Daily Archives: September 1, 2009

As social networking sites such as Facbeook and MySpace continue to grow in popularity, some minorities may feel left out by English sites. But ApnaCafe, a new networking site launched in April 2009, offers the worldwide Desi community the ability to connect in their own language.

ApnaCafe allows users to set up profiles and communicate with one another using regional languages including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Tamil, Telugu and Arabic.

The main focus of the site is to empower the online Desi community and allow members to share information in a comfortable environment, according to CEO Yasin Rahim.

“ApnaCafe was primarily started to consolidate all Desi-specific core applications and as a platform to bring friends from different networking sites together in one place, giving users many powerful features with a Desi identity,” says Rahim.

As with other networking sites, ApnaCafe’s clean design and user-friendly layout enables users to share information online the same way they do in the real world. They can connect with friends, find people with shared interests, join groups, send messages, share videos, compose blogs, write movie reviews and post photos.

In addition to the innumerable data-sharing features, ApnaCafe employs a points system that rewards users for surfing the site. As users accumulate points, they can redeem them for electronics, DVDs, music and books using the site’s shopping system.

The site also makes it simple to incorporate users’ other social networking accounts into their ApnaCafe profile. Anyone can import contact lists, address books and display their Twitter feeds and write scraps similar to Orkut on their profiles, all in their own languages. Users can also register for ApnaCafe using Facebook, which pulls all the information from their Facebook profile to establish an ApnaCafe profile quickly and easily.

http://www.apnacafe.com

FertilityTies, a social network for the fertility-focused, revealed a new site design today as well as features that appeal to those struggling with infertility or embarking on a journey towards conception.
FertilityTies is a comprehensive online community affiliated with accredited medical professionals, which offers support and answers to those faced with infertility or trying to conceive. www.FertilityTies.com connects the fertility-focused with fellow peers and practitioners, allowing members to blog about their journeys and “follow” others (in a Twitter-like style), arming members with special tools, providing Q&As with accredited medical professionals, forums for discussion and the latest fertility news and polls about timely issues.
New features include:
– An Ovulation Calendar, FREE service that allows members to chart their temperatures & daily physical symptoms to calculate their fertile days.
– A Fertility Store, members can browse through various products that will help them through their fertility journey.
– A Fertility Clinics’ & Doctors’ Directory, which lists clinics and doctors across the country and includes users’ reviews as well as easy to navigate maps to locate nearest facilities. Featured clinics will have a full profile and will include doctors’ photos and videos to facilitate members’ search efforts.
– “Featured Doctor” and “Featured Clinic” — The site now introduces members to a “featured doctor” or “featured clinic” in their town, and users have the ability to connect with them and get answers to their questions.
“FertilityTies.com continues to make strives to develop a one-stop shop for those trying to conceive and facing infertility,” said Veronica Alvarez, CEO of FertilityTies.com.
“Our goal is to develop tools and features that can make this journey easier for our members, empowering them with reliable medical information and the ability to connect with others when looking for a physician that is the perfect match for them.”
About FertilityTies
Founded by Veronica Alvarez, an accomplished professional with an extensive business background. While she herself has not undergone fertility treatments, she is passionate about online communities and “building products that help make the world a better place.” She has over 12 years of experience creating, building, and running some of the largest communities on the web, having worked with Yahoo! En espanol, Yahoo! Personals, Yahoo! Avatars etc.

