The old adage goes that people love to talk about themselves, and nowhere is this more evident than on the popular Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and MySpace. All of a sudden you have the ability to follow strangers’ everyday moves, see in great detail where they have been, and read all […]
Tech
Posted inTech
Hail Vodacom — the new kings of spam!
Like everyone else with an email account, spam has become one of those mind-numbing annoyances I’ve had to learn to live with. This study reckons that 83% of all emails being sent are spam. That translates to somewhere between 60-billion and 150-billion emails a day. It sounds like it is overstating it a bit, but […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, Tech
Social networking: a matter of geography
Two major shifts have occurred in the Facebook regional rankings that may point to the shape of things to come in social networking. Canada leaped ahead of the United Kingdom in the past two weeks, while Australia finally stormed past Norway. South Africa, meanwhile, achieved the quarter-million mark on September 8, but is warily eyeing […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Technology qualifications not meeting needs of SA web
My colleague and fellow Thought Leader contributor Vinny Lingham and I recently spent some time together discussing what we believe is the next wave of innovation on the web, post the social-networking drivers of Web 2.0. We believe that the world is poised for a dramatic increase in demand for niche, concise, on-demand skills training. […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Money, money, money
Contrary to popular belief, there is money to be made on the internet. The Mail & Guardian Online has become a profitable part of the M&G empire with advertising revenues increasing by 60% in the past year. M&G Online publisher Matt Buckland told the Digital Citizen Indaba in Grahamstown on Sunday that advertising has not […]
Posted inTech
Cyber-activism and its legal implications on the blogosphere
By Arthur Chatora Professor Guy Berger, the head of the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University, presented a lecture entitled Cyber-activism and Legal Lessons at the Digital Citizen Indaba in Grahamstown on Sunday. The lecture interrogated the legal discrepancies within the blogosphere and focused on issues of censorship, credibility and regulation. The […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics, Tech
Just abolish the Dept of Communications
ITWeb reports that a letter has been sent to the police, half the government oversight committees and the presidency, in which fraud and kickback accusations related to the hiring of staff in South Africa’s Department of Communications are alleged.
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
The challenges facing online shopping in South Africa
Online shopping has become a worldwide phenomenon due to the increasing availability of broadband and computer literacy. But is South Africa on par with the rest of the world? Not yet, but we will be if we can overcome a few stumbling blocks. The number-one reason for online shopping in South Africa not being where […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, Tech
Internet-savvy employees affect the bottom line
My company, Creative Rides, currently has four employees, including my partner and I. Although we’re a “workshop” focused on altering all types of cars in different ways, I’m doing the opposite of large corporations … I’m encouraging use of the internet and it’s certainly affecting on my bottom line each day that goes by. Here’s […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
The numbers are in: Blogging reaches tipping point in SA
The three months from April to June 2007 are likely to be remembered as the beginning of the tipping point for social media and social networking in South Africa. Most of the country’s key platforms and innovations for what is collectively known as Web 2.0 emerged during that period. While it was obvious that growth […]
Posted inTech
Why corporates should force Facebook usage
Many positive and negative things have been said about the banning of Facebook access at corporate workspaces. But corporates seriously need to wake up to the fact that they are doing themselves an injustice by trying to control their employees’ online behaviour — even if it is during office hours — and would be far […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Cliff Jennings: The facts
Cliff Jennings, the now popular Idols contestant, was exposed to blogger Bruinman to be a marketing ploy by Ogilvy. This was confirmed on Tuesday by Pierre Cloete, brand manager at M-Net. I don’t want to discuss how I feel the campaign should have been executed or how Ogilvy doesn’t understand the concept of social media. […]