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If you were born before the 2000s, you may remember when phone companies sent yellow and white pages to your home with the list of various contacts – white pages for personal phone numbers and pages yellow for commercial enterprises. Before this information was in a Google search, these directories made it easy to search for the name of a business or someone. New students of color at Syracuse University might use something like this – their own cultural yellow pages.

Unless you’re one of the few students who has a connection to Syracuse before you arrive, it’s not always easy to know where to go for certain necessities. This is especially true for students of color with certain needs and wants that not everyone can meet.

A big problem for students of color is their hair. If you are a black youth on campus who wants or needs this to be done in a specific way, it can be difficult to find someone who can help you properly.

Mazahar Kalia, a League law student from Syracuse, said when students learn the co-ownership business that she and her sister share, there is a sense of relief for those who find them.

“When they find another black girl who can do their hair, they’re so thrilled because it’s always hard to try and find service in a town you’re not from,” Kalia said.

Kalia said that when dealing with clients who are new color students at SU, she does her best to provide them with as much information as possible, such as where to find a beauty store to take care of. their hair.

“I’m kind of able to educate about the city of Syracuse, its ethnic part, rather than what is portrayed,” Kalia said.

As new students adjust to the courses and culture of the university, it’s understandable that many students don’t know the city itself. However, that doesn’t mean it’s fair to leave students who are culturally oblivious to life outside of campus.

Thoughts of life off campus can only arise when the need to attend to things like hair and food arises. Perception is the key and in some cases it may seem that the ethnic culture in Syracuse does not exist. Kalia feels this perception is being confirmed by the city’s most influential voices.

“The way Syracuse as a city is presented through Syracuse University is like this predominantly white city upstate school,” Kalia said. “And that’s not necessarily the case.”

“We have culture in the city of Syracuse, but because the campus is so big and because it is in the middle of everything, it takes a bit away from the city and its ethnic part,” she said. declared.

To edit the history of the city of Syracuse beyond the SU campus, a cultural toolkit – a book or website with information, services, and resources useful to students of color – should be created for better say who represents Syracuse.

“To have a toolkit… for whatever all black women would want, or all black men would like, having some kind of resource provided by the school, I think students would benefit tremendously,” Kalia said. “Because it would be in the package, they wouldn’t have to search on their own. “

Besides the hair problem, transportation can also be an issue for some students looking for certain types of cultural foods that campus dining options may not provide. Kalia said students frequently spoke to her about the transportation issue.

Students can use a variety of methods in their research, including social media. A hairdresser in Syracuse – Khadesia Tomlin, also known as Kay Kay – is known to students for using specific hashtags for certain hairstyles on Instagram.

However, even with the convenience of Instagram, Tomlin believes more could be done to make it easier for students of color to find what they need.

“Middle school kids should have some kind of brochure or website like something that has information about hairdressers, makeup artists and people who run their own businesses that they can attend,” she said.

Tomlin said a cultural toolkit will give SU students of color a new sense of power with the information it contains. This would allow them to decide what is best for them, rather than being at the mercy of the services they find right.

Tomlin also said that for any type of database being held, research should be done on every company. In his interactions with students, some have had bad experiences with hairdressers, who are not always reliable. She said it would be helpful if the toolkit included only recommended companies to help students feel better about choosing who to do business with.

SU students of color, whether new or established, thrive even more where they know who and where they can go without asking questions, and a cultural toolkit would help students of color find basic necessities that meet their needs. Whether this toolkit is created by the Office of Multicultural Affairs or another group on campus, SU administration and students should support and encourage the creation of the toolkit.

Camille Daniels is a 2020 League alumnus. She studied magazines, newspapers and online journalism as a graduate student. You can reach her at [email protected].

It is 1971 in Boston and the revolution is in the air. A group of women occupy a Harvard University building for 10 days. Blood splatters the sidewalk where Boston police disrupted an anti-war rally downtown. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young perform “Ohio”, their song about the Kent State massacre, at Music Hall in Boston.

