African Laughter rolls out cheap, instant media and social media monitoring

In the run-up to Kenya's forthcoming election, Kenyan new media company African Laughter has today unveiled a phone-based media monitoring tool, 'Track-All © ', to deliver every media and social media mention on any subject as real-time alerts to phones.

"Reputation is the sum of what people and the media are saying – a fact that has driven a multi-million media monitoring industry worldwide, across corporates, political campaigns and as basic fuel for celebrity publicists. With this phone app, we've opened media monitoring directly to all who need it, made it effortless, and built software that analyses what's being said for its impact," said Jenny
Luesby, Managing Director of African Laughter Ltd.

TrackAll © analyses mentions on FaceBook and Twitter for 'sentiment', alerting monitors to positive or negative posts. It compares the mentions on different individuals, showing who is doing best with
their reputation. It also shows who is commenting most on a subject and top key words, as well as delivering all mainstream media coverage on the same subject.

"It's an all-in-one instant tool, that arrives real-time, and is simplicity itself to set-up," said Alakie Asige, African Laughter's Business Development Director.

The app was developed by Dennis Rwito, head of IT at African Laughter, and award winning young developer Isaac Osiemo, and took 8 months to build.

The company is launching TrackAll © with free 7-day trials to any user who wants to download the software. The application has different grades of service, offering from 1 to 5 users and 1 to 3 searches, as well as different levels of analytical software to give summary results on th key change points in general reputation.

Six month licenses cost from Sh60,000 to Sh120,000, depending on the range of monitoring built into the application.

"We believe these features of real-time updating and a phone-embedded system represent a first in reputation monitoring, pushing TrackAll © ahead of anything else in the market and creating a tool that will enable campaigners to see instantly the feedback on any event or rally," said Ms Asige.

African Laughter is a vision-driven Kenyan company founded in 2007 and specialising in content and technology based innovations.

Western Union Unveils New Education Initiative around UEFA Europa League to Deliver One Million School Days

The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU), a leader in global payment services and new Global Partner of the UEFA Europa League, and the Western Union Foundation, today announced they will turn every successful pass in this season's competition into funding to support one day's education for young people around the world.

Called PASS , the initiative will be fronted by former international football star Patrick Vieira and start during the Group Stage of the UEFA Europa League Season 2012/13, which kicks off on September 20 across Europe. The initiative aims to reach one million school days over the next three seasons and builds on the work the company has already done to support education globally.

"Moving money for better is at the heart of what we do, and education is one of the main reasons our customers send money" said Hikmet Ersek, Western Union President and CEO. "According to UNESCO [1] , 71 million bright, hardworking students globally are not enrolled in secondary or vocational education. It's a tremendous loss of economic and human potential, since each extra year of school can increase an individual's potential economic opportunity. Through PASS , we intend to harness the power of football to build awareness of this challenge as well as deliver on-the-ground support that will make a difference to young people and their communities."

The initiative will provide teacher training and student scholarships through nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), with an initial focus on eleven countries – Brazil, China, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Romania, Russia and Turkey.

"Where I come from, opportunities for a quality education are rare," explained Vieira the former Caen, AC Milan, Arsenal, Juventus, Inter Milan, Manchester City FC and French international player, who was born in Senegal before moving to France at the age of eight and is currently football development executive at Manchester City FC.

"Football was my ticket to success, but for the vast majority of young people education is the key that allows them to become whatever they want to be. That's why I'm supporting this campaign. It will benefit students, teachers and schools across the world, particularly in places that need it most, like Senegal where I was born," said Vieira.

Through the UEFA Europa League's global audience, football fans from Africa, the Americas, Asia as well as Europe, will also be given the chance to add to the fund during the season through a range of online and social media mechanics.

David Taylor, CEO of UEFA Events S.A., commented:

"As well as being broadcast to fans in over 200 countries, European football is the aspiration for many players around the world and last season players representing 113 different countries were involved in the UEFA Europa League. Through Western Union's PASS initiative, some of those players will be able to give something back to their hometown communities beyond simply the excitement and entertainment they create on the pitch."