Mediaboss Marketing

Vodacom has announced kill off its social networking play The Grid by 1 December.

The location-based social network, which in 2010 had around two million members in South Africa, Nigeria and Tanzania, was accessible by mobile users around the world.

The Grid, which was formed in 2007 alongside instant messaging service Meep, allowed people to chat to friends, see where they were on a map and share pictures and videos with them.

It also briefly partnered with South African-based terrestrial TV network etv to show the daily mood of the country during the morning weather report.

The mobile network sent out mass SMSes confirming the planned termination date:

As of 1/12/2012 well be discontinuing the service. Please log on and retrieve any contacts or details that youd like to save. The Grid team.

Two of the leads on The Grid Vincent Maher and Nic Haralambous went on to form social community builder Motribe in 2010. After a couple of successful apps, Motribe itself was bought out by Mxit the social network which The Grid had initially been built to compete with.

This is the second big social project that Vodacom has killed this year. Back in July, Memeburn sister site Ventureburn reported that the mobile giant was planning to sell its stake in mobile video product Zoopy. Shortly thereafter Zoopys founders announced that they would be leaving the company.

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Vodacom scuppers social play The Grid

ALISO VIEJO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Quest Software, Inc. (now a part of Dell) today introduced new advice on how to maximize the deployment of the social functionality in SharePoint 2013 to accelerate user adoption. In addition, the company unveiled Quest Social Hub available now on the Microsoft SharePoint Store a new companion tool to Quest Web Parts for SharePoint that enables users to integrate external social media networks within SharePoint.

Much has been made about the advantages offered by SharePoint 2013, including shredded storage, HTML5 UIs, new APIs and a cloud-friendly application model. But these new capabilities alone will not drive adoption because end users simply dont care about features designed for engineers and developers. The key feature in SharePoint 2013 is social geared for end users and transforming the collaboration experience, which, in turn, can drive SharePoint adoption.

Why IT should care about social in SharePoint 2013

The social enhancements in SharePoint 2013 enable organizations to greatly improve the work experience for users. New features include:

And, while theres a reluctance to bring social into the enterprise, there are significant benefits for todays globally distributed workplace in adopting a social mentality. These benefits include the ability to accelerate collaboration across geographies and time zones, as well as improved end user engagement, which leads to adoption and the better information control that is critical to good governance.

Quest helps organizations leverage SharePoint 2013 social to revolutionize end user experience and accelerate adoption

Supporting quote:

Chris McNulty, director, product management, SharePoint business unit, Quest Software

Supporting Resources:

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Quest Software Offers Tips and New Tool for Leveraging SharePoint 2013 Social Networking to Drive Adoption

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --ICAP Patent Brokerage announces for auction social networking and internet privacy techniques from inventor John W. Ogilvie. This lot will be included in the 17th ICAP Ocean Tomo IP Auction on November 29, 2012, at The Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, California.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100614/CG20517LOGO)

"We are excited to be offering an IP portfolio that combines the popularity of social media with the importance of internet privacy to our global base of buyers," says Dean Becker, CEO of ICAP Patent Brokerage. "This offering is relevant to social networking sites and virtual communities interested in protecting the privacy of their users."

Key Characteristics & BenefitsThe portfolio discloses techniques for protecting the personal information of a user on a website, and for encouraging users to securely share their personal information with a service provider in order to reduce the risk of unwanted offline encounters. Social networking website users want to maintain control over the information in their social profiles, but also want to communicate via instant message, blogs, and forums with other users. The techniques available for sale provide improved protection of a user's personal information to the precise extent desired over social networking websites.

Utilizing this technology, users and service providers can reach a mutually agreeable balance between complete anonymity and full online disclosure of users' offline identities. In some cases, a user's personal information is securely shared with a service provider but not with other users so the service provider can help the user avoid contact with specified groups online and/or offline, such as online advertisers. In other cases, a proposed online identifier, either an avatar or username, of a user is compared with personal information and is accepted only if it does not pose an excessive risk of revealing the offline identity of the user. Therefore, security of a user's personal information is increased, allowing the users to securely and beneficially disclose their offline activities, such as planned travel, interests, pictures, postings, or contact details, to providers of social networking websites.

