MIKESTOPFORTH

Ushahidi means ‘witness’ in Swahili. This attempt to use social technology to chronicle incidences of violence in Kenya is the brainchild of Erik Hersman, Ory Okolloh and David Kobaya. The site is painfully simple in design and concept – it’s a Google Maps mash-up that allows users to report incidences of crime and violence by [...]

Wendy (my wife) and I aren’t really the New Year’s resolution types. We’re of the opinion that if you cannot change your ways midway through the year, January is not a good enough motivator to kick the habit, start the habit, or whatever it may be. Having said that we’ve become increasingly conscious of our [...]

Happy New Year! A lifetime ago (that is, December 2006) there was a little game of blog tag I was roped into playing. Once again I have been tagged and if not for the fact that it is the illustrious Susan Scrupski that is doing the tagging, I might ignore it. But what the heck. [...]

I was introduced to the music of the Dave Matthews Band almost ten years ago. Their music, for a multitude of reasons, has always held a very special place in my heart. I’m a fan of a broad range of music genre’s and styles, but there’s just something about these guys that speaks to my [...]

…listen to Jacaranda 94.2. Don’t ask, just do it :)

My good friend and advisor Clive Simpkins dropped me an email the other day to alert me to renowned public speaker Richard Mulvey’s upcoming Kilimanjaro climb in aid of raising funds for the Reach for a Dream Foundation. The living legends from Missing Link and Jo’blog have put together an awesome video about the climb: [...]

I apologise for the lack of posting over the last while. I was away from the 1st to the 8th and it’s taken a bit of effort getting reorganised in the midst of the end of year wind down. There’ll be a few final key posts going up before I shut down completely over Christmas [...]

Last night in the semi-darkness of what was arguably the best 27dinner I’ve been to yet (no small thanks to sponsors Stormhoek and Afrihost), we announced the launch of Afrigator Beta. Our primary focus is establishing ourselves as Africa’s primary Social Media Aggregator. We pull content in and splice and dice it into easily consumable [...]

Tomorrow night marks the 15th installment of the 27dinner social networking movement – this time at Melrose Arch in Jozi. There are already over 100 people on the list – it bodes well for a goeie jol. I have on more than one occasion taken the opportunity to shamelessly promote my own self-interests at 27dinner, [...]

I have a brother. He has many talents. Playing the guitar is one of them. In this clip, recorded about a year back, he plays one of his original songs which I really enjoy. Sure, I’m biased, but I think he has serious potential. He has written in the region of about a hundred songs [...]

This month sees 27-15 Jozi and 27-16 Durban taking place on the 27th November in their respective cities. It’s hard to believe we’re on our 16th dinner countrywide! Congrats and thanks to all who have worked so hard to make 27 a highlight in the tech / marketing calendar. Special thanks must also go to [...]

I’m a drummer – it’s a lesser known Stopforth fact :) I play weekly in our church band and on the very odd occasion when I get some spare time – not having a kit at home limits my opportunities to practice and play. Considering I’ve been playing some time now I’m a pretty average [...]

I’ll listen to the news when I get in my car, and I’ll watch the odd 7 o’clock repost on the telly after work. Sometimes I’ll check news online. But I don’t get news delivered to my RSS reader – I check that too seldom to warrant it. I’m unsatisfied though. I still feel out [...]

Gareth Knight got in touch with me the other to let me know that Saul Klein was coming to SA and that I should make a plan to connect with him. At the same time, he gave me a login to his latest creation, Kindo, a family tree-oriented social networking tool. I must confess the [...]

I climbed off a plane this evening and made my way through OR Tambo to my car. It felt different. There was a proliferation of green – abnormal numbers crowded around Totalsports and the Bok supporters booth snatching up the last jerseys, flags, scarves and even socks. I couldn’t stop smiling. Once home I kissed [...]

I’ve written about Wynand of MAC 911 a couple of times – he’s a brave and proudly South African crusader against crime who is looking to bloggers to help him grow and promote his initiative. I got a mail from Wynand this week asking if I could put out a call to anyone who may [...]

I’ve been called many things since I started blogging. Not all of them have been nice. Lately though, as a by-product of trying to take over the world with Cerebra (one has to grow up sometime), I’ve been called nothing. I think it was Dave Duarte who once spoke words of wisdom, saying that sometimes [...]

Help us out dudes. Cerebra is growing at a rapid rate (by the way, look out for our new website launching soon) and we’ve run out of space in our little office at 101 11th Str, Parkmore. We’re looking to move into some nice, funky space and if we need to share it would be [...]

I’m going to try my hand at sports writing over the next few weeks. Perhaps just to deal with the emotional rollercoaster I’m bound to endure – if tonight’s opening match of the 2007 Rugby World Cup was anything to go by. The Pumas won it at the anthems. There was something about the way [...]

So perhaps you’ve heard of fat blogging, a meme started by Jason Calcanis of Sequoia Capital. I first stumbled across the term on Joe Jaffe‘s site. Basically, as I understand it, the idea is to declare your overweight-ness to you reading audience, with the intention of losing weight and having them (and other) fat bloggers [...]