However, the rain is bucketing down, so it might be a damp day for everyone. Keep an eye on our Tamar Cape Town Twitter account for updates throughout the day. Also, keep an eye on our blogs page and we’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

The following day, Wednesday 16 June, is Youth Day in South Africa and a day off work across the country. We’ll be spending it remembering our eventful history, watching football and looking forward to our colourful future…

Cape Town CSR project kicks off is a post from: Tamar

To raise funds, this year we created ‘Hotdog Days’, where we bought and sold hot dogs in the office, and held a pub quiz. After a visit to Vuyani and a chat with the headmaster earlier this year, together we decided that the school could benefit from a food tent.

A food tent, also known as a shade house, is similar to a greenhouse, in that it protects cultivated plants from the weather. It consists of a wooden structure covered by shade netting, such as the one pictured above. Our shade house has been designed by Tamar staff members, and is 3m wide and 18m long.

We have one day to construct the entire shade house, but with some careful planning and plenty of positive energy, we are sure we can get the structure up in no time. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain!

We’ll keep you up to date with our progress, so watch this space…

It’s CSR time in Cape Town! is a post from: Tamar

The exact foundations of their success are being forgotten about with their slow change toward a far lose privacy policy. You might wonder what foundations they are throwing away, and what difference would it make as they are so large that it surely won’t matter.

Wrong. Facebook are forgetting about the user. That is the one foundation that they cannot forget about. Without the volume of users of all different ages, races, locations and languages, they would not have the social media platform with the power that it has today.

The privacy policy has slowly disintegrated from the tight user-focused statement that it first was when Facebook was young with big hopes and dreams, to something that suggests that Mr Zuckerberg is starting to move away from the close community ideal, towards a more monarchist approach.

It seems they have slowly been changing the privacy policy, and as they continue to grow, their dominance over the internet continues to streach and it seems that the users, who their very success is based upon, are being left in their dust, in the wake of their success and glory.

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation Website:

Facebook Privacy Policy circa 2005

“No personal information that you submit to Thefacebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings.”

Facebook Privacy Policy circa 2006:

“We understand you may not want everyone in the world to have the information you share on Facebook; that is why we give you control of your information. Our default privacy settings limit the information displayed in your profile to your school, your specified local area, and other reasonable community limitations that we tell you about.”

Facebook Privacy Policy circa 2007:

“Profile information you submit to Facebook will be available to users of Facebook who belong to at least one of the networks you allow to access the information through your privacy settings (e.g., school, geography, friends of friends). Your name, school name, and profile picture thumbnail will be available in search results across the Facebook network unless you alter your privacy settings.”

Facebook Privacy Policy circa November 2009:

“Facebook is designed to make it easy for you to share your information with anyone you want. You decide how much information you feel comfortable sharing on Facebook and you control how it is distributed through your privacy settings. You should review the default privacy settings and change them if necessary to reflect your preferences. You should also consider your settings whenever you share information. …

Information set to “everyone” is publicly available information, may be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), is subject to indexing by third party search engines, may be associated with you outside of Facebook (such as when you visit other sites on the internet), and may be imported and exported by us and others without privacy limitations. The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.” You can review and change the default settings in your privacy settings.”

Facebook Privacy Policy circa December 2009:

“Certain categories of information such as your name, profile photo, list of friends and pages you are a fan of, gender, geographic region, and networks you belong to are considered publicly available to everyone, including Facebook-enhanced applications, and therefore do not have privacy settings. You can, however, limit the ability of others to find this information through search using your search privacy settings.”

Current Facebook Privacy Policy, as of April 2010:

“When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your and your friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting. … The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.” … Because it takes two to connect, your privacy settings only control who can see the connection on your profile page. If you are uncomfortable with the connection being publicly available, you should consider removing (or not making) the connection.”

As you can see from these quotes taken from the Facebook Privacy Policy, the user has slowly become less and less protected. In fact things have progressed towards the devaluation of the user, and what the user really means to Facebook.

Do you think Facebook has become too big, and forgot where they come from? Are they in such a strong position that they could continue to eradicate their privacy policy and forget about the user in their quest to continue to streach their dominance on the internet?

I think the introduction of the Open Graph is something that initially could be a good thing, but when you dig deeper and think about the potential issues that could creep up, it starts to make you wonder where Facebook will draw the line in terms of user privacy.

Take a read about how Facebook wants to rule the world (wide web)

Facebook Privacy Policy – a slow slide towards disintergration is a post from: Tamar

Facebook has come under fire recently from the Child Explotation and Online Protection agency after Ashleigh Hall, 17, was raped and murdered by a man she met using the social networking site.

