We were mortified to learn that a team of people working on a Google project improperly used Mocality’s data and misrepresented our relationship with Mocality to encourage customers to create new websites. We’ve already unreservedly apologised to Mocality. We’re still investigating exactly how this happened, and as soon as we have all the facts, we’ll be taking the appropriate action with the people involved.
Is that apology enough? There was some serious shady stuff going on. They could’ve hurt Mocality’s business in a truly unethical way.
Since October, Google’s GKBO appears to have been systematically accessing Mocality’s database and attempting to sell their competing product to our business owners. They have been telling untruths about their relationship with us, and about our business practices, in order to do so. As of January 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted.
Furthermore, they now seem to have outsourced this operation from Kenya to India.
When we started this investigation, I thought that we’d catch a rogue call-centre employee, point out to Google that they were violating our Terms and conditions (sections 9.12 and 9.17, amongst others), someone would get a slap on the wrist, and life would continue.
I did not expect to find a human-powered, systematic, months-long, fraudulent (falsely claiming to be collaborating with us, and worse) attempt to undermine our business, being perpetrated from call centres on 2 continents.
Google, you have a lot of explaining to do.
EDIT: One extra note: What makes this situation even worse is that Mocality essentially paid a lot of money out of pocket to build a business database from nothing. For many Kenyan businesses, it’s their first foray into being online in any form whatsoever. So that means Mocality has a right to protect their product.
She will be remembered as a committed champion of the environment, sustainable development, women’s rights, and democracy.Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan • Speaking about Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, who died Sunday of ovarian cancer at age 71. Maathai, a Kenyan, founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization that encouraged methods of sustainable development. Her work with the Green Belt Movement, which spanned over 30 years, led to her winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. “We need people who love Africa so much that they want to protect her from destructive processes,” she noted in a 2005 speech. “There are simple actions we can take. Start by planting 10 trees we each need to absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale. Get involved in local initiatives and volunteer your time for services in your community.” This world needs more people like her, not less. Based on the strong response on Twitter today, lots of people agree. source (via • follow)
This isn’t the fastest Android phone you can buy. Nor does it have the largest screen — in fact, at 2.8 inches, it’s downright tiny. And battery life is reportedly so short that it can cause problems for those without nearby electrical sources. But the Huawei IDEOS has a major advantage for Kenyan consumers — it costs just $80 without a contract. The result? In a country where 4 in 10 people live on less than $2 per day, they’ve sold in the hundreds of thousands. The moral of the story? There is a huge market in the developing world for phones like these — region-specific apps, too. Other companies, including Apple, are rumored to be trying for this market. But can they hit an $80 price point with their phones? That’s the real question. source
![newsweek:
From The Atlantic: “An aid worker using an iPad photographs the rotting carcass of a cow in Wajir, near the Kenya-Somalia border, on July 23, 2011.”
[via The Dish]
We have a hard-and-fast rule against people taking pictures of things with iPads, but we’ll make an exception this time. The issue is too important.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp1t7x3FXm1qzs5cqo1_500.jpg)
From The Atlantic: “An aid worker using an iPad photographs the rotting carcass of a cow in Wajir, near the Kenya-Somalia border, on July 23, 2011.”
[via The Dish]
We have a hard-and-fast rule against people taking pictures of things with iPads, but we’ll make an exception this time. The issue is too important.
Somali refugees grow up, help new generation: These four Somali men went to Kenya in the early ’90s as “lost boys,” and now find themselves — 20 years later — helping with the country’s current humanitarian crisis, as a new generation of Somali refugees find themselves in Kenya. As one refugee-turned-aid-worker, Abdur Rahman Elmoge, puts it: “I can’t remember what it was like to stand here as a two-year-old … but if I had to compare the situation today with the situation over the past 20 years, I’d say that there aren’t significant differences.”
A baboon and a bush baby, together at last: At the Nairobi Animal Orphanage in Kenya, an orphaned bush baby has a new dad: This seven-month old baboon. “This is not normal. It has not happened here and I guess it has not happened anywhere else,” notes the animal home’s warden, Edward Kariuki. These kind of unlikely animal kingdom duos are rare but not completely unheard of in Kenya: For example, a baby hippo and a giant tortoise created an unlikely friendship after the hippo was washed out to sea during the southeast Asia Tsunami. We smell a Dreamworks movie!
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
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» Why this trial is a big deal: Ghailani was the first suspect who served time in Guantanamo to face trial in a civilian, rather than a military, court. The suspect once faced much harsher charges that could’ve led to the death penalty, but instead will receive a much lighter sentence. For its part, the Justice Department is OK with that: ”We respect the jury’s verdict and are pleased that Ahmed Ghailani now faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a potential life sentence for his role in the embassy bombings,” they wrote.
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