Your Facebook Likes, Tweets and Blog Comments to help generate funds to buy books and clothes for the underprivileged children.

If you would like to contribute, your Facebook Likes, Blog Comments, Digg Likes, Tweets can help us generate funds. How? Here's what you have to do:

1. You have to click on this link The Journey of Paritraan.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Leave a comment.
3. At the top of the Page, there are 4 buttons - Digg, Facebook Like, Tweet and Facebook Share.
4. You need to sign to Facebook, Twitter and/or Digg to contribute. Then Like it, Share it, Tweet it, and Digg it.

In case you are in a corporate environment where security policies do not allow you to visit social networking sites [for obvious reasons] please use the comments in the blog. You can Like, Share and tweet about it when you are using your personal net. To get to the article, you can either visit my blog i.e. www.aasthik.com or simple use Google to search for "the journey of paritraan", the very first result will be the article.


This article was a part of Article Writing competition organized by another Not-for-Profit Organization called TechAloo [their official Facebook page- www.facebook.com/techaloo] dedicated at promoting Social Entrepreneurship.

The article "The Journey of Paritraan" has won the first round. For the second round we need more Facebook likes, Shares, Digg, Tweets and TechAloo Comments. This will help us win Rs. 3000/- which will be used to buy books and clothes for children.

Seven 7 Facebook features that Google+ Lacks!

Google Plus is said to be in testing mode, (might be coz of its unimpressiveness). The search-engine giant might really wants to up the ante in its competition with Facebook, but there are seven features the veteran social network boasts that are not yet offered by the newcomer.

 

Search

Yes, Google is commonly referred to as the search-engine giant (see above), but so far, only other users are searchable within Google Plus, but on Facebook, all public content is searchable.

So, let’s say you want to find reactions to a breaking news story. You can do that on Facebook, while right now, it’s not possible on Google Plus. That’s pretty ironic.

 

Application Programming Interface

Right now, Google Plus does not play well with other applications. For example, foursquare users can have their check-ins automatically appear on Facebook, but there is no way to accomplish this on Google Plus. Google is obviously working on releasing an API, but it’s not there yet.

 

Brand Pages

Moving past the controversy created when Google did not outline its brand page policy for Google Plus, causing companies and organizations to create pages that were subsequently deleted — from a user standpoint, some of the information shared by brands on their Facebook pages is actually of interest and useful. It’s not all, “Please buy our product.” Google must clarify its policies on brand pages sooner, rather than later.

 

Ads

While users probably don’t miss ads on Google Plus at all — especially the targeted ads that appear in the Facebook sidebar, which often focus on one word a user types in a status report, and then deliver ads for products they have zero interest in — revenue is revenue, and Google is missing out on some serious revenue, with Google Plus approaching 20 million users.

Not running ads during the trial period is understandable, and seeing them appear when Google Plus “officially debuts” would not be a surprise. But if they don’t appear when the site moves out of beta, well, that would be interesting.

 

Photo Tagging

Although photo tagging has been known to raise privacy concerns, it is also the most efficient way to let friends and contacts know when they appear in users’ photos. Overall, the interface to download and organize photos in Google Plus is well organized and easy to use, but the lack of tagging is a glaring omission, thus far.

 

Games

It is pretty much a given that Google is working on a gaming platform, and that it will attempt to lure game developers that are unhappy with Facebook’s terms, but it’s not here yet, leaving fans of Farmville, Scrabble, and the like dependent on Facebook, for the time being.

 

Events and Birthdays

As of now, Google Plus does not offer the ability to organize events, while the feature is widely used on Facebook, albeit sometimes not wisely. Events are social, and should be part of a social network. In addition, the percentage of Facebook users who have avoided awkward conversations due to Facebook’s birthday reminders on its homepage must be staggering. Yet not only does Google Plus have no matching feature — birthdays aren’t even part of users’ Google Plus profiles. While this is certainly a minor issue and no reason to quit Google Plus, it’s also an oversight that should be attended to.

Readers: Can you think of any other Facebook features aren’t yet offered by Google Plus?

Changes Social Networking, specially Facebook has brought about in the society.

Although primarily a social networking tool, Facebook has brought changed to all areas of life. A few are highlighted below.

Business
The basic principle of Facebook is communication, which is a vital asset for any business. But it doesn’t have to be limited to text, as companies increasingly use apps, games and video to get their message across. It can also allow for more targeting, as the information people share on their pages can help indicate who is more or less likely to want a particular service or product. Nothing is more effective than the influence of friends however, and once a social circle sees one member liking and using a business, the others are very likely to follow.

Facebook Adds have been used by various organizations and corporate giants. Many biggies have integrated Facebook social plugins in their websites.

