Posted inBusinessTech

Interviewing the avatar

It may not be a new form of journalism, but it is quickly becoming apparent that interviews with avatars in virtual worlds are going to require a new set of guidelines for journalists. This is one of the first learnings to emerge from an experimental initiative in The Big Change blog. We are conducting business […]

Posted inMedia

Fired for blogging

So history has been made. Llewellyn Kriel has been fired from the Sowetan for his writings in his Thought Leader blog. At a hearing held at Avusa (Johncom) on Thursday afternoon, November 29, his contract of employment was formally terminated. While this was not unexpected, the first firing of a South African journalist for what […]

Posted inMediaTech

The future of media

If we want to understand how communications could change in the next 15 years, we must look back over the same period — to a time before the cellphone and the internet. Only then can we appreciate and prepare for the potential revolution that still faces us in the future. Here is a tale from […]

Posted inLifestyleTech

Origin of the blog revealed

Scientists have found a 60 000-year-old neck bone that suggests Neanderthals were anatomically able to produce the speech sounds modern humans make … That implies that voice-production machinery has changed little over the past 60 000 years. – News report “You have reached the cave of Ak Ar. I’m away right now, but if you leave […]

Posted inBusinessTech

Time to grow up, bloggers

Microsoft’s quarter-billion dollar investment in Facebook is a litmus test for the maturity of the social media and social networking world called Web 2.0. While it was fun for some (like Thought Leader colleague Ivo Vegter) to join a group of Facebook users who promised to quit the social network if Microsoft bought a share […]