Nicisms

The 2011 SXSW interactive conference is over. The iPads and geek backpacks have quickly been replaced with tattoos (woohoo!) and guitar cases. The change in vibe is palpable, things feel a bit more crazy and slightly unhinged which is great.

Here is my final review of the SXSW 2011 interactive conference:

If you want to meet the best people, talk the most business or have the most fun – STAY ON THE SHUTTLES. Let me explain: SXSW has become so big that people stay all over Austin. To help these people get in to town SXSW has organised a series of shuttle busses to run between the hotels and the conference.

I met some of the most amazing people on these shuttles at all hours of the night and day. My advice if you want to pitch to as many people as possible is become a shuttle driver for the 2012 SXSW.

Things turned around for me and the event but unfortunately that had little to do with the panels or speakers, save for Blake Mycoskie, the founder of Toms.com (but I’ll get to that more in a bit).

I have made many good connections, met many potential business partners and many more possible friends. All of this is due to the very well attended Panel I participated in thanks to Justin Arenstein. This panel was the best thing to happen to my conference. Word spread about Motribe, people began contacting me and I have set up many meetings with many businesses from around the world. Brilliant.

The only problem with this is that I missed almost 2 full days of the actual conference due to newly booked work arrangements. But hey, that’s the price one must pay I suppose.

But now on to the final day of the conference. I first attended a talk on rebranding Islam. That was dogshit because the speakers thought the audience were idiots and even, at one point, said “Muslims are people too” at the end of some long-winded and irrelevant story about some other rubbish.

But fortunately my conference and my day were saved by Blake from Toms.com. The man is an amazing speaker. He didn’t use any slides, he didn’t pull out any gimmicks or tricks but he still managed to blow everyone away with his amazing story.

His accomplishments with tom.com are amazing. He has given away more than 1million shoes to children in need and has managed to build an incredibly profitable and functional charitable business. His message is that we can all be charitable and that we can all make money. Incase you don’t know what toms.com is, here’s the elevator pitch: For every pair of shoes that you buy from toms.com they will give a pair away to a child in need. One for one. That is there motto. I was almost in tears listening to his amazing story and then in the next moment bursting with laughter.

I left that talk feeling rejuvenated and ready to build my business. I also left with a new approach to many ideas I had in my head. If only all the other speakers had Blake’s brilliant delivery.

The next massive improvement to the SXSW experience was, of course, the Foo Fighters. I stood in queue for 3 hours even though I had the right passes and paid through my you-know-what to attend the conference but it was worth it in the end.

The Foos took the stage 15 minutes after I had entered the venue and started to drink my first Vodka. They did not leave the stage for over 2 hours. The played their hearts out, I rocked mine and I left feeling hazed by their brilliant live performance. What a way to end the interactive conference. If the only thing I paid for was to see them live at the SXSW interactive closing party then it was money well spent.

So I left contented but more seeking the contentment than finding it.

I still stand by my previous post. I was seeking genius on the trip and fortunately I did not find it. What that has helped me realise (and I think I am not getting to the nitty-gritty point) is that a good idea is a good idea irrespective of the location of said idea. Being in the US or UK or anywhere else doesn’t make you better or worse as a leader, a company or a team. There are very good reasons that companies do well in the US and/or Europe but that is another post altogether.

What I am saying is that deep down at the bottom of Africa we sit and we admire those across the shore. We need to stop. For every Mark Zuckerberg who Zucks with your privacy there are literally millions of people who are failing or trying to make ends meat in the US. In South Africa we have class, quality and the will to succeed.

Now, on to the music for me.

I have mixed feeling about my first day at my very first SXSW event.

If you have no idea why I keep typing the same four letters that seem to have no relevance let me explain quickly: I am in Austin, Texas at a Music, Film and Interactive (Geek) conference called South By South West (SXSW). It’s my first time in Austin and I’ve just come from New York from a work trip. Things are crazy busy right now but that’s beside the point.

I am having a confusing experience at SXSW. I’m seeing some heroes of the web (Tim O’Reilly) and hearing some of the “hottest” startups in the world talk amongst themselves, or commonly known as panels at a conference.

I’ve had mixed feelings and at the moment my mental state is as follows: I need to listen and realise what NOT to do from these speakers.

