Thought Leader

Facebook has changed the nature of friendship for many South Africans; I know that without it, my own sense of isolation would be so much worse. Facebook has also changed the way we mourn. Now, when terrible things happen to people we care about, we create Facebook groups in their honour. I was reminded of…

Ok, the familiar jingle doesn’t quite translate, but there’s every indication that Apple’s iPhone is just as popular as ice-cream. In just a little over a year and half from its launch, the iPhone has achieved a 32% market share and holds an unassailable lead as the world’s trendiest and most sought after device. No…

Over the last 18 months we have brought this innovation to the attention of all of the represented political parties. Now for the first time, we share this hitherto confidential “inside information” with you. Assuming that all politicians got into politics to help people and that, if given the opportunity, both politicians and political party…

It seems that effective monetising of websites may still be a hit and miss affair. In an interesting article on Brand Republic the discussion is about a video site called Hulu. According to projected ad revenue figures Hulu will be earning as much if not more advertising revenue in 2009 than YouTube will. What is…

NO ONE could hold it against you if you hadn’t noticed the extent to which our news media are in crisis. After all, the traditional media are no longer the source of your really important news any more. And by “really important” I mean really important to YOU. Of course, the headlines of the day…

One the world’s most revered brands, you’d think Google would employ best practice in setting up a local office. Not so. The search giant’s presence here is marked by a lack of local development, no commitment to equity and a company structure that sees revenues originated in this market shipped offshore. In this opinion: Google…

Google’s presence in SA is marked by controversy and confusion as its commitment to equity, skills transfer and development is questioned.

Some time back I heard of a group of people on the internet who were spending their time creating graphs of songs titles and lyrics and posting them online – in fact there was a whole song chart pool on Flickr that was collecting them all. As a closet geek with a passion for music,…

(This piece originally appeared on tonylankester.com) South African blogger Donn Edwards is being sued for libel by a timeshare company called Quality Vacation Club (QVC) after he wrote of his experience with the company. I have no axe to grind with the timeshare industry. But if they bend the rules and dupe people into buying…

It can be enormously confusing when you first set out to liberate yourself. Having a full-featured office that is not an office at all is a contradiction and a challenge — but also an enormously satisfying goal once it is achieved. The first few times you hit the road (or a restaurant, airline or conference)…