Lets get the answer out of the way, I don’t know do you ?
I imagine that some writers experience the beginning of any post very much in a manner I do. At the beginning you think the article is expressing a particular idea and as you go along putting together the words that make up the paragraph, the article morphs into a direction of its own. I started off this paragraph thinking Iwas going to write about my observation on how Twitter is used. However it started morphing with each grammar and spell checking iteration. Anyway on with the post …
Being a black person I grow more curious each day about what it is that my fellow black Twitterers actually tweet about. This question is surprisingly a little more complicated than it sounds because in this country a bulls eye on a ‘black profile’ is ermm, black art actually; remember the “Black Diamond“ ? Now I am no researcher but if anecdotal evidence is anything to go by, I have Identified at least three categories.
Early Adopter Uber Black Geek
These are the guys who started talking about Twitter probably in 2007, @Notomodungwa, @FigoMago, @lebogang_nkoane and @Rafiq spring to mind. There is a lot more, but as i write this , it is pastmidnight and the missus is not impressed with me so i will move swiftly along.
They most likely have a coding background and if you go through their stuff, you’ll probably find an old 14.4 dial-up modems they are too reluctant to throw away or donate to their nearest museum. They are leaders in their spheres of influence and continue to be trail blazers. Their updates are very interesting if you are in the technology space they so keenly represent. I am proud of you guys.
The Technology-Shy-But-I-wanna-Try Type
I think these are the people that we all want to see on Twitter. They are probably familiar with the concept of a social network thanks to the overwhelming popularity of facebook and dare is say it Mxit *duck*. However these users are probably the ones that are hardest to convert to Twitter as there is an expectation of a facebook-esque user experience. They have probably heard of it from Oprah and some may even have heard from radio stations such as 702. They are growing steadily in numbers however their updates aren’t nearly as informative ; at least not to me as a geek. The steady growth in numbers is probably attributed to the third category…
The Industry-Socialite Type
At least that is what I call them. These are the celebrity A list Type. Probably the single most significant group of people probably responsible for the widest adoption of twitter by the black masses in the country. Yes I know, you guys are modest and I love you all for the modesty but there is such a thing as a celebrity culture growing in this country and I think it is formidable. I say this because these are the people discussing ways in which you Twitter; be it through Blackberry or iPhone. I think these are the guys driving sales for these popular platforms.
The personalities are too many to mention (I did mention the missus), however I do want to mention a few; @GlenandUnathi, @SizweDhlomo, @MelBala, @PabiMoloi, @Amunishn, @Anele, @UyandaM, @DavidKau1, @DjFreshSA, @Bonang, @KhayaDlanga whom I am ye to figure out …. The list goes on. Their updates are also not nearly as informative for the high profile personalities they represent. Their updates closely resemble the days of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) of the mid 90’s and I still cannot figure out for the life of me why I follow them, I’m certain they can’t figure it out too
What is the point of it all ?
Well the business model behind Twitter is yet to be clearly defined, however, once research organisations such as Quancast begin asking this very same question, it isn’t hard to figure out that who ever these people are, advertisers will want to speak to them.
The elections have come and gone and we have witnessed the most ‘robust’; to borrow
from the political term of the day; election campaigns I have seen since 1994. Top price
goes to the ANC in terms of the most improvement in utilizing the web in their election
campaign. They did many things right including the use of the big 3 (sms, Facebook and
of course Twitter). What is more significant to me is how the ANC and other parties will
continue to use the web to enhance the political process. So here is my3 things I thought
of immediately that political parties should do on the web after the elections frenzy dies
off.
Inform
I would like to see an informative process where my member of parliament lets me know, via
the web, the various activities that they may be involved with in matters of parliament.
This should include the various stages in the policy development process from problem
identification through to benefit realization of policy legislation. This can be done
through many means including news letters, twitter updates and various visualization tools
to help me understand the process.
Engage
I speak under correction here but I think, the channel of choice within the ANC for a
bulk of issues that eventually make it through to policy in parliament emanate from the
ANC structures on the ground. Often I have heard references to ‘criticize from within’;
creating the perception is that you need to be an ANC member and raise issues from within
the structures before your issues get any attention. No doubt this is a tried and tested
method for dealing with matters, however i think it misses an opportunity to address the
concerns of those who have no interest at all in joining the ANC. I think accessibility
can be improved by an online presence that invites participation, in a non partisan way,
from many participants.
