This saga continues.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 resource you 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.

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.