Social Media

Social Media — 8 Comments
11
Aug 08

Social Media – Creative Education Is Priority

Recently, two of my most respected colleagues Vincent Maher and Mike Stopforth voiced their concerns about education and lack of skills in Social Media and the business thereof. I think their points are extremely valid, and if we’re to create a sustainable industry then we need to invest in education.

Now to be honest, I have stopped pursuing all means of tertiary education. This is partly because the education system in our country is deteriorating at a rapid rate, however a have two other important reasons. The first being the fact that I am part of the curve, the formation of a new industry in South Africa. I believe in Social Media (New Media, Web 2.0 or whatever you want to call it), it is my passion and I believe I am part of an important and positive revolution.

My second reason is that current standards and methods of education are not designed for what we need to teach. Social Media is something that is constantly changing and evolving, I have to dedicate at least 2 hours a day just to keep up-to-date. However, it’s not so much the pace of the subject, but rather the mindset. Creativity and innovation are primary drivers of this change, we need to ensure that it is not lost.

I have always believed that the best way to understand and grasp the fundamentals of Social Media, is to become involved. I have long spoken of my will to talk at high schools and enlighten young students of the opportunities that lie before them in a digital age.

Mike, Vincent when do we start? Rafiq, Dave and Charl you guys going to join in? Anyone else?

Social Media — 12 Comments
2
Mar 08

Carte Blanche – Web 2.0

Earlier this evening Carte Blanche aired a segment focusing on Web 2.0 and how it’s affecting communication, news and business. Some of our top local talent appeared in the segment, namely Dave Duarte, Rafiq Phillips, Allan Kent and Charl Norman.

I think Carte Blanche did a fairly decent job of getting their facts right. They approached the right people, unlike other previous shows. If you missed the segment, the folks from Zoopy were able to get it online for us. It would’ve been great to see some Johannesburg people from the Web 2.0 scene included as well, but it was great never the less.


If you cannot see the video, please click here.

Social Media / Web Applications — 3 Comments
18
Feb 08

SDSN – The Adoption Issue

Simple Distributed Social Networking (SDSN) is an initiative started by Charl van Niekerk, Neville Newey and Stii Pretorius. Their aim with the project is simple, as put by Charl:

We believe that the current implementations of distributed social networking are much too complex. This was the main inspiration for this project, hence the name.

Personally I think it’s great that they have started this initiative, even if they are re-inventing the wheel slightly. They have started working on an issue which I feel will become much bigger as the internet evolves. However, I do feel there are many issues with using domains as an identity mechanism.

It’s Way Too Geeky To Adopt

Let us take a look at this from the average user of any social network. Before we can use domains as a solution for identity, we need to ask ourselves the following questions:

  • How many of these users own their own domain name?
  • How many of these users even know what a domain name is?

Sure, we can use 3rd party domains (eg. tylerreed.jaiku.com) but what about the users who are on Facebook or any other social network that doesn’t provide users with a domain? Simple. SDSN can provide users with their own sub domain.

Great, so I just answered what seems to be my own questions about this initiative. Not really, we still having the fundamental issue of adoption. How long will a service like this take to penetrate the average user? The user is going to have to be educated, again. There are still millions of internet users who use social networks, but don’t understand what this is all about. They don’t really care yet.

Facebook / Social Media — 10 Comments
10
Oct 07

3 Talk – Social Media & Facebook

The topic on 3 Talk with Noleen, today, was Social Media, blogging and Facebook. She had Arthur Goldstuck on her panel as well as a bunch of other names that I didn’t catch. The panel addressed a few issues that I would like to highlight and comment on.

Facebook Affecting Productiviy
Facebook affects productivity during work hours, period! However, it depends on the type of business you are in. The Times use Facebook and other Web 2.0 sites daily to stay abreast as South Africa’s top interactive news paper. Metropolitan Health Group is using Facebook for recruitment and many others for marketing and business. If I have to use myself as an example, my productivity is extremely high with Facebook because Facebook is my business. It all depends on your industry and what you’re looking to achieve with Facebook.

Facebook Affecting The Youth’s Social Lives
If anything, Facebook helps the social lives of youngsters. It allows us to organise events and invite hundreds of people within a few hours. We can communicate at anytime of the day or night and organise to meet up offline. We’re seeing a huge convergence of “geek” and “jock” culture amongst the youth all over the world. We’re growing up with technology and using it to our advantage. Don’t be jealous because the early adopters and youngsters use it so well.

Personally, I have not seen one case of “cyber-bullying” on Facebook. I am in contact with a large number of youngsters on a daily basis and have not heard nor seen anything of the sort. However, I do agree that someone being denied to become a person’s friend on Facebook or not invited to an event can be slightly damaging to ones self esteem. I also think that Facebook can be used effectively for stalking, that is why I suggest everyone check their privacy settings.

Confusing The Viewers
This wasn’t a topic, but something that I picked up on and it bugged me slightly. The gentleman from MyDigitalLife confused the viewers with way too many buzz words. Terms such as blog, plog, vlog and mlog. He then went on to say that we make them up as we go along. This makes me irate because it gives some people the impression that the industry is very confusing and unorganised. No offence to the gentleman, he knows what he is talking about, but why not just use terms like picture blog and mobile blog to make it easier. Everyone is already confused with the term blog, lets not make it even worse.

Your Say? The Conversation Continued..
I would like to hear your thoughts on the show and what was said or on what I have written. Maybe I have missed the boat a little or jumped to conclusions.

There were a few of us watching the show and passing comment via Twitter, namely Jason Bagley, Steven and myself.