Recruiting
Facebook allows companies to give a face (or many faces) to their name. Increasingly they use real images of their workers and work environment on their profile pages, to demonstrate to job seekers what it would really be like as part of the team. This has been particularly popular in Australia and New Zealand where Deloitte have gone as far as live webcam feeds into their offices. Some companies, such as Ernst and Young, even broadcast interviews to provide a demonstration of how the process works.

Relationships
The average length of courtship before marriage is far shorter for couple who meet online than for those who meet offline. This may due to the quick and simple way we access information about people’s interests, tastes and hobbies; what could take weeks of dating to find out now takes minutes of profile perusing. Perhaps this also reflects a shift in attitude from viewing romance as a slow blooming process, to something we want as quickly as simply as everything else we search for online.

Travel
Online service is about more than just the company website. Airlines have been giving special Facebook offers, such as ‘Facebook Friday Fares’ with AirTran, and travel agents promote their latest holidays to their fan list, but apps are the current hot topic as they become all the rage for smart phones and social networks alike. Skyscanner’s flight searcher is a great example of this, allowing Facebook users to look up great prices with no hassle. For example, if you were searching for flight prices for September from the UK to Canada you could

a) Visit a site like Skyscanner/Flights Direct or

b) Visit the Skyscanner flight searcher page and type ‘UK to Canada in September’ and immediately you would get pinged back with a price.

Do we really need a flight search app in Facebook? Of course not. It’s just a nice little gimmick and something that’s ideal for those that don’t want to leave Facebook.

Politics
Political views have never been easier to spread and put into practice than since the advent of Facebook and Twitter. Middle-Eastern uprisings have be coordinated though social media, student protest groups formed and rallied to action, regular marches such as Gay Pride are planned and promoted through groups. In this sense, Facebook is proving that the younger generations are not politically apathetic, and that protest is not a relic of the past.

Many events were organized to support Anna Hazare’s campaign. Other events and groups were formed to raise voice against corruption. Also, during and after attack on Mumbai, voices were raised against terrorism through Facebook status updates.

Rumors
However, Facebook has also supported spreading of rumors. People blindly copy status updates from friends without thinking about the same. People just don’t have time to check the authenticity of a status. Any news that’s posted as a status update must be checked for credibility.

This ‘tact’ has been employed by a few organizations to create rumors about competitors to bring down their market. These Status update also sometimes take the form of SMS and then are circulated via the SMS channels. This is one major side-effect.

After Google’s + and Infy’s Bubble its Microsoft’s Social Search Network ‘Tulalip’ at www.socl.com

Yes! You read it right. After Google+ and Infy Bubble its Tulalip – A Social Search-Network integrated with Bing by Microsoft Research.

You don’t believe me? Check out www.socl.com

Now, I know what most of you are thinking – ”Oh no! Not another Social Network!!”. Or may be even this – “Its Microsoft remember! Ctrl+C Ctrl+V!”. But did not people doubt when we had the Great Orkut and Facebook was just launched??Well, it was supposed to be a secret project but Microsoft unintentionally/intentionally brought it to limelight.

Microsoft Research’s Experimental Social Search Network Tulalip

 

Fusible first discovered the page sitting at www.socl.com, a domain that MS recently purchased. Known as Tulalip (also the name of a group of Native American tribes near Redmond). The platform also features sign-in buttons for Facebook and Twitter, the latter of which leads to an authorization page explaining that Tulalip is an "experimental app," and that it will be able to "update your profile" and "post tweets for you" (see the screenshot, after the break). It's too early, of course, to say whether or not the service will launch as a direct competitor to Social Search, or if it'll even get off the ground, though Microsoft insists that it didn't mean to tip its hand so early.

From the looks of it, this will likely be a venture into “social search” with Bing running the show. “With Tulalip you can Find what you need and Share what you know easier than ever,” reads the teaser tagline. Notice the capitalization of Find and Share? Yep, I’m pretty sure this will be where search meets share, which is kind of good news since you can’t do a Google search within Google+. Oddly enough, there are Facebook and Twitter log in fields on the teaser page, which leads us to believe that this will be a rather light foray into social networking rather than a heavy-duty Microsoft experience.

 

First Look at Microsoft’s Social Search Network Tulalip

The teaser page has since been pulled, while Microsoft swears it was an accident. It's too early, of course, to say whether or not the service will launch as a direct competitor to Social Search, or if it'll even get off the ground, though Microsoft insists that it didn't mean to tip its hand so early. The Socl.com welcome page now reads: "Socl.com is an internal design project from one of Microsoft's research teams which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn't mean to, honest."

Infosys comes with a Social Network ‘Infy Bubble’ for its employees!