Educate
I will be the first to admit that I still do not understand as clearly as I should, the
political process in general. Something tells me that the political process is more than
just formulating policy. I think service delivery is in there somewhere as well as public
participation. With a bit effort I can find out more. The thing is I am already used to my
daily newsletters over the years. I am familiar with the short , easy to digest daily
update from many websites I follow. I would like to see daily newsletters that educate
me about the ins and out that make parliament work.
For an example, I am already aware of a site called Parliamentary Monitoring Group. I
subscribed to a service where they send daily updates of the the various bills making their
way through parliament. What is lacking, is the story behind the bills. Where do they come
from, what were the issue. It is all too formal and I think it is geared towards
journalists and academics.
I must make special mention of the DA. I think their web presence has probably set the
tone and I particularly like the personal touch feel to the newsletters that Helen Zille
sends out. They remind me very much of the old Thabo Mbeki newsletters, even those were a
bit long and hard to read sometimes.
So there it, the 3 things I would like to see on the web. I will pay more attention to
this and I think this will become more important with the local service delivery elections
coming up in two years time. Anyone that wants my vote in two years will pay attention to
what i have spoken about here.
Recently, I have seen many of you, my friends on Facebook, joining Twitter. This makes me happy because
no longer will i sound like a geek when every time i refer to Twitter, in other words you are joining my universe.
sharing of information will be more immediate and meaningful as i join your universe and discover even more things that you find interesting.
since most of you are already in Facebook, our Facebook experience will be enhanced as we find more compelling reasons to interact, beyond the level of interaction offered by Facebook applications like ‘25 things you did not know about me’ , who cares ?.
Now that you are on Twitter, I would like to share with you, how I use Twitter and how it enhances my online experience. I think many people are dejected by the seemingly simple looking Twitter web page after they register. Unlike Google, there isn’t a lot to click on to ’see something happen’. On the face of it, it is a serious downgrade from the experience you are used to on Facebook.
Friends are Followers
I think it is important to explain the idea behind Twitter in order to understand how to use it. The idea is to keep track or ‘follow’ where your friends have been. You will be ‘following’ a trail of messages and most importantly web links that your friend leaves behind for you to ‘follow’ like Hansel and Gretel you see ?
So to follow someone is much like subscribing to someones messages as you would with online newsletters. The difference being that the messages are more instant, like Skype and Googletalk. So to remember to follow.
Sharing is Giving
Twitter would not be as popular as it is without the support of people that use it. The reason it is so popular is that people are always sharing. For me, this is the single most important idea behind Twitter. The discovery of new information that is shared by those I follow. So, when you discover something interesting on the web, share it with your followers, chances are that they will find it interesting too. This is important, the quality of the links you follow has an impact on how many people follow you.
Ok, with that sorted out of the way how do you get started.
Get a Twitter account by registering on Twitter.com, remember your twitter username and password when you have done registering. You will need it for the next step.
It is now time to find and add followers, the following video should help explain how.
There is lots more I would like to tell you, but it goes way beyond the scope of introducing you to Twitter. Honestly, it has taken me close to 5 days to get this post out. I will post more about this depending on feedback I get.
You can find more and even better videos on twitter and tweetdeck by visiting youtube.
Today’s announcement that MTN would be taking over retail space for up to 17 Musica stores raised eyebrows for many. What is a cell phone company doing with music store?
Well if I think of it, MTN is a telecommunications company (telco) and what we are seeing is probably a signal that the business model of these companies is changing.
The business model for telecommunication providers has been changing and adapting longer than most people would realise. Many people, including myself, have thought of telcos as simply voice service providers.
Over the last 15 years as we embrace the internet, we saw telcos as infrastructure providers for the communications lines for us so that we can call our loved ones and push internet data.
One has to realise though that telcos are more of application providers. The applications have been changing all the time. The killer application at the inception of the Telcos has been seen as messaging; from the age of morse code and till recently the age of the internet.
It should not surprising to me to see MTN moving into this space. A move into the music distribution simply makes sense. With the growing preference digitally distributed music, MTN are just paying attention, they would be well placed to close the gap between the producer of music on the one side and the consumer on the other.
The signal has been there for a long time.
We have seen our local artists benefit from music distributions via wireless application service providers. Many ring tones appear on countless catalogues and only a short code away through companies such as ExactMobile etc.
So, the next announcement I am anticipating from the likes of MTN is a scramble for the creme of these wireless application service providers crop.
Tweeter has become an important instant messaging tool for me. If you have not heard of tweeter before, where have you been?I see Tweeter as a crowd sourcing tool that can be used to keep in touch of others. You do not need to be crowd sourcing of course. It allows me to be a “follow” of people that interest me socially and in business too.
