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jenkins
Joined: May 20, 2003
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Province/State: Saint-Louis
City: Mbane Eléana
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Youth Information Sharing and Networking
December 23, 2003 - 11:03 AM
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Many of the benefits of a geographic information system depend on integrating different databases together. Indeed, the ability of GIS to integrate diverse information is frequently cited as its major defining attribute, as well as its major source of power and flexibility in meeting user needs.
Central to a GIS is geographic information, a resource that can be used to address a broad range of critical problems. Geographic information provides value and social utility from its use and application. Naturally, the sharing of information is appealing because the more it is used, the greater society’s ability to evaluate and addresss the wide range of pressing problems to which such information may be applied.
It is often argued that the greatest benefit from GIS implementation comes as a result of pressures that are placed on organizations to share information. In fact, the information resulting from GIS implementation is often one of the most critical and costly elements. In itself such information becomes as powerful as the systems and hardware. However, the information is an investment that has much potential for future applications. The findings of the joint Nordic Project suggest that the returns on investment in GIS range from 1:1 where the automation of basic mapping functions are involved, to 2:1 where GIS is applied to planning activities and are as high as 4:1 where they involve the collective use of databases common to all users.
A great deal of the value in geographic information originates from the expertise and time required to collect and maintain geographic information, that creates natural incentives to share and exchange the information. However, the sharing and networking of geographic information involves more than data exchange, and the flow of data through communications in a techncial sense. It also involves more substantive policies and deliberate actions, either by organizations or individuals, who recognize the benefits of disseminating and making use of geographic information for a wide range of pruposes. Surprisingly, the subject of sharing geographic information meets much resistance in many organizations. Further, limitations of technical abilities, in software, systems, standards and formats, also detracts from the simple exchange and optimized networking of geographic infomration.
Considering these facts, it is not uncommon for agencies to encounter numerous impediments and incentives regarding the sharing and networking of GIS data. In some cases recognition of such issues has began a process of developing common polices, in other cases, it has simply exaserbated the problem.
When dealing with Youth-related information collection, assembly, distribution, and sharing one must highlight the organizational and techncial issues regarding the sharing and networking of such information.
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Angelicum Oda
Joined: Oct 11, 2003
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Gender & Age: Male, 25
Country: Philippines
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Are they safe?
December 28, 2003 - 11:45 AM
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Here's a copy of my Report for Children's Safety on Friendster.com Networking andInformation sharing Issues. These concerns a great deal of Children's Safety Online.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
Friendster is an online community that connects people through networks of friends.
Friendster, Inc. is a privately held corporation, headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA. The company was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Jonathan Abrams, and is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, Battery Ventures, and individual investors.
Management Team:
Jonathan Abrams - Founder & CEO
Jonathan Abrams is the creator of Friendster. Jonathan was previously the founder & CEO of HotLinks, and has worked in senior engineering roles at companies such as Netscape and Nortel. Jonathan holds an Honors B.Sc. in Computer Science from McMaster University.
John Briggs - Vice President, Product Management
John previously spent 6 years at Yahoo!, where he was Senior Producer for Yahoo! Media properties, Director of Production for E-Commerce, and Vice-President and General Manager of Yahoo! Finance. Before Yahoo!, John was a senior product manager at Lotus. John holds a BA in Economics from San Francisco State University.
Kent Lindstrom - Vice President, Finance
Prior to Friendster, Kent was COO of Caststream, COO of Luminow, and President of NetRead. He was also Senior Manager and Practice Leader at Deloitte & Touche. Kent holds an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Jeff Winner - Vice President, Engineering
Previously Jeff was VP of Engineering at DemandTec, VP of Engineering at ePatterns, VP of Engineering at eGroups, Director of Engineering at Impresse, and Director of Security at Netscape. Jeff holds an M.S. in Computer Science and B.S. degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from M.I.T.
Board of Directors:
Jonathan Abrams - Jonathan is the founder & CEO of Friendster.
John Doerr - John is a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. John currently serves on the Board of Directors of Intuit, Amazon.com, WebMD.com, Drugstore.com, Homestore.com, Handspring, Sun Microsystems, Google, Good Technology, Elance and Smartpipes. John holds a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Rice University and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
Bob Kagle - Bob is a founder and General Partner of Benchmark Capital. Prior to Benchmark, Bob spent 12 years as a General Partner with Technology Venture Investors. Bob also serves on the board of directors of eBay, Ariba, and E-LOAN. Bob holds a B.S. degree in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the General Motors Institute (renamed Kettering University in January 1998) and an M.B.A. degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Tim Koogle - TK was the first chief executive of Yahoo!, serving as President and CEO from 1995 to 2001, Chairman from 1999 to 2001, and a member of the Board of Directors until 2003. TK holds a B.S. from the University of Virginia, and an M.S. and doctorate in engineering from Stanford University.
