[LINK] Family HQ social site

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Aussie IT Firm Challenges Facebook, Promises User Privacy

By Vittorio Hernandez | October 10, 2011 2:37 PM EST 
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/227893/20111010/aussie-it-firm-opens-new-
social-networking-site-with-promise-of-user-privacy.htm


A Gold Coast start-up IT firm Cake Media launched an Australian social 
networking site named Family HQ on Monday. 

 https://www.familyhq.com

The portal promises more user privacy compared to current top social 
networking site Facebook.

Family HQ, run by Queensland couple Jase and Brooke Farmer, has so far 
signed up 4,616 members from 25 countries during the four-week beta trial 
period. 

It has an ambitious goal to have 500,000 members by the end of 2012 by 
expanding to New Zealand, UK and Ireland in the next six to nine months.

Mr Farmer came up with the idea of Family HQ in 2007 as an alternative to 
Facebook to contain private family-oriented digital media. 

Microsoft officially recognised the Web site as part of the Microsoft 
Partner Network because the tech giant saw Family HQ as a national case 
study for Windows Azure, Mr Farmer said. 

He explained that Family HQ is different from other social media by 
focusing on privacy concerns and leaving no digital footprints outside 
the portal. It does not claim copyright ownership of any digital content 
posted. The catch phrase of Family HQ is "because not everyone wants to 
share everything with everyone."

"With the identified risks of social networking becoming well known, 
people are becoming increasingly wary of the potential threats when 
private information is published online," the Web site explained.

"The site is Australia's only site that enables the ability to create 
unlimited numbers of groups that remain private from each other, creating 
a solution for the complicated nature of how we communicate with people 
in our lives," Mr Farmer told The A Register.

He plans to market the portal as a private communication platform for 
groups such as sporting clubs, support groups, school classes, day cares 
and other groups that prefer their site to have more privacy features 
that Facebook or Google+.

"The lure of sites such as Facebook is very difficult for a child to 
resist and the consequences of an inexperienced or naïve person sharing 
private information with the world are equally as hard to predict," Mr 
Farmer told ChannelNews.

Since the Web site created some buzz because of its platform, an unnamed 
investor offered to by 10 per cent of Family HQ for A$1 million.

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