Mike Stopforth

By day a photographer for the Citizen newspaper, Neil McCartney is one of those unsung heroes who bring us the sometimes uplifting, other times devastating images that capture the history of now.
I’m not sure what he does at night though.
Opting to publish his images on a personal blog too, Neil’s site often tells [...]

I feel very important. After mentioning Rex the Lion, the SA blogosphere’s newest celebrity (which isn’t saying much but still) on this site yesterday I got a brief mention in his second video…

To answer his question - what is it I’m concentrating so hard on in my header? Well, the answer is not [...]

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

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…

Sachi and Lee LeFever of Common Craft fame occupy a very special, non-romantic place in my heart Back in the oooold days (about 3 years ago), when I was still quite unsure of the jargon and buzz behind Web 2.0 and social media, Lee was one of the few ‘A-listers’ who invested personal time and energy into answering my silly questions.

Today they’ve turned that gift for translation and a passion for all things social into a very cool business, producing informative, entertaining videos that quite simply, well, explain stuff. Whether they’re making videos for their ‘Plain English’ series of technology-related shows or for corporate clients, the LeFevers have fine-tuned the art of translation using the very tools they evangelise. Few businesses can boast that!

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…

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.

The horror of the last few day’s xenophobic violence in Johannesburg has left us all feeling shocked and hopeless. The danger here is that it’s very easy for us (and I’m speaking to the predominantly wealthy and white audience that reads this blog and makes up SA’s blogging fraternity) to remove ourselves from the situation because we think it doesn’t impact us directly.

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.