The Nation Newspaper

Tag: facebook

  • Nigerian firms for Dublin Web Summit

    Two Nigerian technology companies, www.insidify.com and www.mymusic.com.ng have been selected from thousands around the world to participate at the Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland.

    A release by the organizers of the summit said the event is billed for October, “the companies will be given the opportunity to pitch to, and meet, some of the world’s leading executives and CEOs from Facebook, Cisco, Box, AOL, Paypal, Kaspersky and Microsoft alongside leading ventures capital firms like Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA and others,” the statement added.

    According to the statement, international personalities like Robert Scoble and Tony Hawk will also be at the event in addition to media from the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times and more.

    Paddy Cosgrave, founder of the Web Summit, said: “We are delighted to have these two great young technology companies from Nigeria joining us for the Web Summit this October. The quality of the participants is a real testament to how much the ecosystem in Nigeria has evolved over the past few years.”

    The summit will have in attendance NASDAQ which will be opening their market live from Dublin – “this is the first time that this has happened outside of New York since the Facebook IPO,” the stated explained

    No fewer than 80 companies from over countries will be exhibiting at the Web Summit, alongside some of the world’s most internationally renowned investors, entrepreneurs, and global media.

    The companies were selected for their outstanding potential not just in Nigeria, but internationally.

     

     

     

  • 14 -year old creates social network site

    14 -year old creates social network site

    Abiodun Alade presents  the inspiring story of Terkura Ephraim Unongo,14 year –old student of Hillcrest School Jos, who recently created a social networking website called Imongo for social discovery, entertainment and information.

    My Inspiration

    I was inspired to create the Imongo website because of my will to make a positive change in the world. I want Imongo to be a place where people from all walks of life can come together in one online community to connect, share, be entertained and stay informed.

    The Imongo social network’s targets people are aged between 13-55 in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Algeria, Egypt and other parts of the Middle East, Russia, China, the United States, and the United Kingdom. We target such age grange and a variety of countries in order to serve our major purpose, which is connecting people from various walks of life, in order to really fulfill our goal of creating a social discovery network, where our members come together to mingle and meet new people while staying entertained and informed.

    The websiteis mostly content for the youth. We have to keep the site updated with content that interests the majority of members, yet wemake sure, the site is kept clean with content that is appropriate for all of our targeted audience aged.

    Why Imongo?

    The name, Imongo is derived from the Tiv tribe where I come from- it simply means, ‘Gathering’ in English. I chose this name because I felt it matched my theme of creating an international gathering of people from various walks of life, in order to form asocial discovery network.Imongo and other social media like facebook twitter etc.The Imongo’s major difference from Facebook and other Social Media is the idea of a social discovery network, a social entertainment network, and a social informative network.

    Facebook and other like social networks seem to revolve around the theme of offering services that keep you connected with your friends and family,Imongo on the other hand works to provide an avenue for meeting new people, thus the tag, ‘Social Discovery’.

    By providing features like, the Group Chat, members can communicate with other members online on the website without having to be connected to that specific member as
    a friend; this provides security and allows members to share only what they want to share, how they want to share it, and who they want to share it to.

    Aside this, Imongo offers features, such as Music, Videos Clips, Movies, and Pictures to keep members entertained with the latest multimedia. Imongo also offers a Wiki knowledge base where informative pages are created daily on subjects keeping the members informed with
    different topics.

    Imongo also keeps members and visitors up to date with latest Tech, Political, Entertainment, and other news locally and internationally.

    Response to the website

    The response to the Imongo website has been very encouraging. My family, friends and others just admire the website and I am very pleased with this. I mean, I have been supported financially and motivationally especially by my father, mother, and eldest brother. They have encouraged me, given me tips andprovided the necessary funds to keep Imongo up and running.
    I receive messages daily from random people saying, they are proud to be Nigerians, telling me good job, and sort of giving me a pat on the back.

    Becoming a member

    To be a member of theImongo, you have to be at least 13 years of age; you sign up using an email address, password, and a desired username.After sign up, your profile is created and you can choose to complete our profile by answering questions, and filling up other information.

    Challenges so far
    Creating the Imongo was an experience of a life time, my major challenge was frequent sleepless nights of writing thousands of linesof codes, other than this, everything went very smoothly for me. I stayed online on an average of 10-16 hours a day updating the website with music, news, videos, pictures, etc.
    I’ve had to deal with hackers every now and then trying to corrupt pages, crash servers and attempt to take over the website, but thankfully, none of the attacks have been successful.
    I am surrounded by people who help towards this development motivationally, financially, and other people I can rely on to get things done at the needed time.

     

    Support
    The Imongo being a social discovery network that wishes to expand tomany countries across the globe will need devoted people, time, andnecessary funds to keep it running online, and to help with expansion.
    The Imongo will embark on online and offline advertising and promotional campaigns reaching our targeted audience, going by onecountry at a time.Imongo’s Team will expand to Marketing Experts, Computer Programmers,and many more Content Managers who will work to keep the site up and running with new features, up to date content and to keep members
    experience at nothing less than fantastic.