The CEOP wants Facebook to install “Panic Buttons” on every page of the networking site to allow children to easily get in touch with the correct child protection agencies, and essentially reduce the risk of such an incident happening again.

Facebook said that they welcomed the meeting and would look to implement any changes and outcomes from the meeting as soon as they could.

Initially Facebook said that they would not develop the proposed “Panic Button”, but instead, would enhance their current system as they felt the panic button could be quite invasive if placed on every main page. Instead the links to the relevant agencies would be placed on its normal reporting pages.

“If you’re going to operate a business that encourages people to frequent your public place so that you can advertise to them, then let’s look after them while they’re there,” said Mr Gamble.

Mr Gamble announced last week that they had received 252 complaints with regards to “grooming” children, and that the majority had come via email as there was currently no facility to report an issue through Facebook.

The “Panic Button” in question is already used by other websites, including Bebo. Clicking on it takes the user to a site which helps users on how to handle cyberbullying, hacking, viruses, distressing material and inappropriate sexual behaviour.

All of this has arisen after the death of Ashleigh Hall who was raped and then murdered by a man she is believed to have met through the social networking site. Facebook said it was “deeply saddened by the tragic death”, but we are still to await the outcome of the meeting to see how Facebook continues to handle privacy issues.

What do you think? Should Facebook introduce a “Panic Button” on each of the main pages on the social networking site?

Facebook panic button meeting with CEOP in Washington is a post from: Tamar

Three years ago we set as one of our corporate goals that we would like to be recognised for our client work by winning the Agency of the Year accolade. I’ll be honest, at times it has seemed an unachievable goal - digital agencies still don’t enjoy the profile of above-the-line agencies in UK client companies and search can be seen as even more specialist and obscure. But we kept going. As I said to the team this morning it just goes to show the immense power of writing down a goal and going for it.

I’m particularly pleased with this award for three reasons:

Firstly, it’s really satisfying that FSF members specifically (effectively client companies), have voted us Agency of the Year, rather than other agencies. It’s our clients we’re always working so hard to achieve results for and it’s them we particularly want to impress, not necessarily our peers (though that’s always nice so please keep the congratulations coming ).

Secondly, I’m delighted that we’ve won the award this year because we’ve achieved our fantastic results in a severe economic downturn in the UK – one of the worst years for the financial services industry on record. In any other year they’d be great results, in this year they’re outstanding. The market is incredibly tough for all agencies in the UK at the moment but no other search-led agency can rival us for the quality of clients we have and the outstanding long-term results we achieve for them.

Lastly, as far as we can recall this is the first time a UK search agency has been awarded an ‘Agency of the Year’ accolade in an category that includes other full-service and off-line agencies, rather than a digital or search specific category. This is great news for the profile of the digital industry and a defining moment for the whole search industry. It’s about time we came out from under our covers and shouted about what great results search can achieve for clients and what incredible ROI search can deliver.

I couldn’t be prouder of the really talented team I have here at Tamar. They’ve worked long hours and put in a lot of hard work to achieve our fantastic results for clients and this is a very satisfying reward for them. They’re also great company at an awards evening, I wish I could tell you what they got up to last night……

Tamar is Agency of the Year – a 1st for a UK Search agency is a post from: Tamar

We raise money every year for a number of community projects that we get involved with; the money goes towards materials, equipment and direct project costs, and Tamar and it’s employees donate their time and cover all people costs (food, travel etc). However it’s always challenging raising money, no matter how good the cause is.

In the first year we relied mostly on the generosity and support of our friends and family; and they were extremely generous; enough to build a new classroom at a school in Cape Town. In the second year it was no where near as easy to depend on this source of fundraising so we ran a couple of successful large events which raised enough to renovate and provide equipment for a school in Shanghai (including a new roof). This year has been even more challenging with the current economic climate meaning that even the most charitable among us have had to watch our outgoings. In 2009 we’ve focused on small events which has been successful and fun!

So here are our top tips for fundraising:

1. Do something that people would be paying money for anyway…

We’ve been very successful with selling skills and time, or belongings, to raise money. The types of things that have worked well have been our Charity lunches, having everyone in the office make and sell lunch to the rest of the team, and our eBay auctions, asking for people to clear out their closets or donated items that could be sold for cash.

2. Do something fun!

Everyone loves a quiz, or perhaps a footie match, or maybe dinner and drinks! We’ve had a lot of success through running events where we’ve charged an admission. This years events have included a rock gig, a pub quiz, and greek themed dinner and dancing night, and a five-a-side football quiz. The beauty of this is that different events will appeal to different people, so there’s a lot of opportunity to get everyone involved.

