ReadWriteWeb

Between the socially disorienting echo of apartheid, high crime rates and HIV/AIDS, South Africa is struggling under a lot of extra weight. The group that too often bears the brunt of it is kids. South Africa has a much higher number of orphans than it should. Adult guidance of kids is sometimes in short supply. To make up in part for that, Infinite Family has stepped up.

Infinite Family connects mentors anywhere in the world with South African teens in need of adult guidance, advice and support. These "net buddies" connect via weekly video conferences.

In the heart of downtown Chandler, Arizona - a city at the south-eastern edge of Phoenix's low and flat suburban desert sprawl - sits Gangplank, a collaborative co-working facility of designers, engineers and other Web professionals. Tucked away in a back office, two L-shaped desks cluttered with papers, stickers and computer monitors sit in opposite corners of the small room.

The desks are those of Joshua and Sally Strebel, the husband and wife founders (and only employees) of Page.ly - a premium WordPress hosting service celebrating its first birthday this month. The young company has quickly made a name for itself offering quality products backed by friendly customer service. Today I sat down with the duo to discuss how they got to where they are today, and what they learned along the way.

With the iPad's arrival this weekend, a holiday weekend for many Americans, this new iPad owner had the chance to see the device in action. In fact, "see" is the operative word here. Not, "play with myself," as is the case with most new tech gadgets I purchase. Instead, I simply watched from a distance as, over the course of the day, the iPad found its way into the hands of nearly every family member from ages 4 months to 87 years old. The incredible thing? No one walked away confused, frustrated or disappointed. It did precisely what they wanted it to do and with such ease that my tech support was not required - not even once - allowing me to sit back and relax...with an old-fashioned, paper-based magazine.

Funny how digital technologies that can connect us over huge distances can also distract us from the people closest to us. I'm as guilty of that as anyone... and probably a lot more than most.

Case in point: I lost count of the number of times I rebuffed my daughter while drawing this cartoon.

There's a new landing page on Facebook that's designed to get families involved in sharing updates, photos, and videos on the social network. The extended family group invite page, available here, lets you create a private group for your family by inviting current Facebook members and entering in the email addresses of those who have yet to join.

Is Facebook after Grandma and Grandpa now that they have mom and dad? You bet.

These days it's all about making your free web site "go viral" right? Maybe that was the all-too-common business plan in recent years - but many people were uncomfortable with that vision at a time of relative economic well-being. You can imagine how crazy such a plan sounds now.

Well-known PR pro Jeremy Toeman has started a business you'd hardly recognize as part of an era of YouTube clones, yet it is dependent on that very world of free, prolific, user generated content. Legacy Locker is a new service that stores your passwords to important services like email and social networks and delivers them to a caretaker in the event of your death. The company charges money and has a real-world market channel primed to resell its services. It's something we think many web entrepreneurs could find inspiration in.

Oh no! Your mom just joined Facebook and what's even worse, she wants to be your friend. More and more people are finding themselves in this situation today and unsure of what to do. Friending mom and dad, the boss, or other work colleagues opens up the details of your private life for the whole world to see - and you might not be entirely comfortable with that. What's to be done?