    The future

    The Imongo Social Network, www.theimongo.com, hopes to expand and become a household name by 2014.Other plans include building more features such as, interactive video chat rooms, a marketplace,  gaming platform, a virtual world and much more.

    Imongo is also working to translate the website into Tiv, Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba, and other Nigerian languages. Imongo shall also be translated into other international languages such as Russian, Chinese, French, Spansih, Italian, German, etc.By the year 2021, Imongo would have expanded to most if not all countries, in Africa, the Middle East, North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.

  • Hate Speech on Facebook

    Hate Speech on Facebook

    Facebook belatedly moved to further restrict hate speech that glorified violence against women after an organized social media campaign caused some companies like Nissan, the automaker, to withhold advertising from the site. The companies said they acted after they became aware that their ads might have appeared next to the offensive content.

    Some of the misogynist pages had headlines that read “Violently Raping Your Friend Just for Laughs” and “Kicking Your Girlfriend in the Fanny because she won’t make you a Sandwich.” Other pages included images of women being abused. Some pages had been on the site for a couple of years, even after users complained about them, according to Jaclyn Friedman, an organizer of the campaign. Many pages were in clear violation of Facebook’s policies, which does “not permit individuals or groups to attack others based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition.”

    In some cases, the company took down page after users complained, but other users later reposted the same content. Earlier this week, the company acknowledged that it did not always remove hateful content aimed at women “as effectively as we would like.” It said it would review and update its guidelines after consulting with lawyers and representatives from community groups. The company also plans to update its training for employees responsible for reviewing posts that receive complaints. While these steps are helpful, Facebook should have acted right away when users first complained about the sexist content, as it does with other hate speech targeting, say, religious groups.

    It was only after advocacy groups like Women, Action & the Media and The Everyday Sexism Project mounted a campaign, sending 5,000 e-mails to Facebook advertisers and coordinating petitions signed by more than 200,000 people, that the company reacted publicly.

    The company’s slow response may be indicative of a deeper problem in technology and Internet-based companies — most of them are primarily run by men. Facebook is, of course, a notable exception in that its chief operating officer is Sheryl Sandberg, who recently wrote the book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.” This episode shows that sexism is a deeply entrenched problem that society has to battle collectively because individual voices far too often go unheeded.

    – New York Times

  • Glo mobile subscribers get free Facebook access

    Glo mobile subscribers get free Facebook access

    National Telecoms Operator, Globacom has launched the Glo Zero Facebook,  which gives millions of subscribers on the network free access to Facebook pages on their mobile phones without paying for data subscription or airtime.

     A statement signed by Globacom’s Marketing Coordinator, Mr. Niyi Olukoya said with the Glo Zero Facebook, Globacom has empowered its subscribers to network and socialize on Facebook free of charge.

     “The implication of this awesome service is that our subscribers can now keep in touch with their friends, family and even business associates on the social network site, Facebook from their Glo lines without having any data subscription or airtime on their phones,” Olukoya said.

    To access the service, Olukoya advised subscribers to type zero.facebook.com, 0.facebook.com or o.facebook.coms in the uniform resource locator (url) box on the web page, adding that the new mobile sites include all the key features of Facebook which are optimized for speed with zero data charges.

    The statement further states that customers will only pay for data charges when they view photos or when they leave 0.facebook.com to browse other mobile sites. “When you click to view a photo or browse another mobile site, a notification page will appear to confirm that you will be charged if you want to leave 0.facebook.com“, explained Olukoya.

    Globacom said that Zero Facebook is designed to solve the twin major challenges people around the world face when using the mobile internet – speed and cost of data.

    “With this Product, the subscriber can update his status, view News Feeds, like or comment on Posts, send and reply to Messages, or write on Friends’ Wall just as we do on Facebook.com. Rather than making photos viewable on 0.facebook.com, the photos are one click away, so it doesn’t slow down the experience. You can still view any photos on Facebook if you want, but your regular data fees will apply,” the statement said.

    According to Olukoya, “there is a lot of content on the Web and many customers do not have any idea about how to get it.  Globacom wants to bring this vast resource closer to the subscriber at no cost”.

  • NSCDC Inspector held for posting nude picture on facebook

    NSCDC Inspector held for posting nude picture on facebook

    A Senior Inspector in the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr Bayo Onifade, of the Oyo State Command has been arrested by the police for posting a nude picture of his mistress on facebook after their relationship collapsed.

    It was gathered that Onifade and the married woman started their private love affair in December last year in Saki, a major town in the northern part of Oyo State.

    While the relationship lasted, Onifade was said to have taken his lover to a location in the town where he took her nude photograph with his mobile phone.

    But disagreement  broke out when the woman decided to stop the relationship in March. The decision did not go down well with the NSCDC Senior Inspector. He was said to have pleaded with her to continue with the secret affair but the 27-year old mother of two declined.

    It was learnt that Onifade  consequently posted the nude photo of the woman on facebook .