I have found use twitter more often than I use email, and lately more often than I use Google search. Actually more searches that I do on Google these days are a result of some info that came via Tweeter.
I also love music and lately I have been feeling that I should be going to more live performances by South African music artists. But which one should I go to? Ideally this exercise would require me to go to computicket and do a relevant search on live performance acts.
However times have changed and I have become used to my way of life. Why should I be chasing after artists, and why should I be going through obstacles to get to the information about artist that is relevant to me. I would rather prefer that the information about artists be pushed to me than seek it out. I like the convenience.
This is an application that is perfect for Tweeter. If all the artists that I like had a Tweeter profile it would make things so much easier, all I would do is ‘follow’ them and every time that they want to tell their followers about their next performance, they would just push that info out as an instant message with the relevant link to book the show.
So, here is my top 5 South African Artists that I wish had a Tweeter Profile.
What began as an article for Tweeter profile ended up sounding like a review of South African music artists web presence review.
1. Lira
She is my favorite artist singing good music that hard to catagorise. She does jazz some pop and generally the kind of music you can listen to every single day.
Her social network marketing strategy includes the use of MySpace, Facebook and well as a service I know very little about called ReverbNation. They appear to be a one stop service for management of your social network presence
2. Thandiswa
I think Zabalaza is one memorable album that I will never forget. I have been following her music since the days of Bongo Maffin and when the Zabalaza album was released, that became a signal to me that a new level of maturity in her music has been achieved.
Sadly, at the time of writing this, her site has no content all. She must be working on her site or something but it does help to put a little note. I have found a closed profile on Facebook but since there isn’t a direct link on her site I couldn’t be sure the profile i was looking at was hers.
3. Hip Hop Pantsula
I think the name says it all. Hip Hop and Pantsula, two distinct genres of music with a good historical background that stretches many years back. This dynamic artist has put the two together the two genres in a mixture called MOTSWAKO that makes listen to Hip Hop such a rewarding experience.
I think he could use some Search Engine Optimisation. His online profile is all over the place. Perhaps that is not a bad thing however leaving a major part of your online identity to a resourceyou have little control over, can be frustrating.
His social networking strategy involves heavy usage of MySpace. Not a bad choice with a following of close to 2000 people. However MySpace has an image about it that feels a little less professional in my Opinion. MySpace feels a little patchy and more of an afterthought. He has only made only one blog entry made 3 months ago!
I could not find on Facebook a profile I can positively identify has HHP’s profile. There are at least three so one gets confused in determining which one is managed by the artist or his PR representative. This illustrates the need to have your own web address presence (www.hiphoppantsula.co.za). Once could refer to the site to find the proper Facebook profile.
Much like Thandiswa, hiphoppantsula.co.za has no content or whatsoever.
4. Pro Kid
I am not proud to say I have not listened to much his music. However a few songs that I have listened to such as “Soweto” have impressed me much and i think he brings a style of rap with strong assertive assertions that could only have come from Soweto. He is by no means the biggest Hip Hop artists out there but certainly one I would like to see perform.
I have found no website for Prokid but instances all over the web that are either discographies or small online startups that wish to capitalize on ringtones and lyrics from his music.
5. MXO
Another brilliant artist that can rap as well as sing. He hails from the Eastern Cape and at the risk of sounding like a biography; his music is really fresh, does not conform to anything you have heard coming from the eastern cape and still compelling to keep his music on the cd tray for a while.
I think our local artist really need help. He has no .co.za that I could identify. Mxo.co.za has been taken over by a cyber squatter and so had mxo.com. The flavor of music artists; MySpace has a profile that points to another site (mxfunk.com) that does not resolve to any site at all.
I found a Facebook group profile called MXO music however, this appears to be yet another group profile probably created by a fan. It does not appear to have any information regarding performances and has all of 15 members.
What began as an article for Tweeter profile ended up sounding like a review of South African music artists web presence review. Of all the artists I reviewed here, Lira is still on top. I think it says something about her marketing team and herself as a professional. No wonder she is my favorite artist. All she needs to do is get a Tweeter profile organised.
I came across a good website today. I see it as a mapping application that gives a global view of disease outbreaks around the world.
It is called HealthMap and It makes use of google maps and some clever design interfaces to bring together data from various sources such as the World Health Organisation, United Nations and others to present in a graphical format validated information regarding the health state of the world.