Now that’s interesting! A social network specially for employees. And get what you can submit negative feedback for bosses and peers… obviously personal attacks are not allowed.

They call it ‘Infy Bubble’. Its based on the lines of Facebook. They can share photos and stuff and about their work.

I think its really a great way to strengthen the bonds between colleagues. Infosys had to come up with something as the rate of attrition has been a pressing concern for them.

I will be glad if other companies follow the suite! Personal communicators are not much fun anyway.

Google’s Google’+’ (plus) a ‘-’ (minus) like Wave and Buzz!

NOTE: If you are a hard-core Google Fan, I request you to go to other blogs in which you can find appreciation; in this particular blog-post all you’ll find is Google Bashing.

Google has never fared well in the Social Networks… honestly I am sceptic about its innovations in the area. Apart from the Google Search, there’s hardly any REAL Google product that can be called innovative.

You might think of me as a fool, but you must know that YouTube, Blogger, Google Docs etc were bought by Google! Many of the Gmail features have been bought by them. Honestly I have no problem if they buy and improve, after all I am a Pro-Blogger and I love blogger for its services.

However, their R&D innovations like Buzz and Wave have been trashed somewhere. Orkut is already dead!

They have tried to copy Facebook for long, creating plugins, +1 buttons, comment boxes etc., and now they created a Facebook look-alike. It really isn’t much different than any other basic social networking site. It really doesn’t excite me.

Dear Google, you are really good at creating hypes but you are also known for not being able to live up to your hypes. Please come up with some real innovation!

Technical Awareness Series - Facebook’s new style tagging in post and comments. (part 2)

In the part 1 of this series we saw that Facebook now allows us to tag friends without using the ‘@’ symbol. When I was experimenting with this new feature, I came across another feature recently introduced by Facebook.

Earlier when you tagged your friends in any status and/or comments, the full name of the person as mentioned in his/her profile appeared. Now we all know that facebook has a limit of 420 characters per status. So we all know the importance of reducing characters.

Facebook now allows to tag friends and shorten their names by deleting parts of their names. You can delete either parts of the friends name. However atleast one part should be kept intact.

For example, if you want to tag Vishal Gupta you can delete either Vishal or Gupta leaving behind Gupta and Vishal respectively.

This feature helps to maintain casual and informal conversations. Full name tags seemed rather formal. Facebook’s team is really innovating!

The screen-shots of small experiments carried out by me are displayed below-

 

Don’t be a ‘dumb’ facebook user. Don’t either be ‘just’ a facebook user. Be an aware facebook user.

Technical Awareness Series - Facebook’s new style tagging in post and comments.

Facebook’s team is working hard and is constantly coming with the new & innovative ideas and strategies to provide rich user-interface.

On 10th September 2009 they announced status tagging and launched it on 14th September 2009.

Beginning 10th March 2011, Facebook provided the facility of tagging friends in comments. This was a good feature. Tagging in comments meant we could keep the conversation live and it was a good way to inform people about their involvement in the posts.

This time they have come up with a new way of tagging friends. You don’t need to use ‘@’ to tag a friend. You can directly tag them without using ‘@’.

However, there is a fundamental difference in using the two ways of tagging. When you tag with the ‘@’ tag, you can begin the name with small letters. Like if you have a friend name Himanshu, you can type @himanshu or @Himanshu. However, when you are tagging directly you need to use the exact letters Capital/Small. For example, if my friend’ name is Sujeet I have to start with ‘S’; if I start with ‘s’, it won’t work.

So take advantage of this feature, as it saves some time. Also you might want to be careful about accidently tagging your friends when you don’t want to!

Don’t be a ‘dumb’ facebook user. Don’t either be ‘just’ a facebook user. Be an aware facebook user.

The Technical Awareness Series - Cyber Crimes and Cyber Laws in India (Part 2)

This blog post is second in the technical awareness series. It basically aims to create technical awareness. For past 20 days, I have been researching many websites and articles on Cyber Crimes and Cyber Laws in India. This article is a result of all those efforts. Please understand, that this article is a general one and based on my understanding of the various articles on Cyber Laws on the Web. It is not meant to be used a guide, its just about general awareness. Links to the websites are available for further reference.

From the Alert Indian Website I also got a few things. I would like to request to my readers that if you have created any fake profiles or are planning to create so, please have a look at Section 66C. For those who have habit of bullying or harassing others please have a look at Section 66A. Facebook users should refrain from posting comments/posts/notes about others as it is a public platform. One should also remember the line "shall be punishable with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine which may extend up to two lakh rupees, or with both."

Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008

Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008  has been notified and enforced on 27th Oct, 2009.
This Act punishes various cyber crimes including Cyber Terrorism.