“There were a lot of liberation movements that started, certainly [the] Black power movement, women’s movement, gay liberation movement, ”says Devon Davidson, who was a graduate student living in Cambridge at the time. “And it was all in the middle of [an] an increasingly active anti-war movement and draft resisters and young men burning draft cards. “

It is in this context that the People’s Yellow Pages were born. The nearly 100-page book was a modest proposition, at first: a regional directory of activist resources and mission-oriented organizations. But the project met with huge success in left-wing (largely white) circles, spurring similar efforts in other cities and throughout the decade.

Over time, the people’s yellow pages fade from memory. But it has made its way into the archives of Harvard and UMass Boston, an original relic of a bygone era. Fifty years later, it is a testament to the popular ingenuity and radical idealism of the 1970s counterculture.

It all started when Davidson and another young activist named Larry Casalino attended an anti-war meeting.

“A man stood up and said, ‘You know what we need? We need a directory of places where we can keep our money out of the war economy, ”Davidson recalls.

It gave the couple an idea. What if local activists had a resource like the Yellow Pages – that big book the phone company delivered to your door every year?

“There was no Internet,” Davidson explains. “If you wanted to know where a shoemaker’s shop was in your neighborhood, all you had to do was look it up in the Yellow Pages.”

They moved into the Cambridge offices of Vocations for Social Change, a counseling center that Davidson helped found in 1970 under the auspices of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker activist organization.

“We were working there at night… going through flyers and posters, brochures, anything we could get our hands on that would give us information about countercultural businesses and services in the Boston area.” , explains Larry, co-founder of People’s Yellow Pages. Casalino.

The People’s Yellow Pages have become more than an anti-war resource. It listed everything from women’s awareness groups to free legal aid to yogurt recipes.

“Yes, we were all making yogurt! Davidson said, laughing. It wasn’t very good, she adds.

As bizarre as it may sound now, the People’s Yellow Pages filled a void unique back then, when certain resources were much harder to come by – such as where to get a safe abortion or how to join local human rights groups. homosexuals. And it was a runaway success. The first edition sold out so quickly that the group started working on a second edition before the end of the year. They even created an instruction manual for activists in other cities to create their own counter-cultural repertoires.

The resource had its limits, of course. “We were trying to be aware of being anti-racist,” Davidson says. But, as the creators of the People’s Yellow Pages were predominantly white, college graduates, and young, so were its audiences.

In subsequent editions, the group has been careful to include more resources serving communities of color. An editor’s note in the 1976 edition describes the difficulty of this task. “Many people involved in alternative movements to effect change in their work, life and social communities of African Americans, Spaniards, Asian Americans and Native Americans had never heard of the Pages. Jaunes du Peuple, ”writes the editor. “A number of people involved in important issues did not want to be on the list … They felt they needed more time to better understand the motivations and priorities of the People’s Yellow Pages.”

Davidson keeps a hardcover book containing the first three editions of the People’s Yellow Pages in his Cambridge apartment. Looking at it now, she notices that the social causes of the day are very similar.

Racism. LGBTQ rights. The destruction of the environment. These questions, listed in the People’s Yellow Pages, still resonate today, as urgent as ever.

Some of the entrances look a bit strange now. There were instructions on growing your own mushrooms, advertisements for hippie towns, poems and inspirational quotes.

Davidson says these entries reflect the idealism of the time.

“I felt like there was a lot of hope among a segment of young people coming out of college,” she says. “There was less feeling of unhappiness.”

Davidson says young people have not faced the economic pressures they are currently under. Rent was cheap and jobs were plentiful. Young activists could afford to be idealists. They saw drastic possibilities in living together and in homemade yogurt.

“A lot of people thought there was a sharp divide between what you might call counter-cultural hippies and die-hard political activists,” says Casalino. “And we didn’t believe it. We thought both were necessary.”

The group saw activism as a way to change the world. But they also believed it was important to create alternatives to existing systems – to actually try to build the utopia they envisioned.

“At the time, we really thought we were creating a new world,” says Casalino.

The People’s Yellow Pages were brought down by a more prosaic consideration: money. Davidson says the project ended when the Friends Service Committee stopped funding it in the late 1970s. By that time, the two co-founders had left to seek new employment opportunities. Casalino eventually became a doctor.

The People’s Yellow Pages remain one of his proudest accomplishments, even if some of his entries make him cringe. “We were naive,” he says. “But I think it’s a beautiful thing. And I would still support a lot of what we had to say in the book and a lot of what the book was supposed to do.“

You can see more of the People’s Yellow Pages entries here.

