There are two brands (maybe 3) that evoke within me a memory of a period that only two other people i know today (@thamintuli and @GlenLewisSA can bear witness to.
I was 10, barely pre-teen and there was nothing in the world more important to me than after school playing with my friends.
Walka
As I think of it now, I realise that for a black person living in apartheid South Africa in the early 80′s, we were quite the privileged.
When you consider the two brands in question you will realise just how fortunate we really were.
The brands are the Sony Walkman and Bauer.
See in the early eighties it was all about roller skating and manufacturers fell over themselves to capture this market as everyone was on skates. Bauer wasn’t really all that popular. Jokari was the popular brand then because the price was right.
It was my street smart brand conscious 15 year old brother @thamintuli that shocked us all with a R300.00 (or was it R600 ?) Bauer. R300 was a lot of money in 1982 so you can imagine how shocked we all were when she showed up with his pair on Saturday at “TimesSquare”
If you have lived in the era, you would know what I am talking about.
This morning I learned of a judgment against Google for an apparent infringement as a result of a search function Google has recently enabled. The search function is called suggested search. The word ‘rapist’ and ‘satanist’ appeared next to his name; the plaintiff complained.
Ridiculous I thought. After-all, these words appearing next to his name are merely words frequently associated with phrases that include his name. These search phrases as typed frequently by other people are surely just aggregated by Google as the search engine makes the calculated guess that you are probably searching for the same thing, right?
Surely Google is not responsible for what lies out there, Google’s job is merely to index what is out there and throw back the result on request and walk away, I thought.
Except that it is not that simple. Here’s why.
It is dangerous. Computer users today are not computer boffins. Users don’t care how Google associate information and how it uses this function or the other to guess the next word in the phrase the user is looking for.
It is Google’s responsibility. I think we have a lot to thank Google for including the indexing and curation of the informatio on the internet. It has never been easier to find information on the web. But this is part of the problem, the ease with which Google has made
the web. They are probably responsible for the way we use the web, the culture as it were.
Almost without thinking Google finds information for us. How many times do make spelling erros in your search phrase and Google manages to pull out your information anyway? The Internet is Google for many and with so much power and trust comes responsibility.
I worry though, where is the balance between this responsibility and self censorship. Where do you draw the line ? I don’t really know. All I know is our governmnet is taking a stab at it by legislation. Will it work ? I doubt it. What say you ?
Facebook has been making bad press lately because of the apparent disdain for users’s privacy. Much has been discussed about this and it has led to this response on the Washington Post by founder Mark Zuckerburg ; a non-apology by some reputable critics ( Kit Eaton, Molly Wood ). The crux of the complaints stem from the practice by Facebook where users are opted into privacy settings make their data public by default. A more acceptable policy is to keep this data private by default and let users decide when they make that information public.
Social media evangelists have spoken and the world has finally stood up to pay attention. In a race to cement their platform as the de facto standard for social media, Facebook has made available tools such as FacebookConnect as well as Facebook LIKE button. These tools make it possible for many websites to tap into that Facebook water well and get closer to those 800 million idle eyes. Business has paid attention.
This brings me to my question. As business taps into social media platforms controlled by other business entities, what is that point that will make business turn around and run for hills to look for other social media water wells (QQ, Baidu, Orkut, Hi5) ?
Does this signal the forming of other social media networks that are accountable to the users ? Who is going to pay for them ? Perhaps a model such as the one we see formed by other commercial conglomerates such as this one.
Is this the scarecrow that finally forces us to turn the chapter and move on to the next Fad?
MTN have announced the availability of their uncapped data packages from 1 June 2010. I think this is significant as this is the first of its kind among the cellular network providers. While I welcome the arrival of an uncapped data from a cellular provider it has to be asked, whom is this product for ? I can’t help but ask given the R749 and R1 999 price points !
The other question is, why two prices ? Well in South Africa like most things, a historical context may help explain things.
For a long time now, South Africans have looked upon their international counterparts (read Europe, S.Korea and USA) with gleaming eyes. What with their unlimited internet access and generous definition of broadband upwards of 8MBps. While in contrast, our broadband packages have been on the rather puny and limited 3 Gigabyte Telkom ADSL account; their flagship at the time later revised upwards to 5 Gigabytes. The awareness of this vast difference in broadband experience has incubated a pent-up and insatiable demand for MORE DATA among South Africans.