Roger Lee - Roger joined Battery Ventures in 2001 and focuses on software investments. Prior to joining Battery, Roger was a co-founder of Corio. Prior to Corio, Roger was the Manager of Internet Products at Edify Corporation. Previously, Roger was the co-founder and President of NetMarket. Roger graduated with distinction from Yale University with a BA in Political Science.
Friendster.com has been such a BOOM on the Internet for these past eight months. For awhile, it has made me curious by it's trademark company name Friendster.com. Suddenly on a Local Forum, there popped-out a topic concerning this site entitled "Who's Friendster addict here?" Being a regular on that particular forum, I know for sure that no less than 30% are young ones, specially the ones who participated on that thread concerning Friendster. This fact makes me exceedingly worry about these children's safety online that if on worst cases not being guided can be an offline issue as well. I give it a space, I let weeks pass until the issue fades. I'm wrong to expect that when I suddenly hear that my 21-year old brother is now a member, and hundreds of his 18+ and college-student classmates. And by the time that getting a digital camera isn't so hard anymore even for kids, I knew it, everybody from school have a Friendster account.
I'm first an foremost worried about these kid's safety online, henceforth this site is responsible enough to make their Terms and Conditions as well as their Privacy Policy, they haven't been too meticulous or averagely-concern about the age of millions of ther members.
STUDY OF THEIR TERMS AND CONDITION:
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Eligibility. You must be eighteen or over to register as a member of Friendster or use the Web site. Membership in the Service is void where prohibited. By using the Web site, you represent and warrant that you have the right, authority, and capacity to enter into this Agreement and to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
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>> It is pretty impressive that they put this Eligibility Agreement first and foremost into account. But it takes actions more than just words, are they really aware of this? I say no. It's easy to say that you were born 18+ years ago.
>>I have seen thousands of children' accounts in this website, they say they're either 18, 19, 20... but their profile will say "Fourth Year High School," "Grade 6 Student"...so on. It might be on the user's choice wether they want to do things or not, but this is not just an issue of who's choice is it, the safety, the fact that they're leaking out informations of themselves, and the fact that this can lead to serious unsafeness of their offline life.
>>Friendster stated that these age-voiding is prohibited, are they taking the least possible actions to concern this eligibility agreement. If it's prohibited then it must be prohibited, therefore it must be corrected, reminded and taken action to.
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Term. This Agreement will remain in full force and effect while you use the Web site and/or are a Member. You may terminate your membership at any time, for any reason by following the instructions on the Cancel Account page in Account Settings. Friendster may terminate your membership for any reason, at any time. If Friendster terminates your membership in the Service because you have breached the Agreement, you will not be entitled to any refund of unused subscription fees. Even after membership is terminated, this Agreement will remain in effect.
Non Commercial Use by Members. The Web site is for the personal use of individual Members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors. Organizations, companies, and/or businesses may not become Members and should not use the Service or the Web site for any purpose. Illegal and/or unauthorized uses of the Web site, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email and unauthorized framing of or linking to the Web site will be investigated, and appropriate legal action will be taken, including without limitation, civil, criminal, and injunctive redress.
Proprietary Rights in Content on Friendster. Friendster owns and retains all proprietary rights in the Web site and the Service. The Web site contains the copyrighted material, trademarks, and other proprietary information of Friendster, and its licensors. Except for that information which is in the public domain or for which you have been given written permission, you may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, distribute, perform, display, or sell any such proprietary information.
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Content Posted on the Site.
You understand and agree that Friendster may review and delete any content, messages, photos or profiles (collectively, "Content" that in the sole judgment of Friendster violate this Agreement or which might be offensive, illegal, or that might violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of Members.
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>>If this quote was written because the Friendster Staffs knows that they might delete unsafe information and other safety and private concerning statistics, then the question will be: Are they actually doing even the least possible move to scan, review, deem the description and personal profiles of their users? Again I say no, why no, while users profile containing their school names, their weekend malls, and other information that are exceedingly unsafe for children under 18 and some are even under 15.
>>While testimonials of Networked friends from account-to-account are possibly using different langguages like spanish, cebuano, tagalog etc... how will friendster be able to know what's right, wrong, offensive and violating to what their users are saying, do they have international lingguistic translators to trace and track their users? How if the members are actually leaking their home addresses or leaking somebody else's?