Australian SME marketing services company and owner of the yellow and white pages, Sensis, was sold in a $ 260 million deal to US small business software player Thryv Holdings.

The deal comes seven years after Telstra sold a 70% stake in the company Sensis to US private equity firm Platinum Equity, for $ 425 million, and the remaining 30% of the stake still held by Telstra were also taken over by Thryv, a company listed on the Nasdaq. .

The total purchase price of $ 260 million is a far cry from the previous sale price, and Telstra noted an impairment loss of $ 34 million for the Sensis investment in its last half-yearly financial report as well as an increase of 95 millions of dollars of associated liabilities.

Sensis is described as one of Australia’s oldest continuously operating companies. The Melbourne-based organization has 200,000 clients in the small business market and provides SEO, SEM, social advertising and display and website development services. It has nearly 500 employees.

Under the latest agreement, Sensis CEO John Allan will remain in office and report to Thryv CEO and Chairman Joe Walsh. Allan said joining forces with Thryv was exactly what the company needed.

Thryv already owns the yellow pages in the United States and provides software for small businesses to accept appointments, create digital customer lists, send emails and texts to customers, send reminders and notifications, deliver quotes and invoices, accept contactless payments, and generate online reviews and reviews.

“Our organizations share a similar heritage through our profitable Yellow and White Pages brands, which we will continue to develop,” said Allan. “The two organizations aim to be the primary partner of SMEs by helping them establish, develop and manage their daily business activities from their mobile phone.

“In recent years, we have seen many Australian companies forced to invest more in IT platforms than in their workforce. Thryv puts an end to this fractured, costly and complex approach.

Allan stressed that the scale, knowledge and proven offerings of Thryv software are essential to help Sensis find a differentiated position in the Australian SME market.

“Greater adoption of technology is good for the Australian economy as a whole. At the end of the day, we both have the same ambition – to be the main partner of small and medium-sized businesses – to help them establish and grow, ”he said.

Walsh too, the deal is a transformational acquisition for Thryv and will help small Australian businesses compete better in a digital economy. He added that Thryv will work to better understand the needs of Australian SMEs before rolling out its product nationwide.

“While I’m sure there will be some differences in the Australian market, small business owners in the two countries no doubt face similar challenges. online, ”Walsh commented.

The acquisition of Sensis is part of Thryv’s strategy to grow internationally where, said Walsh, “small businesses are ready to modernize their operations in order to serve their customers faster and more efficiently – from anywhere. where, including mobile devices ”.

“By bringing Thryv software to the Australian market, we are confident that we can have an impact on Australian SMEs, the five million people they employ and the consumers who rely on the success of their small businesses.

Over the past seven years, Yellow has strived to move from its traditional printed directories to a digital-focused business with its database of 200,000 small and medium-sized businesses. It is Google’s biggest customer in Australia and boasts 6 million monthly searches through the Yellow.com.au platform.

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The owner of the phone book, Yellow Pages Group, said first-quarter revenue rose 7.4% and the company was on track to meet its annual profit forecast.

Quarterly revenue was $ 78 million, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (ebitda) was $ 47 million, $ 400,000 more than expected, the chief financial officer said by interim Greg Hurn.

Online revenues increased 12% from the previous year, and yellow and white page phone book revenues increased 7%. Income for the Yellow Pages retirement guide increased 51 percent for the quarter.

The company expects to meet its annual ebitda target of $ 171 million, up 7.6%.

YPG previously said it expects an after-tax net loss of $ 14.6 million, including significant non-cash items such as $ 15 million in depreciation and $ 27 million in non-cash financing. .

Printed directories provided the bulk of the revenue and continued to grow unlike the overseas directory markets, Hurn said. Ultimately, online and other media revenues are expected to exceed traditional print revenues.

Telecom sold its directory business in April to CCMP Capital Asia Pte and Teachers ‘Private Capital – the private equity arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan – for $ 2.24 billion.

– NZPA

Telkom launched Yep! – a digital marketplace for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

According to the phone group, as the tough economic environment continues to negatively affect industries, small businesses are hit the hardest and the market will help ease some of the pressures.

