Posts Tagged: my projects

Technology — 9 Comments
19
Feb 08

South Africa Needs Crime Spotting

South Africa is a country with some of the highest crime statistics in the world. We all know this and we all talk about it. We spend ridiculous amount of money on security to keep ourselves and our families safe. We have lost almost all confidence in our police service.

We already have a few websites that help with spotting and preventing crime. I have always had a little idea I would like to pursue and last night when I came across CrimeSpotting I knew that it could be done. However, I can’t do this by myself, so I would like to share my thoughts on it and see what others think.

The idea behind CrimeSpotting is that information such as reported crimes should be public knowledge. This public knowledge is then plotted on very pretty maps provided by Live Maps (one could also use Google Maps). However, in South Africa, asking government to store and release such information would be another task all on its own. So we’re going to have to rely on user generated content.

CrimeSpotting Map

So how do we go about creating a platform for users to report crime? I think using the same model as Twitter would be best. A great example of how this can be is by taking a look at Ushahidi.

Web Platform

The web platform will allow people to quickly and easily plot crimes on a map. These crimes can then be tagged and viewed by anyone. There could also be some really great additional features, such as:

  • Email & SMS Alerts – Get alerted whenever crimes our plotted within your neighborhood, town or city.
  • Improved Crime Statistics – Using the data entered into the platform, we could accurately determine “hot spots” for certain crimes.

Mobile Platform

The mobile platform would allow users to easily report crimes using SMS, WAP site and perhaps even a mobile based application using similar technology to The Grid. This would be essential as South Africa has more mobile users, this means even people who are in rural areas or townships to participate as well.

3rd Party Application / API

Let’s make the whole thing open. You never know what great tools people could create if you give them enough access to the crime data. Integrating into services such as Facebook, instant messaging, MXit and a whole range of others would be made easier for 3rd party developers. This will expand the reach and access of the platform.

I would really love to be involved in something like this. If there is anyone who is interested in pursuing this idea please contact me. Please feel free to leave any suggestions or comments below, I feel something like this should really be as open as possible. I also believe something like this can make a difference, I am sick of crime!

Development / Web Applications — 3 Comments
24
Dec 07

Twaction – Turning Tweets Into Actions

On Thursday last week I decided to start playing around with Twitter’s API. After playing around with it for a few minutes and seeing sites such as Foamee and TweetGift I decided to build my own site using the API.

The result is twaction.com, a simple site that converts tweets (messages on Twitter) into actions. It was really fun to create and at some stages was a challenge. I will be working a few more sites that make use of the Twitter API, these ones will be more useful though.

For the months of January and February I will be giving the two 125 x 125 ad slots on twaction.com away to two African start ups every 15 days. If you work for or own an African start up then please contact me.

Twaction - Turning Tweets Into Actions

I would like to thank Marc Forrest for helping me to get started and registering the domain, Charl Van Niekerk for some PHP insight and testing, Allan Kent for helping me with some PHP issues as well as the peer pressure and Vincent Maher for inspiration because he codes like a machine. I would also like to thank all those who follow me on Twitter and tested the alpha version and gave me advice.

Uncategorized — 18 Comments
10
Jul 07

Younique – Social Media Marketing

Younique - Social Media Marketing

I have been a busy bee over the last few weeks. I am proud to announce the launch of my new company, Younique. As many of you know I was working with Cerebra. I have left, because I need to pursue my own goals as an entrepreneur. Cerebra is a great company with great people. Their CEO Mike Stopforth has been a great mentor and friend.

Younique will focus on changing the way companies communicate and market to the youth through social media. Although we won’t stop there. My vision for the company is to become a complete interactive youth marketing firm. My company might be stepping on the toes of Cerebra, Chilibean Media and atPlay but I have always maintained the ethos that competition is healthy. Who knows, we might be doing work together through some co-opetition.

The Younique blog will be launching soon. You can keep up-to-date with what we’re doing over there. For now you can join us on Facebook. So here’s to putting web 2.0 / social media on the map in South Africa.

What is exciting is that the market is waking up to Social Media in SA and we need more and more Chilibeans and Cerebras and Quirks to appear if we are going to raise the bar on each other and improve service delivery, putting Web 2.0 well and truly on the map.
- Mike Stopforth

Miscellaneous — 3 Comments
1
May 07

Student Sale – The Experience

It’s been 5 months of lazy development on Student Sale and I’m damn proud of it! I like to save time where I can, so with Student Sale I am hoping to save students a lot of time and money. Students are busy enough with trying to study and keeping their social life intact, they don’t want to worry about commuting all over the show to find textbooks which are often unavailable or on order.

I could do a review on my own service, but that would be unethical and a little suspect. How could I possibly remain unbiased when I know both the good and the bad (there’s lots of that). So instead I am going to share link love with everyone who has blogged about Student Sale. I will also use it as case study of some sort, which will allow me to share what I have learnt throughout the whole process. It has been a fun experience of which I will have lots to share with everyone.

5 Most Important Lessons Learnt So Far

  1. An Idea & A Mission
    Everything starts off with a simple idea. Turn that idea into a mission.
  2. Keeping It Simple
    Many times I lost sight of the mission and tried to get too complex. This slowed down development time and wasted energy. I have many features which I decided to pull before launch. I first need to perfect what Student Sale was meant to be.
  3. Less Is More
    I kept the layout as clean as possible and tried to use as little code as possible for functions. This allows Student Sale to be flexible and fast.
  4. Perfection Is An Illusion
    A lot of the time my development time was slowed down by trying to perfect things. Sadly, I learnt that nothing is nor will ever be perfect.
  5. Launching Is A Relief
    After 5 months of development I am very relieved that Student Sale is up and running. It’s still not 100% in all departments. There is a lot of room for improvement. This will happen over time. This is a learning curve for me.

As Student Sale evolves and grows I will keep everyone posted. Development posts and updates will be on the Student Sale blog and lessons learnt and other misc information will be posted here. Please spread the word about Student Sale, you might have family or friends who are students or know students, your mentioning it to just one person helps. Remember, in the new web you have the power.

Awesome Posts About Student Sale:

Facebook, Student Sale, Time & MXit – Your Group of Web AddiCT(s);
by the students for the students! – * crazyrant *
The Past week or so…. – Romsky’s
Tyler Reed presents Student Sale – Charl Norman
StudentSale launches – Eish!!