3. Do something different

I recently came across some great ideas where people are going to great lengths t0 do something different to raise money. Sheena Matheiken (The Uniform Project) has committed to wearing the same style dress everyday for a year , although accessorised in completely different ways to raise money for the education of children in India; a fantastic example of what can be achieve with commitment and a different idea. We’ve also had people at Tamar who have raised surprising amounts of money through various body hair removal processes!

In short, the key is to think about who you are able to target and get creative with ideas that will appeal. Good luck!

How to fundraise for charity is a post from: Tamar

We were delighted to see that everything was as we expected it; we knew that everything would have been well looked after by the school but were uncertain how the lawns and other areas would have held up in the weather.

The school is now on holiday for the summer however the Hearing Impaired centre on site are using the amphitheatre when the sun shines, which is great to hear.

It’s lovely to see everything again, and we can’t wait for many more return visits.

Back to school! is a post from: Tamar

The school has opened some great oppurtunities for me and for each and everyone at the school, being at the school is not only about being tought about subjects (and passing them!)  it also teaches us about different aspects of life. At St Cyprian’s we live as a big family where everyones is important and where everyone’s voice is heard.

The school doesn’t only concentrate on academics, but it also looks at the things that makes us who we are like our cultures, traditions and beliefs. St Cyprian’s is an Anglican school that respects every religion. At St Cyprian’s we also try to help and support those who are in need.

St Cyprian’s doesn’t  only teach for school but also focuses on preparing us for life, it doesn’t train for time but
eternity and we St Cyprian’s girls don’t necessarily grow up to get the best jobs but we grow up knowing how to help the world whilst keeping peace and trying to share our happiness with everyone else.

My second year at St Cyprian’s is a post from: Tamar

It is for this reason that I was concerned to read in the Guardian this week that Facebook have hired lobbyists in both Washington and Brussels to lobby its position on internet privacy and data sharing.

Facebooks’s head chief privacy officer was quoted as saying : “There is a concern we’ve had for some time that – in a well-meaning attempt to protect consumers – legislators or regulators would end up passing laws that would keep people from the beneficial sharing of information.”

Whilst this sounds very utilitarian, I have a somewhat more pessimistic take on it. One of the subjects I studied at university was on corporate governance, and more importantly the economic benefits to a firm or industry for undertaking self regulation.

It has been proven across a variety of industries that is far cheaper for an industry to self regulate than it is to adhere to government imposed legislation. Some might therefore argue that Facebook will try to protect consumer privacy in an attempt to self-regulate and avoid government intervention, however the problem with this is that they will only be motivated to do the bare minimum required to avoid regulation, not what is required to really ensure consumer privacy.

It is my hope therefore that the governing bodies listen to what organisations such as Facebook have to say, but at the end of the day make privacy legislation which protects consumers, not profits.

Privacy and the economics of self regulation is a post from: Tamar

This year was our first year spent with Oak Lodge School, London and our third year with Vuyani Pre-Primary School, Cape Town. There were many new challenges this year for both projects including carrying out all the all the sourcing, planning and actual work needed to be managed by ourselves using our experiences from previous projects.

Both projects were a big success; we all enjoyed spending time with our respective schools, as well as each other. We finished the projects on time and left a lasting reminder that will be of benefit to others in our community. There was a lot of hard-graft, and a lot of laughs – for some of us it was the first time we’d really had the opportunity to work with people in completely different teams in the office, so a great opportunity to get to know each other. We also definitely learnt some new skills; there was a rather alarming moment when I realised that I had to teach a small group how to putty a new pane of glass into the greenhouse, and had only ever watched someone doing it the past. However we all figured it out between us and did a good job!

What we also learnt whilst setting up and planning the projects was just how much good-will there is out there. Many people had a real desire to get involved either by donating their time or donating money. So many people have helped us in many ways, but particularly Travis Perkins in Balham Hill, Travis Perkins Toolhire in Balham, FCP architects and Tony at Design Building Ltd.  I also wanted to say a huge thank you to the numerous people who helped us out with the fundraising this year; it was an enormous effort across both projects.

Finally I wanted to send a message to everyone at both Vuyani and Oak Lodge to say thank you for welcoming us so openly, and for allowing us into your schools and to experience your lives; that has been the biggest learning experience of all. We’re really looking forward to continuing to work with you in the future!

CSR – the final verdict! is a post from: Tamar