IT SEEMS everyone`s on Facebook these days. If not actually on Facebook, they have a presence of some sort on a social networking site. And once there, people are sharing their darkest secrets and revelling in their oddness on an unprecedented scale.

All this sharing could be a bit risky. People are airing sick fancies and weird thoughts, assuming they are safely hidden by a member sign-on. Even sites secured by passwords aren`t impregnable, and they can have hiccups that allow the content to be accessed.

A few weeks back, a reputable photo archiving site had a technical glitch that scattered people`s really private photos onto the pages of other people - many of whom really didn`t want to see them. I`m pretty sure the owners of the pictures didn`t like the unexpected publicity either.

Local recruitment expert made a good point recently when he warned people to be careful of "letting it all hang out" online, since employers are increasingly using online searches as a way of screening employees. Imagine a potential employer turning up your membership of crossdressing.com or ilovestalkingmyboss.com.. Or how about the badly-written poetry, shameful confessions or the blogs where you gripe endlessly about your job, and boast about how you walk off with the office stationery? Once you`ve spilt your beans, they could stay archived somewhere out there indefinitely, just waiting for a potential employer or nosey colleague to turn up those dirty little secrets online. A good reason to watch what you say - even virtually.

In this issue, we meet a handful of SA`s rising ICT sector stars (page 16) and see if a hefty ICT donation makes a difference to a dusty town in Limpopo (page 20). We also explore Tshwane`s Smart City plans in our Leadership article on page 15, while our Special Focus this week looks at successful supply chain management.

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