Social networking to help you surf roads smoothly

AHMEDABAD: If traffic jams near your residence bother you, or you have problems with the way it is being handled, all you need to do now is to leave a post on social networking sites.

With police in metros and even mega cities such as Pune, Hyderabad and Chandigarh dedicating pages on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, Ahmedabad Traffic Police has joined the bandwagon.

These sites will provide a platform for police-public interaction. While official announcements are yet to be made, officials have started popularizing the page to know the public’s response in the matter.

“You can report traffic violations like rowdy bikers or overstuffed school rickshaws. Through this social-networking site you can also suggest ways to counter the growing traffic problem, or simply get to know what the situation is like at a given street owing to protests and bandh calls,” said a traffic police official.

Nilesh Jajadia, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), told TOI that the step has been taken keeping in mind the social networking site’s popularity and its success in other cities.

“We wanted to provide citizens with a platform where they can bring in their issues and they can also post photos or videos. The forum will be used to inform citizens about any major event or roadblocks in advance so that they can plan their journey accordingly. An official email id will also be issued soon,” he said.

Jajadia is confident of using the site as an identification tool as well. “Now with increasing use of mobile phone cameras, we can get footage or pictures from commuters when they see something wrong. With the registration number of the vehicle taken from the footage, we can take action against the offenders. When the CCTV camera network on city roads will come into place, both the systems will be integrated. It would work as a definite proof of the offence, leaving the offender with no excuse,” said Jajadia.

All you have to do is become a member of the social networking site and you will get regular city-traffic updates. Traffic police officials said that the account will be integrated with other social networking sites, where important announcements can be subscribed to by citizens.

“We first want to see what the public’s reaction is. Once the system starts functioning, it can work wonders as is the case with other cities. With easy access to social networking sites on mobile phones, citizens can add and receive latest updates,” said a senior traffic branch official.

Officials added that two constables will be specially trained to check the updates and inform concerned departments about complaints or offenders.

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Facebook: Paul Ceglia sent original contract to law firm in 2004

At a court hearing yesterday in Buffalo, New York, Facebook explained that Paul Ceglia, a man that claims he owns half of the company, emailed the original “authentic contract” to a Chicago-based law firm, Sidley Austin, back in 2004. The social networking giant says that not only did it find this allegedly genuine contract on Ceglia’s computer but on Sidley Austin’s email server as well. Facebook’s lawyer Orin Snyder told US Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio that this evidence proves Ceglia fabricated the contract on which he bases his claim.

Snyder said Ceglia’s behavior indicates he’s getting desperate. “The noose is tightening around the neck of the plaintiff in this case and he knows it,” Snyder told Foschio, according to Bloomberg.

Foschio said Ceglia must allow Facebook’s experts to examine his Web-based email accounts, which he said he used to communicate with Zuckerberg in 2003 and 2004 and later saved on floppy disks. Only then will Zuckerberg be required to turn over 175 emails from his Harvard University account. Ceglia and his team has been waiting for these emails for weeks and once again they have hit a setback.

Last week, Facebook said it found “smoking-gun evidence that the purported contract at the heart of this case is a fabrication.” When Facebook’s lawyers asked for a resubmittal of a document to the court due to improper redaction, it turned out the blacked out text referred to an “authentic contract” and “storage devices” that Facebook says Ceglia is intentionally hiding from the company, in violation of a court order.

Facebook said it found the original “authentic contract” between Mark Zuckerberg and Paul Ceglia. Facebook then produced the original “authentic contract” on Monday, noting it doesn’t even mention Facebook at all.

Originally, Ceglia’s lawyers said the “authentic contract” is shielded from use in the lawsuit because it is designated as “confidential” under the rules of an agreement between the two parties. As a result, Facebook asked Foschio to overrule that designation; he agreed and ordered Ceglia to hand over documents Facebook says proves he forged the 2003 contract.

As for the “storage devices,” Facebook said that forensic data shows evidence of six USB devices, which it argues were likely used to modify the authentic contract. The company’s lawyers say at least one of those devices includes a folder called “Facebook Files” and an image called “Zuckerberg Contract page1.tif.” Facebook believes that image is the page of the contract that was forged to include mention of an investment in the social network.

In an exclusive interview with ZDNet, Ceglia told me the original “authentic contract” Facebook says it found is really just a Photoshopped image the company planted on his computer. He says he and his lawyers reportedly knew about it for some time and willingly handed it over to Facebook. He told ZDNet that his team will prove the image in question “has no authenticating properties whatsoever.”

Ceglia speculates it could have been Zuckerberg himself, or the US law firm Orrick, Herrington Sutcliffe that may have done the alleged dirty work. Ceglia called Zuckerberg “an admitted forger and an admitted hacker” and explained that Zuckerberg, or someone representing him, carelessly wrote his home address on the allegedly forged document that he didn’t know about or move to until more than a year after the document was supposedly written.

Last but certainly not least, Ceglia says he has conclusive proof that Zuckerberg is lying. He said that anyone with some legal expertise or technical expertise willing to help “nail him down for good” is welcome to join at PaulsCase.com, which requires registration. Via the PaulsCase wiki, Ceglia is trying to open source his lawsuit. His current lawyer is on an interim basis and Ceglia is looking for a more “collaborative” law firm to work with him.

Facebook acknowledges that Ceglia hired Zuckerberg to work for his StreetFax company in April 2003 while Zuckerberg was a freshman at Harvard. Ceglia first legally attacked Facebook in July 2010, saying the contract also included $1,000 initial funding for Facebook, and that he’s entitled to more than half of the social networking giant. That last part Facebook is obviously disputing.

Facebook insists Ceglia is a known con artist. Ceglia, as has been well-documented, has a history of forgery. Since he first filed suit, Ceglia has been dropped by at least four law firms. He is now reportedly living in Galway, Ireland, but the lawsuit is continuing. Ceglia, who called ZDNet from Ireland, maintains that he has been unfairly painted as a con artist.

See also:

• Exclusive: Paul Ceglia says Facebook is doing the forgery
• Facebook: Ceglia’s contract doesn’t even mention Facebook
• Paul Ceglia moves to Ireland, but Facebook lawsuit will continue
• Facebook: we have proof Ceglia’s contract is a forgery
• Paul Ceglia vs. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg: Here’s the complaint and it’s a good read
• Facebook: Ceglia claims ‘brazen and outrageous fraud’; Read the response
• Facebook, Zuckerberg open fire on Ceglia: Emails forged by ‘professional con artist’

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