Important Sections Related to Cyber Crimes

Chapter XI

65. Tampering with Computer Source Documents

Whoever knowingly or intentionally conceals, destroys or alters or intentionally or knowingly causes another to conceal, destroy or alter any computer source code used for a computer, computer programme, computer system or computer network, when the computer source code is required to be kept or maintained by law for the time being in force, shall be punishable with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine which may extend up to two lakh rupees, or with both.

Explanation -

For the purposes of this section, "Computer Source Code" means the listing of programmes, Computer Commands, Design and layout and programme analysis of computer resource in any form.

Sec 66. Computer Related Offences

If any person, dishonestly, or fraudulently, does any act referred to in section 43, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to five lakh rupees or with both.

Explanation: For the purpose of this section,-

a) the word "dishonestly" shall have the meaning assigned to it in section 24 of the Indian Penal Code;

b) the word "fraudulently" shall have the meaning assigned to it in section 25 of the Indian Penal Code.

66 A Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc

Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device,-

a) any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character; or

b) any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device,

c) any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine.

Explanation: For the purposes of this section, terms "Electronic mail" and "Electronic Mail Message" means a message or information created or transmitted or received on a computer, computer system, computer resource or communication device including attachments in text, image, audio, video and any other electronic record, which may be transmitted with the message.

66 B. Punishment for dishonestly receiving stolen computer resource or communication device

Whoever dishonestly receives or retains any stolen computer resource or communication device knowing or having reason to believe the same to be stolen computer resource or communication device, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to rupees one lakh or with both.

66C Punishment for identity theft

Whoever, fraudulently or dishonestly make use of the electronic signature, password or any other unique identification feature of any other person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to rupees one lakh.

66D Punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource

Whoever, by means of any communication device or computer resource cheats by personation, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to one lakh rupees.

66E Punishment for violation of privacy

Whoever, intentionally or knowingly captures, publishes or transmits the image of a private area of any person without his or her consent, under circumstances violating the privacy of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years or with fine not exceeding two lakh rupees, or with both

Explanation.- For the purposes of this section--

(a) “transmit” means to electronically send a visual image with the intent that it be viewed by a person or persons;

(b) “capture”, with respect to an image, means to videotape, photograph, film or record by any means;

(c) “private area” means the naked or undergarment clad genitals, pubic area, buttocks or female breast;

(d) “publishes” means reproduction in the printed or electronic form and making it available for public;

(e) “under circumstances violating privacy” means circumstances in which a person can have a reasonable expectation that--

(i) he or she could disrobe in privacy, without being concerned that an image of his private area was being captured; or

(ii) any part of his or her private area would not be visible to the public, regardless of whether that person is in a public or private place.

The Technical Awareness Series - Cyber Crimes and Cyber Laws in India (Part 1)

This blog post is first of the technical awareness series. It basically aims to create technical awareness. For past 20 days, I have been researching many websites and articles on Cyber Crimes and Cyber Laws in India. This article is a result of all those efforts. Please understand, that this article is a general one and based on my understanding of the various articles on Cyber Laws on the Web. It is not meant to be used a guide, its just about general awareness. Links to the websites are available for further reference.

According to my experience, people in India tend to believe that India does not have any Cyber Laws. As I can see on the websites, of Cyber Cells of Kerala Police, Maharasthra Police, CBI etc, we do have lots of Laws, we are not just aware about them.

The use of Social Networking has its effects. Many tend to believe that they can post anything about anyone. People also post many photos violating Facebook's policies. You can only upload photos if its yours or you have the permissions of your friends.

For more information on the same, please visit the following pages-

http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=798 

http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=1021

http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=1022

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=381403139552

One of most wide-spread cyber-crime is Defamation. The Sangli police website clearly states laws regarding defamation- "This occurs when defamation takes place with the help of computers and / or the Internet. E.g. someone publishes defamatory matter about someone on a website or sends e-mails containing defamatory information to all of that person's friends."

Also from Lawyers Club India we get - "Defamation can be understood as the intentional infringement of another person's right to his good name. It is the wrongful and intentional publication of words or behavior concerning another person, which has the effect of injuring that person's status, good name, or reputation in society. Libel is written defamation and slander is oral defamation. The primary difference is that in libel, damages are presumed, whereas in slander actions, unless the slander falls into a certain category, called slander per se, the plaintiff must prove actual or quantifiable damages.

A person's good name can only be damaged if maligning statements are made to someone other than that person; that is, the defamatory statement must be disclosed to a third person, thereby satisfying the requirement of publication.....

Thus the law of defamation places a heavy burden on the defendant. All that a plaintiff has to prove, in a defamation action, is the publication of defamatory matter. The onus then lies on the defendant to prove innocence. Once again, most people are unaware of this burden."

Will continue with more in Part 2 :)