‘Racist’ Facebook pic 3 years old
August 29, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
A picture on Facebook in which a white man poses with a rifle over the apparently lifeless body of a black child is three years old, according to reports.
The Sunday Times splashed the picture on its front page on August 28, 2011 under the heading “Wanted: Facebook racist”.
It said the picture was “on the social networking site in the profile of a user called ‘Eugene Terrorblanche’“ and that “While it is not known if the photograph is genuine or has been manipulated, a child protection charity has expressed concern for the well being of the youngster”.
The Sunday Times’ did not date the picture and said it was unclear if the picture was was posed, digitally created or real.
The newspaper said it had sent a link of the picture to the Hawks unit of the SAPS and they had immediately launched an investigation. “The search is now on for the person or persons responsible for the picture, for whoever created the user profile and for those who have seen the photograph but failed to report it.”
Later in the day, the police ministry warned that there should not be a racial connection made to the picture.
“Even if the child was white, or the man was black… once you narrow it down to a racial aspect it becomes problematic. Murder is murder,” Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s spokesman Zweli Mnisi said.
Political parties also released statements condemning the pictures.
But, according to Politicsweb.co.za, Eye Witness News reporter Mandy Wiener commented on Twitter that she was “surprised by Sunday Times lead story re Facebook racism. I did the story for EWN several years ago it was well known then”.
In a follow up tweet she said that in May 2008 “EWN exposed the picture which is on the front page of the SunTimes on a FB group called ‘Ek laaik nie ‘n houtkop nie so what’.” In answer to a query as to whether the man with the rifle was ever tracked down she added: “I tried at the time and seem to recall it was a hoax.”
Politicasweb said the story on the racist Facebook group – established by a few students at the University of the North West – was extensively reported on in the press in early October 2008.
The Facebook group and the photograph were subsequently mentioned in reports and analyses in Beeld, Die Burger, Volksblad, the Independent Group newspapers and the Mail Guardian.
A Sapa report carried by IOL in October 2008 stated: “The North West University (NWU) on Monday expressed shock over the existence of a racist group on Facebook and the involvement of some of its students as officers of the group…It was reported that the group called “ek laaik nie ‘n houtkop nie, sou what” (I do not like a ‘houtkop’, so what?) contains inflammatory comments posted by members. The group apparently also showed a photograph of a young white man holding a gun while posing over the trophy of a young black boy lying on the ground.”
In November 2008 a student linked to the page was expelled from the university and the picture was reportedly removed from Facebook.
On Monday a Beeld report said that the Hawks are now saying that the police had already investigated the photo in 2007. The man concerned told the police back then that he had paid the child to lie like that.
On Twitter Sunday Times editor Hartley defended the decision to publish this extremely racist image on the front page of his newspaper despite its being at least three years old, saying: “Our story is about an extremely racist image being published on Facebook now, in 2011. We must find the person who published this image.” – IOL
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Salesforce abuzz over social networking software
August 29, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Metallica playing a trade show? It’s the kind of deliciously strange bit of news a person might share on Facebook – but Salesforce.com would rather see it posted on Chatter.
Salesforce, the San Francisco cloud-computing company, is staging its annual Dreamforce conference from Tuesday to Friday at Moscone Center. The conference will bring together a host of leaders in cloud computing – and, yes, Metallica, playing its first corporate gig ever – to talk about the industry’s future. More than 40,000 people have registered to attend.
Salesforce, which has traditionally announced new products and acquisitions at Dreamforce, is expected to make Chatter a focus of the week. The year-old social-networking application for the workplace, which Salesforce started last year, is now being used in 100,000 businesses, according to the company.
It’s part of a broader move to bring social-networking features into businesses, an effect boosters call “the social enterprise.” And it represents a major part of Salesforce’s strategy going forward, executives said.
“Social has changed the way we live our lives today,” said Woodson Martin, a senior vice president at Salesforce.
The rise of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter means that customers and employees are interacting constantly online, Martin said. The question is how to use those streams to a business’ advantage.
Chatter and products like it allow workers to “follow” one another, collaborate on projects and exchange ideas. The result is a constantly evolving discussion of office life that executives can mine for information about their companies.
Enterprise evolution
The social-networking application marks an evolution in enterprise software, which has lagged behind consumer software in design and user experience. After decades of stagnation, the software is finally approaching parity with consumer tools.
Companies that make it are finding that it’s big business. “Software as a service,” a technology category that Salesforce helped to create, is now an $89.4 billion industry, according to Gartner Inc. Last week, Palo Alto social business software maker Jive Inc. filed paperwork in anticipation of an initial public offering.
The software has a variety of uses. Redwood Shores’ Saba makes software for what founder Bobby Yazdani calls “human capital management” – tools that help companies understand all the key players working for and with them. Auto manufacturers, for example, use it to learn the skills and backgrounds of the various venders that supply parts.
“You have this amazing confluence of events happening that are perfectly timed for an enterprisewide software revolution,” said Aaron Levie, founder and CEO of Palo Alto’s Box.net, which offers file storage and collaboration services online. “We’re talking on the scale of the Declaration of Independence in the enterprise.”
Levie said the growth of enterprise software has been driven by three key factors: the maturation of the Web, which has made it far easier to deliver robust services through a browser; the rise of mobile devices, which put new pressure on information technology departments to create experiences on par with executives’ smart phones and tablets; and the explosion of social networks.
Better decisions
Companies are learning that there’s value to be gained from social networking in the workplace, Levie said.
“Social in the enterprise isn’t about virtual crops and throwing sheep at people,” he said, referring to games like “FarmVille” that have helped drive Facebook’s success. “Social in the enterprise is about getting work done faster, and making better and more intelligent decisions.”
David Sacks, CEO of San Francisco social-enterprise company Yammer, said social enterprise is spreading virally to new companies each day.
“We’re seeing huge growth in our business,” he said. “It’s getting easier and easier. People are recognizing the value of it. And also, I think, becoming less fearful of it. I think it’s just beginning – but you can start to feel it gaining more acceptance now.”
Dream event
Salesforce.com’s annual conference runs Tuesday through Friday at Moscone Center in San Francisco. In addition to the company’s CEO, Marc Benioff, others who will appear at the event are Facebook Chief Information Officer Tim Campos, Verizon Business President Bob Toohey and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. Among the performers: Metallica headlines Wednesday’s Global Gala, while Thursday’s Concert for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital features Alanis Morissette and Jay Leno.
E-mail Casey Newton at cnewton@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle