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ABU DHABI: The UAE Ministry of Interior has warned of suspicious messages through social networking that promote narcotic drugs.

In a statement, the ministry said that it has recently noticed that some UAE residents have been receiving random calls on their personal phones and messages via WhatsApp.

"These contacts from foreign countries include messages from Pakistan that carry pictures of narcotic drugs, and ask for money transfers in order to receive them," it added.

The ministry stated that it is confident about public awareness and dealing with anonymous sources and calls, which promote illicit trade and profit. "In fact, it is a fraud to seize funds from others. As such, those who get involved in this bogus trade will be legally accountable, in accordance with the Anti-Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act and Cyber Crimes."

It urged the public not to respond to those messages or reply them, adding that relevant authorities should be informed immediately about such suspicious messages.

Colonel Saeed Al Suwaidi, Director-General of the Anti-Drug Federal Directorate General at the Ministry of Interior, said that the messages have been monitored while stressing that work is underway in co-ordination with counterpart agencies in friendly and sisterly countries to monitor all forms of false communications, and to access their source in any location.

He emphasised that police and security authorities in the UAE were capable of paralysing such attempts, through their special relations with counterpart agencies in the relevant countries, to track down perpetrators.

Al Suwaidi urged the public not to hesitate to report any suspicious numbers, or people trying to sell contraband goods or committing illegal activities. The public should communicate with the relevant agencies through the telephone number, 80044.

WAM

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Ministry of Interior warns of fraudulent messages through social networking - Gulf Today

Talk to most people about social networks inside their company, and the immediate thought will be people wasting time on Facebook. But look beyond the internet and the technical, and all businesses are driven by old-fashioned social networks.

These are the networks that your employees interact through, driving your business, and creating new and surprisingly different ways of doing things. Fostering these networks and the people at the heart of them can help transform your organisation and find new ways of doing things. In particular, it's when people from across your company mix with other people outside their division or team, that the most benefits can be gained.

"When is a company more than the sum of its parts? When its once-siloed business units find a way to harvest innovations in the white space between them," writes Rob Cross in A Practical Guide to Social Networks.

The issue for many companies is that formal job descriptions and organisational charts encourage people to work within the confines of their teams. But it's when knowledge is shared, and different teams mix that real changes start to happen.

Informal networks and, in particular, specific people, tend to break through these walls, benefiting you company. It's the coming together of different expertise that can change how you do things and can even help you find new areas to expand into.

It's when knowledge is shared, and different teams mix that real changes start to happen

Every company should be looking at how it can break down silos and bring together its employees, strengthening the networks that exist and creating new ones.

The first trick is to identify the networks that currently exist and the people that support and grow them. Social network analysis, such as through employee surveys, workflow analysis and conversations with key managers, can help you work out what's going on. From this research, you'll be able to find out what the networks are inside your company, and the people that are most influential and work in the most networks.

It's likely that the results will surprise you. In addition to the more formal, company-controlled networks, such as through working groups, there are more informal networks. Most large organisations have many, possibly even hundreds, of informal social networks that you don't necessarily know about. All of this information is likely to show that your company works in a completely different way to how your organisational charts depict it.

Understanding how your company works is a good first step, but it's important to get into the social networks you've discovered, particularly the informal ones, and work out the ways of making them work harder for you.

"These seemingly invisible webs have also become central to performance and execution of strategy," writes Cross. "Research shows that appropriate connectivity in well-managed networks within organisations can have a substantial impact on performance, learning, and innovation."

By changing the way that your company works to reinforce its networks, you can modify the way that information and knowledge flows around your business.

A good place to start is with the individuals that were key to the networks you discovered. These supporting individuals are natural leaders and the ones that break the mould, changing the way that work is done. By utilising them and their skills, you can get them to help you reorganise your business. It's their knowledge of other teams and departments that can help bring people together.

With their expertise and help, you can examine more formal ways of bringing people together and ways that you can create new networking groups. For example, you may want to introduce a brainstorming day or hackathon, bringing disparate parts of your business together to think of new opportunities for your company. From this kind of networking event, you introduce people that would not normally work together, and the flow of knowledge can open up new ways of working.

It's incredible how much knowledge can be unlocked

More formal technology can help, too. A good place to start is with corporate social networking products, such as Slack, which actively encourage collaboration. Through its dedicated channels, employees can post queries that other interested personnel throughout your business can see and interact with. It's incredible how much knowledge can be unlocked, and how individuals can break free from their day-to-day role to add value in different parts of the business.

Key to making these tools work are the people at the heart of your existing networks. These are the people that can inspire collaboration and push knowledge sharing, encouraging other employees to stop looking internally and start sharing.

While there are no quick and easy methods to improve sharing, there's a universal truth: formal structures silo knowledge, and you need to find a way to unlock and free it.

Read the original post:
The benefits of informal social networks in the workplace - Telegraph.co.uk

Young patients at Victoria General Hospital now have access to a networking tool called Upopolis. It allows them to stay in touch with family and friends while they're undergoing treatment, but it also lets them make connections with other kids who share similar experiences.

"These benefits include being able to access medical content written specifically for the youth on Upopolisin kid friendly language, so they can better understand their illness and their diagnosis and their treatment plans," said Christina Papaevangelou, director of Kids' Health Links Foundation.

"It also enables connections with other patients who share similar diagnoses through public and private chat room discussions."

Upopolis is available to any young patient at Victoria General Hospital who is going through treatment, but they can also access the secure network when they're back at home.

"It really means a lot to them," said Papaevangelou.