At first glance, the intensity of markers seems to be concentrated in the North American continent. One could draw a mistaken conclusion that North America has a lot more medical problems than Africa (hence my overly dramatic subject line). I suspect though that the truth is that our monitoring system are less developed than the developed world.
If the mobile penetration rate in this continent is nearly as high as reported, surely this tool could be a lot more accurate were it used by more people. I would imagine integrating this with mobile SMS should not be too difficult ?
“Politics 2.0″ according to wikipedia is ” the idea that social networking and e-participation technologies will revolutionize our ability to follow, support, and influence political campaigns” and I would like to append that not only the political campain but the politcal process in general”
Unless you have been banished to a far flung Island totally isolated from all media over the last 4 years or so; the name Barak Obama has to sound familiar to you. Depending on the level of media that you may be exposed to, his name (Barak Obama) has become synonymous with the word CHANGE !
That message has been communicated and promised so well that even the means; with which that message is spreading; has changed. For the the change has been social media. The use of social media tools such as blog, shared video (Youtube), instant messaging (Twitter), social networking (Facebook et al) has done much to popularise and spread Obamas election promise.
Visiting websites for the major political parties in South Africa one soon realise that the political parties sit at varying levels of readiness for a robust political campaign that takes advantage of social media. At the most basic level at least they all have a web presence of some kind.
However most lack an RSS feed which to my mind is the most fundamental element required to really give wings to a political opinion published on their websites. I thought it was curious though that among websites visited they all seem to have a representation in one form or the other on Facebook.
No doubt the use of the tools has some significance but how relevant are all these tools in South Africa ?
Broadband penetration in South Africa sit at a low and depressing mark ( around 1% at best estimates source ), This does not compare well with the US at 57 % (source).
We do on the other hand have one of the highest mobile phone to user ratios in the world. This ubiquitous state in my opinion is the most widely ignored means of communication by political representatives. However, looking at the agenda on this years MobileActive08, I am convinced that perhaps some light will be shared towards that “Politics 2.0″ Euphoria I long to see.
I happen to be the most computer literate person in my immediate family. In other words I am a geek of sorts. Most geeks will be familiar with social moments, either with family or with friends where you are asked about what the next big thing on the web is.
While you may regret having to mention “we are headed for a sematic web”, here is an example you may find useful to show them what is to come.
I stumbled upon this humorous image. This gentleman had built a site with images hotlinked from another site and he writes to the web master complaining about the removal of the images he had hotlinked. Hotlinking refers to the use of an image on a site that is located on a different host than your own.
This used to be a big web ettiqutte faux pas. The two common reasons this practice was frowned upon are bandwidth costs and copyright infringement. I think if you are hosting your sites in South Africa the bandwidth costs will probably be closer to your concerns.
There are numerous examples of web masters discouraging this behavior including this ingenuous example where the hotlinked images are swaped with images advertising the original site. Which led my thoughts to pupularity in page ranking. As you may know, when you talk about page ranking, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a very relevant topic.
I know very little about SEO beyond the odd tweaking of the page headers and a plugin or two into wordpress but I spend enough time on the web to notice that hotlinking as been a relevant topic among SEO magicians. This is hardly a new topic but I really want to know from knowledgable poeple out there, is Hotlinking the web version of the ugly duclking that turned into a beautiful swan ?
So I was bored and started poking around profiles on Twitter. Soon I came to the question : does the 6 degrees of separation theory apply to Twitter ?
For the slightest remote chance that you have no idea what Twitter is, I think of it as yet another social networking (or is it social NOTworking application) that allows you to track what others are doing. It can be used as a way of letting your readers know that you posted a new title on your blog.
Your readers then receive that instant message; in a manner that is not too different from a ‘text’ or ‘SMS’ you receive on your phone except of course you receive it on your computer. I should mention that you can receive those messages on your cellphone but I will tackle that separately as a topic.
As I was hopping from one profile to another, building a network of sorts for people i find interesting, i began to wonder how long would it take for me to stumble upon a profile of someone I would recognise or someone that I have actually met in person ?
It did not take long, I did infact find the profile of someone I knew. More about that in a moment. Soon I wanted to find out if a ’six degrees experiment’ has been done on the Twitter network before. sure enough I came across Eric Gehler’s post talking about the exact same thing. Eric , I wish you luck and I will follow you.
Latest Entry
Tweeter has become an important instant messaging tool for me. If you have not heard of tweeter before, where have you been?
1. Lira
2. Thandiswa
3. Hip Hop Pantsula
4. Pro Kid
5. MXO
