Mike Stopforth

TECH4FRICA, a “web and emerging technology conference for Africa” being organised by Gareth Knight (of Kindo fame) has officially launched it’s website with info about the upcoming event.
It’s due to be held at The Forum in Bryanston over 3 and 4 October and already at this early stage has a very impressive speaker line up.
I [...]

For some reason I’ve been ignoring MyGenius.com - the Southern African social network for business people. I have been a member since late 2006 - MyGenius’s very early days - and never quite got in to it. I get the odd message from a MyGenius member wanting to connect but have spent little no time on updating my profile or adding content to the site.

Recently I decided to give MyGenius another go based on two realisations. Firstly, the value of social networking is undoubtedly found, or much easier mined, in niche communities. The quintessential example is Charl Norman’s Zooped Up community for owners of modified cars and suchlike - completely useless for me but absolutely invaluable and addictive to people entrenched in that community. MyGenius cannot be compared to MySpace, for example, because it’s not trying to be a globally dominant player. It’s simply trying to do what it does well.

Yes, it’s an odd request, but I have a good mate who is driving a very worthy project called Siyakhula (we are growing) that seeks to offer basic PC and Office instruction at a drastically reduced rate to disadvantaged communities, and he needs about 25 decent PC’s…

I’m a sports lover. I’m absolutely obsessed with cricket and rugby and seldom miss international fixtures, while trying to catch as many provincial matches as possible. When there’s no cricket or rugby to watch I’ll happily waste time taking in whatever is on the telly with the exception of horse racing or showjumping, both of which give me the heebies. Can’t tell you why, they just do.

I watch club and international football selectively but because our national team leaves a little to be desired in terms of recent form and I don’t associate directly with any one Premiership or European club side, it’s not a life or death past time. Besides soccer irritates me, more and more every time I watch it. Especially when I compare the game of rugby and rugby players to their soccer counterparts. Here are seven reasons (seven points for a converted try) why rugby kicks soccer’s ass any day:

Without going into too much detail, do you support Ramon Thomas’ assertion that the article written by Mandy de Waal about the who’s who of Web 2.0 in South Africa was ‘distasteful and offensive‘ or do you think Nic was right in saying that Ramon’s response “immediately marginalises his audience and those involved in his article”?

Have your say…

I met Darren Gorton online and then for the first time in person over a cup of Vida coffee. Darren must have walked away from the meeting with a very interesting first impression though, because he picked the worst day in the history of my short life to touch base - not his fault of course, I was just in a horrible place. He very kindly maintained contact though and although I haven’t had a chance to make up for our first meeting yet, he has been updating me with the progress of a fascinating project he’s co-ordinated, dubbed The SA Blook, which has now come to fruition. From the introduction to the Blook on Darren’s site:

Welcome to the SA blook, a collaboration between South African bloggers with a strong belief in the future of our nation. Essentially, it is a book, originally published online and written by a diverse group of writers with strong views about our country and the reality South Africans find themselves living in…

It’s a little late, but I’d like to thank all who attended last night’s 27dinner in Jozi (we were at Primi Piatti, Melrose Arch) yesterday evening. Considering the cold, dreary Cape Town weather the turn out was good and the vibe was even better.

Our speaker line-up included Ramon Thomas who spoke about Technology Stress in a Wireless World (view the preso at his site) followed by Jason Hobbs who gave a fascinating and stylish report on research he’s done into the disproportionately large, but thriving internet cafe industry in inner city Johannesburg. The photo essay and report are both available at his website (which is also pretty impressive).

If you have nothing better to do feel free to watch me talking about “The importance of Networking” on Alishia Seckam’s show, ‘Africa’s Entrepreneurs’ on CNBC Africa at 13h50 20h30, tomorrow, Tuesday 28 May (we’re recording at 14h00, sorry for the confusion).

The producer has nominated MyGenius, local business social networking site, as a case study and I hope to cover the subject of personal digital profiles and the Google CV, if I get the chance.

The Afrigator blog announced this morning that a new feature - Topics - would be added starting with a page highlighting social media mentions and conversations around the xenophobia crisis in South Africa at the moment.

I’ve just picked up on a fantastic post from one of my favourite bloggers, Lee LeFever from the Common Craft Show which is a must-read for all of us immersed in the Web 2.0 evolution.

I’ve often criticised advertising agencies of losing site of the bigger picture as a result of striving for bigger, flashier ads, edgier copy and design and of course, elusive awards. But Lee’s post has pointed my accusatory finger right back at me - do I have blinkers 2.0? Am I so worried about my traffic, Twitter replies and blog rankings that I’ve forgotten that the vast majority of my clients and their customers don’t know about, or don’t care about anything 2.0-ish.