Facing a $5,100 debt due to a discrepancy on his financial aid forms, 22-year-old Demorris Davis, a senior at Western Carolina University was given a day to have his balance paid in full or go home.
Fortunately, a student minister, a group of friends and total strangers did not let that happen.
A fundraising effort led by Jason Speier, a youth pastor at a local church through Facebook raised enough money to keep Davis enrolled in school.
When asked why he felt compelled to help his friend, the youth minister said, “Demorris had a debt that he couldn’t pay so we had to help. We had a debt that we couldn’t pay so Jesus had to pay it.”
If you are going to break into someone’s home and then have the gall to use their computer, at least log-off your Facebook account.
Jonathan G. Parker,19, of Philadelphia is in police custody under a $10,000 bond for allegedly breaking into a home and stealing two rings worth more than $3,500.
What led police to the suspect was that the intruder left his Facebook page open on the burglary victim’s computer.
“During the police investigation, a friend of the victim who recognized Parker informed them that he lived in the victim’s neighborhood. Upon police visiting the suspect’s home, the person who resided there, who was also a friend of Parker’s, informed them that he did not reside there but occasionally visited. The friend also stated that Parker visited the night before and asked him to participate in the burglary, but he refused.”
You don’t have to be a big name producer or a media mogul to see that things have changed in the music game. Gone are the days of spending millions to push a new artist. Hell, it’s hard for an established artist to get that kind of promotion now. And with the stations that were formerly music television turning into barren wastelands of reality shows, the video stars that hunted the radio star into extinction are also going the way of the dinosaur. Music needs a new business model — stat. Read the rest of this entry »
Social networking is firmly ingrained into our everyday lives. Countless hours of job productivity have been lost due to employees compelled to constantly update their status on Twitter, Facebook, and other equally addicting social networking sites. And you don’t need to be in front of your computer to access it. Mobile phones are portable gateways into our growing web of digital friends and followers. Game maker Nintendo has just made it even easier to get your networking on thanks to it’s newest addition, Nintendo DSi. Read the rest of this entry »
Good news for all you Twitterholics out there. Now there are phones that will continue to satisfy your Twitter lust without distraction or judgement. INQ Mobile creator of the “Facebook Phone,” just unveiled two phones dedicated to the 140-character habit.
Following their mission of bringing accessible, affordable, and easy-to-use mobile internet to the people, INQ is about to roll out the two newest members of thier family, the INQ Chat 3G and the INQ Mini 3G. As the name suggests, the Mini is the slimmer of the two. Like it’s big brother, the Mini has Twitter, Facebook, Skype and instant messaging as well as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. The INQ Chat definitely has a fattie, but it needs a little more cushion to house that QWERTY keypad. Read the rest of this entry »
Twitpic and Twitvid opened the door for mobile content loading to a social network. Facebook follows suit with its new service that will enable users to upload photos and video content to their profiles using email. Their blog states,
“You already can upload photos from your mobile phone via MMS or through Facebook applications on your iPhone, Blackberry and other devices. Now we recently added the ability to upload photos and videos by e-mailing them to your Facebook account.” Read the rest of this entry »
Rap mogul Diddy is known for being the king of the remix, but if the folks at Moderati have anything to say about it that will soon change. The mobile app company that brought you the pyromaniac-friendly virtual Zippo Lighter app for iPhone has unveiled Romplr, a new music application. So what makes this app so special? Well, Romplr lets users take a track and create their own unique remix. The mixes are created via eight built-in loops and seven samples. Users are also given three tracks to mix per song. Wannabe remixers also control the length of the mix with a minumum time of 30 secs or a maximum of 3 minutes. After the mixes are created, they can be shared with friends via email, Facebook, or rompler.com, the online community for fans of the app.
At launch, people looking to take control of the music can let their creative juices flow, experimenting on Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em’s “Turn My Swag On.” (A side note: Love him or hate him, you have to respect the polarizing artist’s masterful grasp of using the online space to keep his name in the media and his pockets fat.) Rompler Dance is also set to launch this week. The dance version of the app will feature three original tracks that users can add their unique flavor to.
The app is currently retailing for $5 in the Apple iTunes store. Unfortunately, the app is currently only available for the iPhone, but never fear, Romplr will be coming to Android, Blackberry, and other mobile app stores at a later date.
BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective. They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.
Facebook Launches in Swahili
African scholars have launched a Swahili version of the popular social networking site, Facebook. The U.S.-based company granted permission for the project. The site could serve the more than 110 million Swahili speakers who live mostly throughout East and Central Africa. In addition to making one of the most popular sites in the world available to Swahili speakers, the scholars thought that launching this version would help to preserve the language. “The youth, the future generation, if you look at the biggest percentage of users on Facebook, they are the youth,” Symon Wanda, one of the scholars, told the BBC. “They can easily navigate through when it’s maybe a language they understand, which makes it easier to use the Swahili than to use the English.” More than 60 percent of the people using Facebook in East Africa are using the Swahili version, he told the news service. There is already a version of Facebook in Afrikaans, and analysts say a Hausa version for West Africa and a Zulu version for southern Africa could be launched next, reports the BBC.
Nigerian Soccer Star Shot Dead
Not too long after his team claimed the league title, Nigerian soccer star Abel Tador was shot and killed. Tador, who played for Bayelsa United, was shot in the head by robbers in the nation’s dangerous Niger Delta region while he was driving home after celebrating the win, reports the BBC. “It is a painful to have lost such a player on a day when we ought to be celebrating out historic league win,” a team official told the news service. Two other players from the same team were killed just a few weeks ago.
School calls foul on Web site statements. A Grand Rapids, Mich. college student is seeking re-admission to school after he was suspended over a Facebook entry. Tony Harris denies having made sexually explicit statements about his ex-girlfriend on the popular social networking Web site. The student says he believes his ex stole his password and used the plot to deliberately cause him problems at Calvin College. Harris is accused of sexual harassment, libel and violation of Calvin’s “responsible use of technology” policy. He says he’ll seek legal subpoenas to get Facebook usage records that may exonerate him. Otherwise, Harris can’t attend the Christian school again for, at least, a year.
Black Web 2.0 covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective. We also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.
"Nothing is assumed." That's the unofficial motto of “Tell Me More,” the new Monday-Friday talk show with host
Michel Martin. Grounded in lively interviewing and compelling storytelling, the program seeks to present
diverse new voices, cross borders, challenge conventional wisdom and discover how other people think.
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