SocialTwist.com today announced that its website and tool, Tell-a-friend Widget, are certified to display the TRUSTe Privacy Seal, which demonstrates its commitment to consumer privacy and trust online. Users can now trust the tool to safeguard their privacy and feel secure.
TRUSTe, the leading privacy certification and seal program, awards its privacy seal only to companies that complete the rigorous TRUSTe certification process and agree to comply with ongoing oversight and TRUSTe’s consumer dispute resolution process.
“By becoming a TRUSTe seal holder, SocialTwist gives its customers a clear signal that it is trustworthy and respects the privacy wishes of the people who use its widget,” said Fran Maier, CEO of TRUSTe. “SocialTwist joins more than 3,000 organizations committed to building consumer trust online through participation in the TRUSTe Privacy Seal program.”
The TRUSTe Privacy Seal is one of the most recognized branded symbols of trust among consumers. The TRUSTe Privacy Seal communicates that a website has posted a privacy statement and that its information gathering and dissemination practices follow guidelines for notice, choice, access, security and redress outlined in the Federal Trade Commission’s Fair Information Practices.
“We are pleased to join TRUSTe in advancing responsible information practices online. The certification proves our commitment to give our customers a great and safe online experience. Now websites using Tell-a-Friend too will get the benefit of providing word-of-mouth marketing tool that safeguards consumer privacy and security for their users,” said Vijay Pullur, President of SocialTwist.
Ongoing monitoring and the Watchdog Consumer Dispute Resolution mechanism are cornerstones of the TRUSTe Privacy Seal and Certification Program. Through automated monitoring, TRUSTe systematically monitors the practices of seal program participants to ensure ongoing compliance with program requirements. In addition, TRUSTe provides consumers and organizations an effective, easy-to-use method to resolve privacy disputes through its online Watchdog Dispute Resolution service.
About SocialTwist
SocialTwist is a leading provider of Word Of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) and social sharing products. Its Tell-a-Friend (TAF) widget supports a wide range of channels and services for spreading content through one-on-one messaging and social platforms. Using TAF4Branding and TAF4Commerce products marketers can get complete control over messaging and branding of visitor communication. TAF4Rewards product helps in promoting more word of mouth spread. Over 40,000 websites and blogs have successfully run TAF campaigns and seen great ROI. SocialTwist is a division of Hyderabad based Pramati Technologies. Visit www.socialtwist.com for more information.
About TRUSTe
TRUSTe Privacy Seals help consumers click with confidence by guiding them to trustworthy Web sites. Thousands of Web sites rely on TRUSTe industry best practices to help them make the right decisions about privacy and protecting confidential user information. Most of the top fifty Web sites are certified to TRUSTe’s leading practices, including Yahoo, Facebook, MSN, eBay, AOL, Disney, New York Times, Comcast and Apple. To find out more about privacy, visit www.truste.com.

Edinburgh International Festival will be sending out live Twitter updates from the panel discussion on The Enlightenment and the Academies from 2.30pm, Tuesday 1 September. Twitter users will be able to follow the discussion from a distance via regular updates on the themes being addressed. Followers can also ask questions through Twitter by including the hastag #eanda in their tweets. These questions will be relayed to the panel at the end of the discussion.

The discussion will focus on the role of Academies in the development of free and independent thinking that flourished through the Enlightenment and how that may carry on today. The panel is made up of Lord Stewart Sutherland, former Principal of the University of Edinburgh, and Paul Wood, Professor of History at the University of Victoria, Canada. The discussion will be chaired by Dr Louise Richardson, Principal of the University of St Andrews.

The event is taking place as part of a series of talks and discussions at The Hub which investigate some of the key ideas of the Enlightenment, complementing the theme of the 2009 International Festival. The series is presented in partnership with the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Nature and the Wellcome Trust.

Edinburgh International Festival can be found on Twitter at eif.co.uk/twitter and tomorrow’s conversation can be followed from 2.30pm by searching the hashtag #eanda at search.twitter.com.

The new social networking site, www.UniversityoftheGreen.org , is the world’s first site to bring eco-friendly people together who want to support environmental protection causes and raise awareness of the going green lifestyle.

UniversityoftheGreen.org is 100% non-profit and is the only social networking site dedicated to promoting awareness, education, and action on global environmental issues both on and off-line. The idea for the site was dreamed up by devoted ‘green’ College Professor, Shawna Schenk.

The objective of the site is to incorporate a social networking platform which provides education and awareness about global environmental issues and brings people together who are passionate about promoting a green lifestyle. Similar to popular social networking sites, members have the ability to communicate back and forth to each other. By sharing photos, comments and postings, members can discuss current environmental issues, going green initiatives, and tips for living an eco-friendly lifestyle. Members can also recruit ‘roommates’, similar to Facebook’s popular ‘group’ application.

