This saga continues.

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 ?

1. 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.
2. 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.

Welldone MTN

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

http://thoughtleader.co.za/siphohlongwane
http://vocfm.co.za/blogs/munadia/
http://vocfm.co.za/blogs/shafiqmorton/
http://blogs.news24.com/needpoint
http://capetowngirl.co.za
http://thoughtleader.co.za/sentletsediakanyo
http://thoughtleader.co.za/davidjsmith
http://letterdash.com/one-eye-only
http://boyuninterrupted.blogspot.com
http://amandasevasti.com
http://blog.empyrean.co.za/
http://letterdash.com/brencro
http://6000.co.za
http://chrisroper.co.za
http://pieftw.com
http://hamishpillay.wordpress.com
http://memoirs4kimya.blogspot.com
http://thoughtleader.co.za/azadessa
http://watkykjy.co.za
http://fredhatman.co.za
http://thelifeanddeathchronicles.blogspot.com/
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/common-dialogue/
http://www.clivesimpkins.blogs.com/
http://mashadutoit.wordpress.com
http://nicharalambous.com
http://sarocks.co.za
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/stompies/
http://helenmoffett.book.co.za/blog/
http://01universe.blogspot.com
http://groundwork.worpress.com
http://iwrotethisforyou.me
http://fionasnyckers.book.co.za
http://attentiontodetail.wordpress.com
http://blogs.women24.com/editor
http://www.missmillib.blogspot.com
http://snowgoose.co.za
http://dreamfoundry.co.za
http://www.vanoodle.blogspot.com
http://alistairfairweather.com
http://www.zanedickens.com
http://www.nickhuntdavis.com
http://guysa.blogspot.com
http://book.co.za
http://baldy.co.za
http://skinnylaminx.com
http://blogs.african-writing.com/zukiswa
http://www.mielie.wordpress.com
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/gatherer/
http://thoughtleader.co.za/sarahbritten
http://stii.co.za
http://blogs.news24.com/FSB_AP
http://twistedkoeksuster.blogspot.com
http://whensmokegetsinyoureyes.blogspot.com/
http://trinklebean.wordpress.com
http://commentry.wordpress.com/
http://matthewbuckland.com
http://blogs.news24.com/colour-me-fran
http://gormendizer.co.za
http://www.exmi.co.za
http://moralfibre.co.za
http://gnatj.com
http://fsi.org.za
http://synapses.co.za
http://simon.co.za/speakza
http://cat-dubai.blogspot.com
http://khadijapatel.co.za
http://ravingfans.co.za
http://www.harassedmom.co.za
http://angelo2711.posterous.com/
http://www.macgeek.co.za
http://www.futurechurch.co.za

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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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

1. no longer will i sound like a geek when every time i refer to Twitter, in other words you are joining my universe.
2. sharing of information will be more immediate and meaningful as i join your universe and discover even more things that you find interesting.
3. 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.

1. 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.
2. Download and install Adobe Air over here.
3. Finally Download and install  Tweetdeck over here.
4. 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.

Good luck and happy tweeting.

HealthMap

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 ?

Hopefully  MobileActive will talk more about this.

“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.

ANC	Y	Y	N	N	Y	N	N	15-Sep-08
DA	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	N	N	15-Sep-08
FFP	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	N	N	15-Sep-08
ID	Y	Y/N	N	N	Y	N	Y	15-Sep-08
UDM	Y	N	N	N	Y	N	N	15-Sep-08
ACDP	Y	Y	N	N	Y	N	N	15-Sep-08
PAC	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	15-Sep-08

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.

For what ever reason you may find yourself, still running Microsoft Frontpage 98 and still running NT and after a decade (yes, 11 years) of faithful service you find yourself having to fix the error above; here is a solution…

• Run NT service pack 6 again, good luck finding that on the web

What you really should be doing is

• migrate to Sharepoint service and windows server 2003 or

• migrate to Linux and run a web content management system

I found references to setting permissions in the registry key that did not make much sense to me but if those did infact help you out, oh well Bob’s your uncle then.