Let’s talk IS Labs

This week on Let’s Talk Jeff Fletcher from IS joins me to talk about IS Labs, Facebook fears and more.

What exactly do you do Jeff?

I work for Internet Solutions, helping them build new products and services and in exchange they let me work on IS labs. I also manage the growth of two spawn.

Are you a global citizen or made in SA?

4th generation South African. But a global citizen in the internet sense.

What is your favourite can’t-live-without-it gadget?

I would like to be more exotic in this regard and say something like my 1947 military edition shaving kit. The truth is it’s just my MacBook, from which I do everything. Close second is a tie between my Leatherman and a BassPODxt.

Is web 2.0 going to burst like its late sister, web 1.0?

With more of a pfffft than an actual pop. Some companies made it through bubble 1.0 quite successfully by getting actual money from actual customers in exchange for actual services. Investors are a bit more wary of new ventures that don’t have a solid “we sell this stuff for profit” foundation. So there will be some replication of the web 1.0 mania, but tempered with a few battle scars.

Are you nervous at all about giving your information to Google?

More nervous about Facebook to be honest. Luckily my life is a little too dull to attract Echelon’s attention.

On to more specific stuff, here come the testers.

Tell me a bit about IS Labs. What is it, who is it for and why should we care?

IS labs is a new venture started by a couple of passionate people inside IS to help boost innovation on the South African internet. It’s for anyone who has wondered what they can do to reduce their monthly internet bill, wanted a faster video streaming experience and get more South African’s included in the online conversation. We believe this is something that needs to be fixed. We are aiming to help people who want to make the South African internet a better place by providing guidance and resources to get your idea going.

Ideas that make it to the top of the list go through to an assessment and then on to a second stage. What exactly does that second stage involve?

At the second stage we start providing resources (i.e. bandwidth, hosting, technical and business guidance, desk space and funding) to get from idea stage to a working prototype with a few customers. What we want is a piece of this venture if it becomes a fully-fledged business. Its similar to the way an angel investor works. We don’t own a piece of every venture, but we do want first choice if we give you resources.

Who ultimately benefits from these ideas? Is it the person behind the idea or is it IS and the big companies who can afford to implement the concepts?

Ideally both. If we simply help you along the way but don’t take a stake in your idea or project, it’s still fine. Provided your idea will generate more traffic locally (i.e. that stays in SA) Internet Solutions will benefit. The best outcome though is that we partner to form a company that becomes the next Facebook, and both IS and the person behind the idea benefit.

What sort of ideas do you think should be making it to the top, give my readers a bit of a hint, what do you think the community is looking for?

We went into this expecting to see standard Web 2.0 social networking proposals all over the place, but the private ideas we have received have been quite unique. Its clear that South Africa is not Silicon Valley and our online entrepreneurs think very differently. We want ideas that will get more people connected and do things that are more relevant to the South African internet user.

What effect do you think Neotel’s entry in to the local telecoms market will have, if any?

It will lower prices and provide more reach, but I wonder just how long that will take.

There has been talk recently about social media being in trouble, corporate SA taking it on and having a detrimental effect in general. What do you think about corporate SA’s approach to social media?

The corporate marketing machine will always try to move to where their customers are. As users flock to social media gathering spots, advertisers will follow. Social Networking will eventually have to give way to the next this-is-the-coolest-thing-ever and take its place as one of the many communication mechanisms we use. This happened to radio, telephones, television, email, cellphones, the web, IM etc. etc. They’ve lost their coolness factor after mass adoption. But yet they’re still an active part of the communication ecosystem.

Jeff – thank you for your time and I hope you manage to vote up the next big solution in SA!

Thank you for telling people about IS labs!