"A lot of these youth have never met another person who has the same condition or diagnosis as them. Being able to meet a peer, maybe all the way across Canada, who really understands what they're going through, it helps them feel less alone, better understood."

The social network Upopolis allows sick kids to stay connected while they're in hospital. (Kids' Health Links Foundation)

It has the potential to help between 100 and 200 kids at Victoria General Hospital.

"We see patients here who have diabetes and other endocrine conditions," said Leah Dobell, manager for pediatric programs at Victoria General Hospital .

"We see patients who have cancer and blood disorders. We see patients who have cardiac conditions and we see patients with other varied complex, chronic conditions."

ButDobell thinks it will help young patients with rare conditions the most.

"Where there aren't other kids that they can be in touch with here locally, if they can find kids with the same or very similar condition on Upopolis and connect with them and share their experiences, I think it would be amazing," he said.

Access to Upopolis is restricted and monitored by adults with training in how to work with young hospital patients.

According to Dobell, that's part of what makes it unique.

"Other social media sites, like Facebook, are really all about glamorizing our lives, making us look as perfect and wonderful as possible," said Dobell.

"I think lots of kids don't want to post really personal stuff on those sites. So, to have a site where you can go on and just say, 'oh man, in the hospital again,' without having to explain why and what that means and the impact on their lives, I think it is just huge to be able to have peers who just get it."

Upopolis has been available in Canada since 2007. It's in almost every children's hospital in the country. The Victoria General Hospital is the first facility on the West Coast to join the social platform.

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A social network at Victoria General Hospital lets sick kids connect with each other - CBC.ca

Curatio, a social networking platform for patients, launched Wednesday. (Curatio Photo)

For peoplestruggling with a disease or a chronic health condition, more than just their physical health is at stake. These experiences can also take a toll on patients mental and emotionalhealth, and those can have a huge impact on how well a patient deals with their condition.

Thats somethingLynda Brown-Ganzert learned first hand when she struggled with fertility and a complicated pregnancy.

It was really isolating, and really difficult to find what I needed, she told GeekWire.

Brown-Ganzert had spent her entire career in digital media, but she found herself struggling to find resources on hercondition and connect tosocial support from other patients.

She thought to herself, woah, wait a minute. Ive worked in tech my entire life if Im not able to find this easily, what about folks that are notlike me?

In 2013, Brown-Ganzert teamed up with developer and entrepreneurAlireza Davoodi to found Curatio, a social networking platform for patients looking to connect with each other and with trusted health information. The platform officially launches today, andBrown-Ganzert said she hopes it will help patients around the world improve their physical health by improving their social and emotional health.

The platform relies on machine learning for its two main purposes: connecting users with each other to help form social support, and connecting patients with validated information about their condition. It can also be used by caregivers of patients.

Unlike other online resources, such as Facebook support groups, Curatio is also designed to protect patient privacy and ensure the content they are accessing has been validated by medical experts.

Brown-Ganzert said Curatios services fills a huge hole in the patient experience.

There are plenty of casual support groups out there, but what we havent seen is that type of proprietary matchmaking that weve built both matching people to people and people to content along with some of our initial work in AI, she said. I think its pretty exciting in terms of democratizing healthcare, so that you can come into a platform like Curatio and have the type of concierge service where we can help you find people you relate to and content, all on a private platform.

Curatios combination of privacy and personalization is its secret sauce, and studies of the platforms first users show that it has a real impact on patient health. A clinical study found that 75 percent of Curatios initial users were already showing improved health behaviors and 80 percent showed increased interest in personal health management.

Brown-Ganzert said the startup is also considering expanding the platform to be used for other communities, like those with mental health and the LGBT community. The company is also taking part in the Canadian Institutes of Health ResearchseHealth Innovations Partnership Program.

The startup has raised $1.5 million in investments so far, she said, andeven went on Dragons Den last week, receiving offers from all of the investment shows star judges.Curatio is headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., with about a dozen employees based in that office and around the world.

Curatio will be licensed to healthcare providersand is free for patients to use. It is currently available as a web application and on iOS and will launch on Android devices soon.

See the article here:
Curatio aims to improve health through first-ever social network for ... - GeekWire

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Microsoft social network, Socl, is set to shut down by the end of the month.

Microsoft has announced that it will be permanently shutting down its social networking service, Socl, next week.

Socl, developed by FUSE Labs, will cease to be on March 15th, according to a blog post on the much forgotten social networking site.

The social network was launched in 2011 and was designed to be a collaboration tool as opposed to a communication platform. Initially targeted towards students, before a wider roll out, the platform allowed users to share creative content such as picture collages or short videos in a method not dissimilar from Pintrest.

In a farewell blog post the social network said: Soclhas been a wonderful outlet for creative expression, as well as aplace to enjoy a supportive community of like-minded people, sharing and learning together. In supporting you, Socls unique community of creators, we have learned invaluable lessons in what it takes to establish and maintain community as well as introduce novel new ways to make, share and collectdigital stuff welove.

When details of the service first emerged in 2011 many believed it would be a competitor to Facebook as many large tech companies, seeing the potential of facebook, began dabbling in social networking, such as Google with its Google Buzz platform in 2010.

The social networking site fell into relative obscurity after failing to gain significant traction among its audience. One of the more bizarre features of the system is that it required a Facebook login to use the service, essentially making it a Facebook add-on.

After 6 years, 5 years longer than Google Buzz, the social network will go offline permanently next week.

The blog post ended on an optimistic note that said: From the very beginning, weve been amazed by your creativity, openness, and positivity. Thank you so very much for sharing your inspirations with us.

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Anti Socl Microsoft kills social network - Computer Business Review