    Facebook users  close to the woman’s husband were said to have drawn his attention to it, a development that made him send his wife packing.

    Onifade, 32, has since been arrested by police.

    It was learnt that  Onifade was arrested for defamation of character and indecent assault of the woman.

    The State NSCDC Public Relations Officer (PRO) , Mr Olusegun Oluwole, confirmed the incident and said that Onifade has been suspended pending resolution of the case.

  • WAEC probes Facebook trade in leaked WASCE question papers

    WAEC probes Facebook trade in leaked WASCE question papers

    The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is probing the activities of fraudsters engaged in trading alleged leaked question papers of the ongoing May/June 2013 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) online .

    Head of Public Affairs of the Council in Nigeria, Mr Yusuf Ari, told The Nation that the council has been aware of rogue websites selling question papers and answers of Nigerian public examinations (not only WASCE) for some three years now.

    He said the council is currently negotiating with some perpetrators who have asked for payment in recharge cards to establish how they get such question papers.

    He said: “We are aware of rogue websites in existence claiming to have our question papers. This has been happening for about three years now not only to us, but JAMB and others. We are even negotiating with one to give us questions for Monday’s paper.

    “They have asked us to send recharge cards. We are waiting till Monday to see whether the questions will be real. We want to see how they will get the questions, whether they will go to the exam hall when the paper starts and quickly get it and take it out.”

    The paper for Monday is Government.

    The Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC), the highest policy-making organ of the council on examinations matters, has also raised the alarm over the activities of exam fraudsters.

    During its 55th meeting in Ikeja between April 15 and 19, the NEC resolved to publish names of de-recognised centres, and upload the Continuous Assessment scores of school candidates and other major decisions on the council’s website.

    NEC, in a communiqué, said: “ Members noted the three-year comparison in the incidence of examination malpractice which indicated an increase in the May/June 2012 WASSCE to the May/June 2011 WASSCE. Collusion and irregular activities, inside and outside the examination hall, were the most prevalent forms of examination malpractice.

    “ Members believed that the increase recorded in examination malpractice in the May/June 2012 WASSCE, in comparison to the May/June 2011 WASSCE was an indication of better monitoring of the examination by staff of the council and other stakeholders and a spin-off from recent innovations put in place. “Members believed that if the Principal of a school decides that examination malpractice should not be allowed in his or her school, incidences of malpractice will be very minimal in the school.”

  • GTBank launches ‘Social Banking’ on facebook

    GTBank launches ‘Social Banking’ on facebook

    Guaranty Trust Bank plc has launched a ‘Social Banking’ service on Facebook.

    The service allows the public open GTBank accounts and gets Customer Service support on the social media platform.

    Speaking about the innovation which the first by a bank in the country, Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Bank plc; Mr. Segun Agbaje said the Bank’s objective is to engage the public where they work, live or play.

    He said the new service would enable persons on social networks like Facebook commence a banking relationship and perform transactions at anytime, safely and conveniently, without having to leave the platform.

    “This novel service presently allows people open GTBank accounts and get customer service support on Facebook and in a couple of weeks we will introduce new service options that include money transfers, airtime purchases and bills payment,” Agbaje stated.

    He further affirmed that GTBank was committed to the convenience of its stakeholders and the Bank would continue to introduce value adding alternative channels into the future.

  • Unilever partners Facebook , others to deliver drinking water to communities

    Unilever, through the Unilever Foundation, in partnership with PSI (Population Services International) has announced the launch of Waterworks, a non-for-profit programme, that will provide safe clean drinking water to communities in need around the world.

    Waterworks, which operates through a ground-breaking Timeline application developed jointly with Facebook, will connect people with means directly with people and communities in need.

    Water is the source of life, but almost 800 million people don’t have access to clean drinking water. Preventable water-borne diseases, such as dysentery and diarrhoea are a particular threat to the weakest members of society: a child dies from water-related illness every 20 seconds.

    Unilever’s Chief Marketing Officer, Keith Weed, said his company has made a public and ambitious commitment through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to provide safe drinking water to 500 million people by 2020 working in partnership with others.

    He said they share the belief with United Nation’s declaration in July 2010 which states that safe and clean drinking water is a human right. On the reason behind the partnership with Facebook, he said:

    “At Unilever, we believe that small, everyday actions can add up to a big difference; and that the power of social connections can drive real change around the world.

    On Facebook, nearly a billion people take small actions every day, they connect to the individuals and organisations that matter most to them and they discover new things through their friends. We want to leverage the power of the social graph and the ripple effects that each person’s actions can create, to inspire and enrol many more to make a difference.”
    Waterworks is among the first Timeline applications for charitable giving, connecting Facebook users around the world with real individuals and communities in need. People will be invited to sign up and connect the application to their Facebook Timeline.

    In addition they will partner with a PSI-trained Waterworker and choose a small daily donation and the contributed funds will directly support the water-poor communities, by providing education about the benefits of clean drinking water in addition to distributing water purifiers and sachets to families in need, Weed said.