The bubble that the world speaks of, it exists. It is real and it encases almost every startup entrepreneur I have met, speaker I’ve heard and evangelist who is trying to evangelize.

There is a fundemental disregard for tech that exists outside of the US (even outside of Silicon Valley), there is a fundemental disregard for tech that previously existed.

Let me give an example of the disregard that I’m talking about:

Yesterday I waited patiently for what I hoped would be the talk of the day: Group Chat, Who Will Rise?
This should have been an explosive and dynamic panel considering the four “hottest” startup CEOs of the four “hottest” group chat apps were all in attendance. Beluga, Yobongo, Convore and GroupMe were present but sadly their brains apparently were not.

At one point the Beluga lady stated that Beluga allows you to receive a vibrating notification when someone messages you, “This has never been possible before” was her claim. WHAT? Are you telling me that you are so ignorant that you think that you invented the push notification on a cellular phone? Idiot. Beluga was recently bought out by Facebook. There’s a service that’s thankfully going to be put to rest. It’s sad because I actually like what they are doing.

The GroupMe guy was maybe the best of a bad bunch because his app at least isn’t an app and can be used with existing tech, SMS.

What’s worse is the entire panel kept pitching the audience as to how different their four services are and that they aren’t competitors. I wanted to ask them: “Who is winning? Which of you has more users? Who has more revenue/profit?” but I didn’t because at the end of their sad panel I realised what I can learn from them all: What not to do.

I also managed to hear the very boring and obvious talk by the Chief Game Designer at Zynga. This sounded like a talk with amazing potential. Alas, another non-starter. The guy (I can’t even remember his name) proceeded to tell the audience that Zynga uses Facebooks social graph to connect their users. REALLY? DO YOU? I’m gobsmacked by Captain Obvious up front but wait it out. He then says that Zynga builds pretty games. Again, really? Thanks. Idiot.

Now I’m actually more frustrated because I know that none of these people are idiots, or can’t be or shouldn’t be because they are being covered by the biggest media in the world as the smartest people in the world. But then I have to ponder: Maybe the media are in on it too? Maybe they are as half-witted as the people they write about? I don’t know. But I’m seeking genius today and hunting innovation. Bring it on.

I was going to let this one slide by unattended, but I can’t.

I’m blown away by the following video:

Let me state upfront that I’m not 100% certain that Mr Pat Condell is serious, ironic or just plain ignorant and blinded by religious dumbing. Maybe a combination of all of the above.

I’m not convinced at all by his uneducated and ignorant response to be honest. I think he is being far too simplistic in his views. He isn’t delving in to the core issues – it’s still not proven beyond doubt that the attacks on 9/11 were Islamic driven (and to insinuate that an entire religion orchestrated an attach is just stupid), if it was a small faction of zealots, a small faction of terrorists, an attack conducted by US internal agencies to prolong the war on terror and war in to Iran/Iraq/Afghanistan for their oil and political power or if it was a political and financial play by an elite group of politicians and bazillionaires. Tell me you know for certain, with irrefutable facts, who is behind the attacks and I’ll make sure to call every major publication in the world and let them know. You can’t, I know you can’t.

Further more, his response is as dogmatic and impractical as he states the Islamic religion is. Would it be OK to build a Christian church there? What about the Jews, Muslims, Hindus and other religions who had followers perish in the attack? America preaches freedom to a point of ridiculousness, so surely any company/organisation/institution is free (by law) to buy and build on any piece of land and not be judged by their religion?

To continue along religious lines – It’s ignorant to assume that all of Islam as a religion and culture dictates jihad in the form of killing others all the time in every form. What about the crusades many centuries ago? Should we prevent Christians from entering the societies of the countries that were once conquered? I think that’s just silly.

Condell seems to have some innuendo with his little rant. He appears to have an agenda and that is perfectly in line with any other religious rant that has ever taken place in the history of the world. Nothing ever appears to be what it actually is. Ever.

This old-school type meme was found on David Airey’s blog. Haven’t done one in ages so thought I’d kick it off in SA (if I can make such a bold claim).