For a technical description of this IP sales offering, click here.

To learn more about the assets available for sale in this portfolio: Contact Dean Becker of ICAP Patent Brokerage at (561) 309-0011 or via email at Dean.Becker@us.icap.com.

To register for the upcoming event or submit IP for consideration for the auction, click here.

Follow us on Twitter (@ICAP_Auction_IP) and join our LinkedIn group.

About ICAP Patent BrokerageICAP Patent Brokerage is a division of ICAP plc and the world's largest intellectual property brokerage and patent auction firm.

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Social Networking and Internet Privacy Package for Sale at ICAP Patent Brokerage Intellectual Property Auction

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --ICAP Patent Brokerage announces for auction a social networking portfolio from TTB Technologies, LLC, which includes computer-based technologies facilitating online invitation and advertisement postings. This lot will be included in the 17th ICAP Ocean Tomo IP Auction on November 29, 2012, at The Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, California.

(LOGO: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100614/CG20517LOGO)

"We are excited to offer this innovative social networking portfolio to our global base of buyers. With the proliferation of social networking for personal and professional use, this package is an important addition to the IP portfolios of social networking service providers and online marketing companies wishing to facilitate secure, beneficial connections for users," says Dean Becker, CEO of ICAP Patent Brokerage.

Key Characteristics & Benefits This sales offering includes a wide variety of computer-based social networking technologies to facilitate online invitation and advertisement postings. Technologies include:

See this technical description of the social networking invitation IP sales offering.

To learn more about the assets available for sale in this portfolio: Contact Paul Greco of ICAP Patent Brokerage at (212) 815-6692 or via email at Paul.Greco@us.icap.com.

Register for the upcoming event or submit IP for consideration for the ICAP Patent Brokerage auction.

Follow us on Twitter (@ICAP_Auction_IP) and join our LinkedIn group.

About ICAP Patent Brokerage ICAP Patent Brokerage is a division of ICAP plc and the world's largest intellectual property brokerage and patent auction firm.

About ICAP ICAP is the world's leading interdealer broker and provider of post trade risk and information services. The Group matches buyers and sellers in the wholesale markets in interest rates, credit, commodities, FX, emerging markets and equity derivatives through voice and electronic networks. Through our post trade risk and information services we help our customers manage and mitigate risks in their portfolios. For more information, go to http://www.icap.com.

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Versatile Social Networking Portfolio for Sale at ICAP Patent Brokerage Intellectual Property Auction

Public release date: 7-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Stephanie Burns sburns@bmjgroup.com 44-020-738-36920 BMJ-British Medical Journal

[Influence of social networking websites on medical school and residency selection process Online First doi 10.1136/postgradmedj-2012-131283]

The use of social networking sites is set to increasingly influence the selection of medical students and trainee doctors in the US, suggests the largest study of its kind published online in Postgraduate Medical Journal.

The authors base their findings on the responses of 600 staff involved in admissions procedures for medical schools and residency programs (for trainee doctors) in the US. Most respondents were either program directors or residency coordinators.

Forty six respondents (8%) were involved in medical school applications only; 511 (85%) were involved in reviewing residency program applications; and 43 (7%) were involved in both.

One in seven (15%) of the med schools and residency programs maintained a profile on a social networking site. And half of the respondents said they themselves had a social networking profile on Facebook (97%), LinkedIn (22%), or Twitter (13%).

Almost two out of three respondents said they were somewhat or very familiar with researching individuals on social networking sites.

While only around one in 10 (9%) admitted to using social networking sites to evaluate applicants, around one in five (19%) said they used some type of internet search to pick up information on applicants.

Only around one in seven (15%) schools/programs said they plan to use the web/social networking sites to search out information on candidates in future, but 29% were neutral on the issue, prompting the authors to suggest that the use of this method could therefore increase in the future.

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Social networking info will increasingly influence med student and trainee doctor selection