UniversityoftheGreen.org has distinct ‘academic inspired’ features and a creative design. For instance, instead of creating profiles, users create and personalize their own ‘dorm rooms’ to identify themselves. Consumers can visit the ‘classroom’ for a lesson in global warming and climate change.

Becoming a member of the first green University is simple; consumers just need to ‘enroll’ online by visiting http://www.universityofthegreen.org/enroll.php

Founder and creator Shawna Schenk started exploring global warming many years ago and began encouraging her students to follow more eco-friendly lifestyles. According to Shawna, “University of the Green is the University of the World. It’s not just for college students; it’s for anyone who wants to be a student of the earth. We need to understand what our world is going through, only then can we make it better.”

UniversityoftheGreen.org will be promoting eco-friendly actions online and on ground through events and fundraisers which will bring environmental awareness to communities. Shawna adds, “Simple lifestyle changes like purchasing energy efficient light bulbs can help make a difference. I want to show people how one small change can be significant if you multiply that change by the amount of people in the world.”

To learn more about going green, visit http://www.universityofthegreen.org

Today marks the opening of Hub Bay Area, a member-based work and event space for social innovators to work, meet, connect and inspire. Located at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, Calif., Hub Bay Area offers social entrepreneurs, freelance professionals, artists, funders, students, mentors, and community leaders a dynamic space to access market opportunities and capital, build community and scale ideas.
Hub Members receive a set of tools and services from a community of professional hosts, mentors and local enterprises who are passionate about building and scaling innovative ideas. From donated legal services, to mentor office hours, to unlimited coffee and tea, Hub Members gain valuable support in a nourishing environment. Prospective members should e-mail [email protected] for more information.
The concept of The Hub borrows from a member’s club, business incubator, idea lab, and inviting coffee shop, to create a work habitat for social innovators. The Hub began four years ago in London and quickly spread to 18 cities and across four continents. Today, there are nearly 4,000 Members of The Hub, interconnected by a place-based and online network.
Hub Bay Area, the first Hub location in the United States, was started in partnership with Hub Global by a San Francisco-based team who founded Good Capital and The Social Capital Markets Conference (SoCap). “We are thrilled to be working with the people from Good Capital and SoCap, and the stellar team they’ve put together,” said Jonathan Robinson, co-founder of The Hub Global. “We have known them for years and are impressed at what they have accomplished at the forefront of a new kind of investing, and at the way they have been able to convene and build strong community.”
Hub Bay Area was designed by a team of architects, Hub Members, IDEO and MBA students at UC Berkeley’s Haas Business School. The space at the David Brower Center features collaborative workspaces, meeting rooms, private phones booths, kitchen and cafe, and lounge areas that reflect the dynamic working needs of its members.
A primary vehicle for supporting Hub Members is The Hub’s Innovation Series, which began July 27 with Money, Mobs, and Media – a dialogue between the founders of Kiva, Virgance, and Change.org, about creating and scaling community-driven non-profit and for-profit social enterprises. The Hub Innovation Series will regularly produce interactive events focused on inspiration, aspiration and operation of social change.
“We are providing a home, inspiring community and support structure for those who are building solutions for people and planet. By connecting change-makers, sharing resources, and cultivating new ideas, we can massively increase the scale the impact of our collective work,” says Alex Michel, Managing Director of Hub Bay Area.
Hub Bay Area will open its doors September 1 in conjunction with the start of SoCap09, which will feature the world’s leading social innovators and impact investors. SoCap09 will be keynoted by Sonal Shah, director of social innovation at the White House. The Hub will also be at SoCap, providing a Hub Lounge to connect attendees, while also hosting an evening with IDEO, Kiva, Acumen, Full Circle Fund, and other leading, local social enterprises.
Plans are in place to extend Hub Bay Area to the Mission District in San Francisco in early 2010, and into the South Bay in 2011. “Bringing the Hub concept to the Bay Area and beyond is a natural extension of what we are already doing,” says Kevin Jones, a founder of both Good Capital and SoCap. “We convene many of the people who are making the social capital market happen in an annual conference, but The Hub is where the rubber meets the road every day of the year.”
For more about The Hub, SoCap09, or Good Capital, please contact 415.624.5881 or email [email protected].