat. This is my personal interpretation of the Afghan city of Herat merged with New York City. We created a new dimension of life. Soon Florence will be part of a new dimension, with its eternity. It will tell stories that were never told and that were only part of people's imagination and dreams.

My Florence will have no cars and a few surprises...

Malala Yosafzai - My Person of the Year, An Inspiration for Afghanistan, Central, and South Asia

20 12 2012 08:45:07 +0000

Today, I boarded my flight to Italy. Just before I left my apartment in Manhattan, I saw the TIME Person of the Year award went to President Barack Obama, and the runner-up was Malala Yosafzai, the young girl shot in the head by a Taliban member on October 9^th. While the car was waiting downstairs for our trip to the airport, I went on TIME.com and downloaded the article by Aryn Baker. I wrote a fast note to Aryn congratulating her for the story. She replied promptly saying that now she can focus on the interview I sent her weeks ago.

A few months ago, I exchanged emails and had a Skype chat with Aryn Baker after reading her article on how Muslim athletes handle Ramadan and competitive sports. Baker is the TIME Bureau Chief for the Middle East, based in Beirut. After our conversation on Skype, I thought was important to interview Aryn and share the interview with Film Annex viewers, in particular the 4 million who are supporting the Afghan Development project every month. Baker can be an inspiration for other young women in developing countries like Afghanistan, Central and South Asia, and the rest of the World. Rick Stengel, the top editor of Time magazine, said: "If I were President Obama, I'd ask Aryn Baker what she thinks. She's dazzling."

Now on the flight to Italy, while my three boys finally sleep, I have the time to read the article and write down my thoughts. Every word of Aryn Baker's article on Malala Yosafzai is meaningful and at times heart-wrenching: “Her [Malala's] brain is protected by a titanium plate that replaced a section of her skull removed to allow for swelling", “The bullet that hit Malala, ..., pierced the skin just behind her left eye, traveled along the exterior of her skull, nicked her jawbone, went through her neck and lodged in the muscle just above her left shoulder blade”.

While I read this, I see children on my Delta flight watching Hunger Games, a crude and unnecessary Sci-Fi movie where children, CHILDREN, play a deadly elimination game. Apparently, terrible thoughts can come to the mind of a screenwriter. The concept is horrifying, and after last's week events on Sandy Hook and the killing of 20 children, I wonder what is wrong with people who produce, distribute, and make profit off of movies like this.

This morning, I saw President Obama talk about the necessity to move fast on the issue of gun control and the ban on assault weapons. President Obama is also the winner of TIME's Person of the Year, the President of the USA, the MAN in charge... I want to imagine a meeting and a steamy argument at TIME's offices about who should win the award, Barak Obama vs. Malala Yosafzai. I hope it was a long and fierce argument at TIME. We really needed Malala to be the Person of the Year, the second place doesn't matter in these circumstances.

When I started my adventure with the Afghan Development Project, I committed building schools in Afghanistan with the motto, NO POLITICS, JUST INTERNET. Regardless of my views, President Obama is a very "political" figure so I can't get anywhere around joining the argument on assault weapons. What I can say is different, and it comes from a different angle.

I have never heard of a female dictator that ordered genocides like Hitler and Milosevich. I have never heard of a mass murderer who was a woman. I highly doubt that Malala Yosafzai will be a gun enthusiast and collect assault weapons in spite of what the Talibans did to her. Women are very different from men; they nurture life, and because of this simple reason women win the battle of life again and again.

I am proud of my 30 masculine years of judo and hundreds of competitive fights, but I know where the men belong, and I know that it's time for women to be in charge.

TIME chose a man. In my opinion, it was a mistake. I hope that an intelligent President Obama creates a predominantly female cabinet to handle the gun and assault weapon issues, as this would help the USA to move into the right direction.

Women belong to the future, in particular the Digital World, which the entire world is entering. Women are communicators and exchange information with the intent to grow education and social development. Their ego is different from men who are focused on establishing supremacy in business, politics and sports (i.e. 30 year of Judo, I am not that different). But wise men know their place, and men who are sure of themselves know its important to put women in charge, support them in their ideas and vision of a better world.

Looking back, I can say I learn a lot from my father Roberto, but more from the women who mentored and inspired me: Stamura, Giovanna, Cara, Roya, Kathleen, Malala...When I see friends and acquaintances on my Facebook page holding an assault weapon and talking about gun rights, I wish I could hear the voices of their mothers, wives and daughters. Men have been around for thousands of years and caused endless wars, there is no need to be ashamed of this, it's just reality and we must deal with it.

A friend in the military mentioned a few days ago: "And there is really no reason for a private citizen to own a Bushmaster, which is a civilian version of the M4 "long gun" I carried sometimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's a pure combat weapon, and only that."