>>Now this agreement quote actually quotes "safety of members" I have seen for the fact that MANY Filipinos who are students of high-school and grade school levels have released their Photos, Schools and Hometown. MANY instances of this accounts can lead to offline unlikely events. Dangerous and Malicious people can wait for these students OUTSIDE their School Gates, their houses..and this obviously can POSSIBLY lead to many issues. Kidnapping, Rape, and so many more criminal happenings.
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Your profile must describe you, an individual person. Examples of inappropriate profiles include, but are not limited to, profiles that purport to represent an animal, place, inanimate object, fictional character, or real individual who is not you.
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>>MY personal investigation lead me to conclusion that thousands have been signing up as an Animal, As McDonalds, Jollibee as Junk-Food, as a Magazine, as Harry Potter, as Cinderella, as Brad Pitt, as Carlos Agassi, and as a different person. I'm concluding that there are more than one thousand Users who have signed up as another or different user.
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You are solely responsible for the Content that you publish or display (hereinafter, "post" on the Service, or transmit to other Members.
By posting Content to any public area of Friendster, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to Friendster an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid, worldwide license to use, copy, perform, display, and distribute such information and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.
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>>How if a child isn't even aware of this, how if they're not educated to be aware of this dangerous nature, will friendster just let it happen? I can also conclude that more than 10% of this site's members haven't even read one passage of the Terms of Service and The Privacy Policy.
>>If the child is not aware of this, or even if an adult isn't aware of the safety issue, Friendster is suggested to give them credible and high-quality links to lead them to sites that explains and describes online safety. I see none.
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Privacy. Use of the Web site and/or the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy.
Disclaimers. Friendster is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate Content posted on the Web site or in connection with the Service, whether caused by users of the Web site, Members or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Service. Friendster is not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any user of the Web site or Member of the Service. Friendster assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, user or Member communications. Friendster is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of email or players on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any web site or combination thereof, including injury or damage to users and/or Members or to any other person's computer related to or resulting from participating or downloading materials in connection with the Web and/or in connection with the Service. Under no circumstances will Friendster be responsible for any loss or damage, including personal injury or death, resulting from anyone's use of the Web site or the Service, any Content posted on the Web site or transmitted to Members, or any interactions between users of the Web site, whether online or offline. The Web site and the Service are provided "AS-IS" and Friendster expressly disclaims any warranty of fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Friendster cannot guarantee and does not promise any specific results from use of the Web site and/or the Service. The service may be temporarily unavailable from time to time for maintenance or other reasons. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by user from Friendster or through or from the service shall create any warranty not expressly stated herein.
Limitation on Liability. Except in jurisdictions where such provisions are restricted, in no event will Friendster be liable to you or any third person for any indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, special or punitive damages, including also lost profits arising from your use of the Web site or the Service, even if Friendster has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, Friendster's liability to you for any cause whatsoever, and regardless of the form of the action, will at all times be limited to the amount paid, if any, by you to Friendster for the Service during the term of membership.
Disputes. If there is any dispute about or involving the Web site and/or the Service, by using the Web site, you agree that the dispute will be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You agree to personal jurisdiction by and venue in the state and federal courts of the State of California, City of Sunnyvale.
Indemnity. You agree to indemnify and hold Friendster, its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and other partners and employees, harmless from any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorney's fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the Service in violation of this Agreement and/or arising from a breach of this Agreement and/or any breach of your representations and warranties set forth above. If You are a California resident, You waive California Civil Code Section 1542, which says "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which, if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."
No Agency. There is no agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchisor-franchisee relationship between Friendster and any User of the Service.
Other. This Agreement, accepted upon use of the Web site and further affirmed by becoming a Member of the Service, contains the entire agreement between you and Friendster regarding the use of the Web site and/or the Service. The failure of Friendster to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms of Service shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid, the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect. The section titles in these Terms of Service are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.
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This Issue alerted me so so highly. I can see MANY photos of high school and even gradeschool students, not photos of 18+ in their baby or teen days, just to clear, photos of presently 18 belows. On their profile are their schools, which make everything worst. AND so many other personal, private and unguarded information that can highly-possibly be an offline danger for these kids who are not aware of the safety issue.
Why are these children not aware? more than an average 30% (acc my calculation) of 18- users are first-time internet users who have tried to learn minor online browsing management JUST TO have an account at Friendster because their 'cool' friends have some themselves, and they're doing this to gain Friends and Connections on their Friendster Account's personal network.
Why is friendster Addicting? For kids, it's nice to see your face published online knowing for the fact that millions can see you from around the globe. Plus gaining network of friends from this website is addictive that a first-time user will invite even thousands more of his online and offline friends thru email. Many teens of these days are addictive to new and cool things around, no wonder this friendster idea spread mostly on schools and other children-group themed places like schools, extra-curricular workshops so on...
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