Category: Facebook

Blackberry and Facebook Save Life?

January 25, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

Two newspaper articles cover the same thing: 

• Blackberry, Facebook Save Child's Life
• Sleeping child rescued from stolen vehicle

While it is unclear why a mother would leave a child in a running vehicle for any length of time, the word did apparently get out through a Blackberry. How Facebook was specifically involved remains unclear.

The discrepancy in the reporting between the Trinidad Express and Trinidad Guardian is worth exploring.

Facebook Usage and Trinidad and Tobago

January 14, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

While assisting someone with some information, I came across this data regarding Facebook usage in Trinidad and Tobago. Apparently, there are 266,920 Facebook users in Trinidad and Tobago - a figure which puts Trinidad and Tobago at number 77 of the global ranking.

Given that Alexa reports that the top visited site in Trinidad and Tobago is Facebook - higher than even Google and other search engines - it can be said that the users online on Facebook, numbering 266,920 users, are the core active users of the Internet in Trinidad and Tobago.

But what does that really mean? What sort of use do you think Facebook has within Trinidad and Tobago? Is it just a replacement for Solitaire in offices, or is there something more important going on?

(Seriously, I'd like to know what you think).

First Documented Facebook Related Assault in T&T

December 29, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

The most visited site from Trinidad and Tobago remains Facebook - and now the first documented Facebook related assault has come:

...Court prosecutor Sgt Dianne Boxhill told the magistrate the alleged incident occurred after “a message” was posted on Internet social network, Facebook. According to the prosecutor, the accused confronted Arneaud on Charlotte Street, and she was allegedly stabbed about the body with a knife...

Not that Facebook has much to do with the stabbing other than a form of communication. Even so, when people can communicate more frequently the only control over what is communicated belongs to those communicating.

Don't stab your Facebook friends. Or enemies, for that matter.

Trinidad and Tobago, Social Media and Crime

November 19, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

I'd heard some rumblings beforehand about Criminals Soon To Be Posted On Facebook but didn't write of it because I don't like to write about rumors. But there it is, voiced by Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert on Tuesday. I'd tried to change a few minds on it but didn't get a chance to talk to anyone who was actually making decisions - so I'll outline why I think it is good and bad.

First, the good:

• Facebook is the most visited site from Trinidad and Tobago, so posting such information there is better than nothing on the Internet.

Now the bad:

• As the Guardian article I linked to indicates, Facebook is a 'privately-owned, social-networking Web site'. It's also what we social media pros call a walled garden. And because it is a walled garden, its efficacy for disseminating information is decreased by the walls of the garden. 

So, what did I suggest? I suggested a Flickr Professional account (at $25 US per year) that would allow, with proper tagging, such criminals to have their photos up and also be found through mainstream search engines. Coupled with a rather simple implementation of a content management system, such as used here at KnowTnT.com, this could be a powerful tool for fighting crime. No, I wasn't looking for business. They could do it themselves, I'd just like to see it done right.

That said, it is good to see that social media is being seen as a tool for fighting crime in Trinidad and Tobago. I just wish that they chose a more effective path. And they can still do it. The option is always there.

A Social Media Example: Looking For V.S. Naipaul

October 20, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

In the heels of my last post about Facebook being a walled garden, I decided to play around a little last night. The muse was Karel McIntosh's post on Caribbean Celebrities on Twitter.

Of course, I had to make it amusing just to make it interesting for myself and so I went off looking for V.S. Naipaul on Twitter. After all, that idea seems so outrageous that I doubt anyone ever checked. Unsurprisingly, he's not tweeting - at least as V.S. Naipaul. Had I found him on Twitter I probably would have gone into shock. 

140 characters just doesn't seem like something he'd be too awfully interested in expressing himself in.

So I poked around a bit more. I checked Flickr for images of V.S. Naipaul, and that netted a fair amount of images of the Nobel Laureate. That also netted the image you see above. Georgia Popplewell over at CaribbeanFreeRadio.com was kind enough not only to post the image, but to make it available through a Creative Commons license - so that I can share it with you. {Read more}

Facebook, Social Media and Trinidad and Tobago

October 19, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

Facebook is a very popular social networking tool in Trinidad and Tobago - in fact, it's the most viewed website from Trinidad and Tobago. It's a great way to keep in touch with friends - I use it myself. I have nothing against it. But, people, it's not the Internet.

Yesterday, one of my acquaintances on Facebook posted a link to some pictures of another one of their acquaintances that showed the living conditions of the Chinese workers who protested last week because of poor living conditions, amongst other things. The photos were good, though I must admit that I've seen people living under worse conditions within Trinidad and Tobago. Even so, I can't share these images with you because they're on Facebook - not where they could be visible by everyone.

Like a broken record/scratched CD, I once again pointed out that the images would be better off on a photo sharing site like Flickr (I'm partial to Flickr because I've been using it for years. There are others!). And the response I got was, "He doesn't know how to upload them to Flickr. Do you want to upload them?"

I bit back my first and second responses because Flickr's sole purpose is for people to upload pictures. I'm supposed to be an old man compared to the generation coming up: I'm supposed to be the one complaining that I don't know how to do things. What's wrong with you children? Get with it!

Registering a free account on Flickr couldn't be easier; uploading the images can be (arguably) easier than dealing with Facebook's uploading of images. What it boils down to is that (1) he didn't know better and (2) he was uncomfortable with a website which is remarkably simpler than Facebook. I can do nothing about the second but I can address the first. {Read more}