MIKESTOPFORTH

Mr (or Mrs) Write

* This article appeared in the Citizen Newspaper on 9 June 2006 [Link]. I never finished my degree. Or should I say degrees (plural). You see, I have completed one third of a communications course and two thirds of a psychology course. For all intense and purposes I have a whole degree. Seriously though. when [...]

Hollywood Goes Viral

Snakes on a Plane is a movie about, well, snakes that get put on a plane. It’s arguably the worst idea for an action movie ever. It is due for release on the 18 August 2006. The thing about Snakes on a Plane is, it’s everywhere. It’s the latest and greatest web meme (unit of [...]

When Books Died

I spend a great deal of time in my car. In the past, if I was to maximize the value of that time, I had a number of choices. I could listen to the radio. Sadly, I have never found a commercial station offers me a three solid hours of stimulating listening. I could catch [...]

Comeback Kidders

Another pleasant email this week announced the unceremonious return of my favourite T-shirt manufacturers, the infamous brand-extinguishing, Justin Nurse-inspired Laugh It Off. They come complete with a revamped website and a range of new T’s. Good to have you back guys!

Tihs is Wreid

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid is scuh taht it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a word are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the [...]

ICASA hearing – will it make a difference?

I’m a registered user at MyADSL – a community that according to the About page, was formed in 2003 to serve the South African broadband and IT community – “It provides visitors with up-to-date coverage of local and International IT and Internet related news, and gives them a place to give their views and share [...]

Mail & Guardian Raising the Bar

The Mail & Guardian Online, Africa’s self-proclaimed first online newspaper, has made an interesting move by including social (or Web 2.0) tagging and bookmarking tools at the end of their articles. See image below:

Night Golf

Four lads. A pitch black, freezing evening. Benoni Lake Club golf course. Flashing balls. Now that’s golf. Merv Hartley, a good mate and ex-fourball partner of mine sponsored four of us to play in a charity golf day (or is that golf night) last Friday evening. What a party. I love golf, but have never [...]

Mark Cuban – Blogging vs Traditional (Mainstream) Media

Mark Cuban, charismatic owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, is an extremely popular blogger and web personality.  Mark spends a lot of time commenting on the impact of emering social (or consumer-generated) media on mainstream media, and recently wrote an excellent entry on the relationship (or divide) between blogs and what we understand as [...]

John O’Donohue

I was blessed to have recently been invited by a client to a talk on Celtic Wisdom for South African business by John O’Donohue, an Irish poet, philosopher and scholar. John also served 19 years as a Catholic priest and brings an interesting blend of philosophy to the table. It had been a long day [...]

Insanity

Yeah, this one gets around, but I still enjoy it. “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein

Podcasting 101

Two years ago, the term “podcast” didn’t exist. Today a Google search for the term renders 244,000,000 results. Despite its popularity amongst more active web users, podcasting remains a fairly alien concept for the average casual internet ‘surfer’. Together with blogs, wikis and other social web technologies, podcasts are helping to democratize the World Wide [...]

Google’s Product Plethora

Ever clicked on the ‘more’ link just above and to the right of Google’s search box? It’s got to be the Web’s best kept secret. Behind the discreet little hyperlink lies Google’s veritable goldmine of products, services and offerings. Some of them you’ll be familiar with – Adsense, Gmail and Google Earth are terms you [...]

The Little Things

This is a photo of the ‘smoking section’ in the Keg, Johannesburg International Airport. I think it’s a stroke of genius. In most restaurants, tucked away in some corner, smoking sections often resemble neglected herpetological exhibits. I’m not a smoker, but as a result of this I often feel sorry for our oxygenically-challenged brethren. The [...]

Bel Purto

My family and I recently spent some time at a beachfront resort in Umhloti (Umdloti – there seem to be two official spellings), on the Kwazulu-Natal North Coast. We enjoyed being there out of season, and despite some dodgy weather, had a great time. On our last evening there we decided to go out for [...]

Demystifying Blogs and Blogging

I’ve just been interviewed via email for a major local magazine publication. These were the questions, and my answers. Thought you may enjoy them. What is a blog? Blogs (short for web logs) are websites that are published by ordinary people – people like you and I who DON’T have Computer Science degrees or vast [...]

The Moleskine Evangelists

Perhaps you own one. I don’t. I barely write anymore – most of my thoughts get hammered out on a keyboard or spoken directly into a digital recorder. But I’m intrigued. Not by the odd Moleskine-bearer strolling nonchalantly around Melville or Rosebank (I usually dismiss them as artsy-types), but rather by the phenomenal online following [...]

Learn to Speak Teen

I really enjoyed reading an article recently forwarded to me by Aiden called ‘Entertain. Inspire. Empower. How to speak a teen’s language, even if you’re not one.’ He found it at ChangeThis.com – a fascinating site that “is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs [...]

Once in a Lifetime…

On The 4th of May, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. That won’t ever happen again in our lifetime. In fact it will be approximately 400 generations before it happens again. Nifty. May the 4th be with you!!!!!

Building A Brand

I attended the inaugural National Speakers Association of South Africa annual convention this past weekend.

It was well worth the investment, and even if watching a multitude of talented, professional overseas and local speakers didn’t result in any life-changing aha-moment (I don’t respond well to motivational talks), there was much self-learning to be done.

The most valuable lesson I’ll take from the weekend is not to underestimate the importance of building your personal brand. This is a difficult one for me, as I feel I need to strike a balance between building a personal brand, not being an egotistical prat and retaining some of what makes me, me.