Since our service providers have limited experience in supplying uncapped data it is understandable that MTN would immediately seek to put some limits in order to manage expectations of performance. They need only look back t0 the Afrihost experience which was handled fairly reasonably i think.
So the two prices relate to the two levels of usage; 3 Gigabytes at R749 and 10 Gigabytes at R1 999.
Why the dissapointment ?
Well first of all the price. R749 is high; one can get away with an unlimited package under R500 per month, at far higher thresholds; granted at much slower speed.
Marketers must learn to use words that require less qualification when advertising their product. Granted, I have not seen any marketing campaign for the product but unlimited must mean unlimited experience. Not fast experience for the first 3 gigabytes then a slow down.
On the other hand, the product is here. I think given the fact that MTN have had trouble with DATA BUNDLE BILLING in the past, the innovations they have made on their data offering since fixing those billing issues are enough to get me thinking about returning to MTN to suppliment my data appetite.
Today I finished off an audiobook ‘Daemon’ by Daniel Suarez. The plot invovles a dead character who has found a way to effect chilling social changes, ruling beyond the grave as it were.
He left behind tiny program instructions called ‘daemons’ all over the Internet to respond to events as reported by online news agencies.
The effect is one of a powerful artificial intelligence entity with the ability to control business conglomerates in order to bring about a social re-engineering he has designed prior to his death.
What has struck me about this sci-fi thriller is not so much the audacity of plot but the possibility of the plot given the level of connectivity in society today.
Depending on your point of view, the book is either an alarmist view of the world or a warning highlighting our blind trust in the use of technogy available to us.
Petsonally I struggle with these competing ideas. I am a web addict spending way too much time on the net. I also intimately aware how this technology had affected my personal life. The Internet is in no doubt changing us… one closet geek at a time.
Yes, I know. I have been lazy not having posted a single article since September. Twitter and Micro blogging has become the substitute and this blog sat gathering pixel dust. Speaking of Twitter though I came across a hashtag #SpeakZa that was rapidly being re-tweeted and I followed. I am shocked by the revelation of that article to the extent that I am motivated to re-post as it were, in order for the message to reach as many people as possible. Here goes ..
Last week, shocking revelations concerning the activities of the ANC Youth League spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu came to the fore. According to a letter published in various news outlets, a complaint was laid by 19 political journalists with the Secretary General of the ANC, against Shivambu. This complaint letter detailed attempts by Shivambu to leak a dossier to certain journalists, purporting to expose the money laundering practices of Dumisani Lubisi, a journalist at the City Press. The letter also detailed the intimidation that followed when these journalists refused to publish these revelations.
We condemn in the strongest possible terms the reprisals against journalists by Shivambu. His actions constitute a blatant attack on media freedom and a grave infringement on Constitutional rights. It is a disturbing step towards dictatorial rule in South Africa. We call on the ANC and the ANC Youth League to distance themselves from the actions of Shivambu. The media have, time and again, been a vital democratic
safeguard by exposing the actions of individuals who have abused their positions of power for personal and political gain.
The press have played a vital role in the liberation struggle, operating under difficult and often dangerous conditions to document some of the most crucial moments in the struggle against apartheid. It is therefore distressing to note that certain people within the ruling party are willing to maliciously target journalists by invading their privacy and threatening their colleagues in a bid to silence them in their legitimate work.
We also note the breathtaking hubris displayed by Shivambu and the ANC Youth League President Julius Malema in their response to the letter of complaint. Shivambu and Malema clearly have no respect for the media and the rights afforded to the media by the Constitution of South Africa. Such a response serves only to reinforce the position that the motive for leaking the so-called dossier was not a legitimate concern, but a insolent effort to intimidate and bully a journalist who had exposed embarrassing information about the Youth League President.
We urge the ANC as a whole to reaffirm its commitment to media freedom and other Constitutional rights we enjoy as a country.
Here is a list of South African bloggers i respect
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.
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