Nicisms

I couldn’t help but reblog this: Coolest guy on the internet.

hahahahahaha… let’s see how this turns out.

Nike is not mentioned once. The tick appears two or three times on Gossip Girl star, Taylor Momsen but I immediately knew it was Nike. Brilliant.

Plus it received almost half a million views on YouTube in a couple of weeks.

Every year around this time there is a buzz. It’s a very strange buzz that arises and expands beyond industry, colour, creed, or any other classification you can think of. January/February is a very special time for me. It’s a time where people think things through, imagine things, create and define things. It’s a time when predictions are made or attempted and a time when everyone seems to be looking for the next big thing.

So what is the next big thing? What is going to make you famous? What will be the next Facebook or Google or fraction of these giants?

I have been hearing um’s and ah’s of the next “Killer App” or killer application. This phrase is taking a few different forms. Some more literal than others.

Andy Hadfield, on his blog, asked if Twitter is going mainstream. I knew what he meant but wanted to push the conversation to a different direction. I wanted to know what defines mainstream in South Africa since many of the online guru’s in SA think that the next Killer App is literally that, a single killer application that will launch a career, make a million or few and destroy the opposition.

This, as far as I can see, is an online impossibility right now. In fact, I think that it’s almost an impossibility for the next few years if you are talking strictly about fixed line internet. Even the coming Internet/broadband/fiber-optic revolution is going to take a while to penetrate the masses and therefore no online killer app in South Africa alone is going to be anything close to a killer app. It just wont.

Here’s a quick quote from my comment on Andy’s post:

I would be more inclined to argue that our precise problem here in SA is that we think a couple of thousand people makes something mainstream. The bare fact of the matter is that it needs to be a tool that is mainly used to be called mainstream (in my opinion only). Thus we could almost call facebook mainstream and be justified in that branding.

We could call Mxit mainstream and I would argue that Mxit trumps what twitter is trying to do.

So instead of us trying to push twitter in to the mainstream we should be looking at the ways the the majority of South Africans communicate (cellphones perhaps) and custom build a twitter-like solution that isn’t going to cost a bomb and provide the same functionality. Or would we call that Mxit or The Grid?

I think we need to think bigger, take products to market and then make them mainstream instead of trying to manipulate the word mainstream to suit our needs.

Simply branding something mainstream because the word was featured on the cover of a magazine with maybe 30 000 circulation cannot make something mainstream.

evl – “The prevailing current of thought, influence, or activity” – can you honestly say to me that twitter is a prevailing current of thought in the South African population, no, the South African ONLINE population. Even if we get the number of twitter users up to 10 000 South Africans that’s still probably between 3%-5% of all South Africans online on fixed internet using twitter. that’s not mainstream. that’s irrelevant.

There are three ways that I think Vincent will begin to see more local millionaires.

The first

is hyper-local content. That is what I think the next “Killer App” is. Hyper local is where it’s at when you combine it with the massive cellphone penetration in this country. An application like twitter is one that can be exceptionally successful in South Africa and reach mainstream status but while it is an online-centric application or service it is going to stay on the fringe in South Africa. We need to make hyper-local content contextual, relevant and easy to access. As far as I can see or believe in SA right now the contextualising of hyper-local and simplified content is going to be the winner.

The second

is a combination of things. The first entity is Africa. It’s one of the few untouched, untapped media markets. The second entity is mobile technology. The combination is a mashup of hyper-local, mobilised, African-centric content. I think that this, moving forward, could potentially be the combination of things that take South Africans in to the next realm of success (or the first depending on where you sit).

The third

is foresight. This is something that copyblogger has blogged about recently. We cannot beat those who entered this market first at their own game, especially not from where we sit.

From the Copyblog post:

The truth is, some models that worked a few years ago for early adopters are difficult if not impossible for new players to successfully get going today.

The key to avoiding this frustration is to see where things are going and become an early-adopter in the next big wave of the commercial Internet. Of course, even if you’re already doing well, it never hurts to take a look forward, right?

We need to sit where we sit, contextualise our problems, learn about our opposition and where the market is moving and make the first move. If we don’t make the first move we are going to be behind the early adopters again and have to wait man more years to have another chance to become the early adopters.

I am interested to know what others out there think the next Killer App will be, whether it is literally going to be a single application, a concept, a mindset, a minsdhift, a community or a project. Where’s the money at and is it actually about the money?

I am an addict, I have confessed before but do it again now: I am addicted to Tattoos, and I am pretty bleak that I didn’t make my way down to Cape Town for the Southern Ink Xposure event.

The event looked huge and it’s really fantastic for me to see how widely accepted and practiced tattooing has become. I will definitely be making my way to the event next year. Maybe the Missing Link crew will come down for the ride too.

Playing golf for me is a fantastic hobbiehobby that gets me out of the house/office and away from the computer. I don’t take it to heart too much. If I play a bad round, then I do, if I play well, then that’s cool too but for the most part I really just enjoy getting out and walking a course with some good company.

Over the weekend I did precisely this with Christof Appel, Mike Stopforth and Craig Rodney. We decided on (Craig booked) playing at Randpark course. What a stunning course but one that seems to enjoy eating golf balls. I lost 5 balls in two holes. I’m honestly not that bad.

In my defense I haven’t picked up a club in about 5 weeks. This is a long time when you are a struggling golfer trying to keep the scores and handicap down!

The round didn’t begin particularly well, as I mentioned, but at the end of the day golf is about the walk for me, it’s about the conversation, the networking, the kak-praat and whatever else occurs. Mr Mike Stopforth unfortunately hammered the nail in to the coffin in style; with an eagle on the 18th hole.

In case you don’t believe that Mike has that sort of talent here’s a pic of the score card (it’s not photoshopped):

In a nutshell Mr Rodney and Mr Stopforth gave Christof and I a good lesson in keeping your head down, your mouth shut and your balls in the fairway. This was the first geek round of golf I’ve actually played and the stakes were high. In case you haven’t guessed the losers had to blog about the winners beating them. So this is that post.

Geeks, golf, sun and a good whipping from the elder gentlemen. Thanks gents, twas a pleasure and as Christof has already said, revenge is sweet but best eaten cold. The rematch is coming.