Telkom, which faces a massive drop in landline revenues, revealed earlier in the week that the new digital ecosystem is aimed at SMEs, which it says are key to the post-COVID-19 revitalization of the ‘economy.

The phone company says the market is focused on economic sustainability, creating a long-term future for small businesses.

Yeah! users can locate the businesses or services they need in a region, request quotes, make an appointment directly from the app, view the online store and view its ratings.

They can also create their own online store with their own branding and upload their list of services to find new customers.

“Think about yes! as a ‘friend’ of small businesses because it provides a scalable solution to help them grow and improve their reach, ”said Lunga Siyo, CEO of Telkom Business.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is having far-reaching effects, none of which heralds a bright future for many businesses and even more so in South Africa where SMEs are the backbone of the economy.

“Yeah! Will play a vital role in ensuring the survival of the small businesses in the country we rely on and helping to provide and develop the employment sector.

Yeah! is a product resulting from the transformation of the Yellow Pages by Telkom.

CEO Sipho Maseko told the media this week about the phone company’s new vision with the Yellow Pages division.

“We’re going to turn them into an online marketplace for small businesses and help them scale, grow and transact with customers.

“Evolving the current platform into an e-commerce platform allows SMEs to buy tailor-made solutions, manage their profiles, their accounts, and evolve their services in a transparent experience offered on a platform digital.

Yeah! will be available for download in the App Store and Google Play.

Fredericton is not a city full of high rise buildings, but you might get that feeling if you open the latest edition of the Yellow Pages for Fredericton and area.

The city’s new phone book shows a picture of a bridge on page 5 with the tag “Fredericton’s iconic Bill Thorpe Pedestrian Bridge”.

The image shows a trail leading to a cluster of apartment buildings in a city that is definitely not Fredericton.

It is not known exactly where the photo was taken.

The image was posted on Shutterstock, a stock photography website, by an account by the name of John_T, who describes himself as a China-based photographer, illustrator / vector artist, and videographer. The image is mislabeled on the site as “Gateway to Fredericton”.

The artist posted two more images under the Gateway tag in Fredericton. They show a bridge with an intricate and elaborate side rail leading up to palm trees.

Krystna Puleo, senior communications manager at Shutterstock, said in an email that the image is under review by the site’s content team. She could not be reached for further comment on Wednesday.

Both photos are also on the Adobe Stock photo platform, credited to someone using the name Evening_tao. It is one of a series of modern cityscapes in China.

Through reverse image searches, CBC News was able to pinpoint where the photo was likely taken. The bridge in the photo is similar to a winding red rail bridge found in Suzhou, China. This is a walking trail connected to a landmark in the city of East China, Tower Bridge, inspired by that of London.

Treena Cooper, vice president, secretary and general counsel of Yellow Pages, said the company “deeply regrets its mistake and apologizes to all residents.”

“The Yellow Pages will make every effort to ensure this error does not occur in future editions of the directory,” Cooper said in an email.

The Yellow Pages said they would not provide further comment at this time.

Fredericton residents react

Michele Boles, who lives in Fredericton, said whoever made the mistake should be held accountable.

“At first I was like, ‘Wow, is that what they’re going to do when they finish the new bridge renovations?’” Boles said with a laugh.

The pedestrian bridge is closed for works at least until mid-January.

Boles is however annoyed by the misrepresentation of her city.

“Someone just randomly searched for something online and used a free thing and no one even checked that out or somehow figured it out.”

Joe Hudon, another resident, was told by a friend of the mislabeled photo. Hudon didn’t believe his friend until he received his own copy of the phone book.

Construction of the Bill Thorpe pedestrian bridge is underway

Construction of the Bill Thorpe Pedestrian Bridge began in September and will not be completed until mid-January. But in the meantime, take a look at these awesome before and after photos as construction gets underway. 0:31

“I think it was a mistake made by the editors of the phone book who I guess are not in New Brunswick,” Hudon said in a Facebook post.

“I guess they just searched online for pictures of locations in New Brunswick and selected this one, which was mislabeled.”

The city, which has no control over the phone book, declined to comment on the mislabeled photo, but spokesman Wayne Knorr said in an email “mistakes do happen.”