So you simply list the alphabet and type in the corresponding letter to your address bar of your browser and enter the first url that appears for that letter:

a – absa.co.za (Online banking changed my life)
b – bit.ly (Gotta keep URL’s short)
c – chrome.google.com/extensions (Looking in to Chrome extensions for Mac)
d – digg.com (No idea what that’s doing there)
e – explosm.net (The hilarious home of Cyanide and Happiness)
f – facebook.com (Uhu)
g – gmail.com (It’s the hub of my world)
h – http://gmail.com (just brought up the first “http”)
i – isohunt.com (Downloads, lots of ‘em)
j – jakeandamir.com (The best webisode in the world right now)
k – knowyourmeme.com (Know your meme crops up in a meme, shocking)
l – lamebook.com (It’s the lame-center of the Fbook)
m – maxgames.com (Typo on a gaming site I was looking for)
n – nicharalambous.com (Not surprising)
o – onthegrid.mobi (Work)
p – posterous.com (Lifestreaming)
q – qatarairways.com (if you can believe it, I got a “Q”! Was searching for flights to France.)
r – readwriteweb.com (Techhub of my world)
s – sarocks.co.za (Not surprising)
t – twitter.com (Not surprising)
u – ultimate-guitar.com (Guitar tab resource helping me learn my favourites)
v – vintage pin-ups (Search term that I have been obsessing over. Chrome allows you to search in address bar).
w – wap.thegrid.co.za (Work)
x – xe.com (Currency site)
y – youtube.com (Shock, horror)
z – zoopy.com ( – )

So there you have it… my URL ABC’s.

Top notch. Now let’s see yours.

Ashton Kutcher. The man is emerging as a social media genius. He is a top user on two of the hottest social media properties right now; Qik.com and Twitter.com.

Talya Goldberg raised an interesting point: By following @aplusk over @cnnbrk is it not reinforcing, notion that celebrity news/culture is more nb than what is happening in the world?

I think this is an extremely valuable debate that needs to take place.

Celebrity vs Mainstream Media

I studied Journalism at University. I wanted to be a journalist since I was 10 years old. I let that all go. I feel that world is shifting away from mainstream propaganda to celeb propaganda. Let’s be real here, both are forms of propaganda. Who own what media organisation is becoming a massive blur between government organisations, private organisations in bed with government organisations and one-person-dictatorship run organisations. So who’s to say that mainstream is more productive or beneficial than celebrity-generated news or information?

The Responsible Celebrity

It’s not a habit of mine to follow celebrities. I am one of those information consumers who takes a variety of factors in to account when reading types of media. I try to know who owns what, who’s in bed with who and how often they are meeting up. The same applies to Celebrities. I try to make up my own mind about who is an “honest” celebrity and who’s just in it for the next big break. Social media has created a fair amount of transparency for celebrities who are willing to embrace the technology out there.

Case in point is Mr Ashton Kutcher who has jumped head first in to Twitter and Qik. Kutcher and his wife Demi Moore are streaming their lives live as often as one can handle. Kutcher streams video live from his phone on Qik and is constantly tweeting. I like that, I can relate to that and I am sure that the almost 1 000 000 followers agree with me.

With 1 000 000 followes just imagine if Ashton Kutcher was to endorse a fight against the shocking regime in Zimbabwe, or if he was to condone the killing of innocents in Tibet or anywhere else. He would have 1 000 000 people listening, responding and interacting with him and this information.

This is where it becomes increasingly important for celebrities to become socially responsible people. Many are not and this is where the danger comes in. This is where mainstream media has the upper hand.

Ethics in the mainstream

It is generally accepted that the media is the Fourth Estate. The people who govern the people who govern. But who governs the fourth estate? No one ever did. Wait, that’s a lie. There are groups of media leaders who form editors forums and sit and govern one another.

There are trained journalists who are taken to task for factual accuracy and ethical reliability. This is all accepted. But do I care as a run-of-the-mill citizen consuming this media? No. Generally not. Nowadays it’s so easy for me to get online and read the same story with variations of facts from a variety of media organisations.

What I want is to make up my own mind. Just as the celebrities want to do and should be allowed to do so.

Celebstream is the new Mainstream

Recently celebrity has become the new hotness in every way. From their social media campaigns to flashing their under-areas to paparazzi to endorsing NGO’s and social causes.

So why would the same not apply to information resources?

I am in no way saying that the celebstream is going to replace the mainstream. I am saying that the two are now heavily entrenched in society. The maistream is becoming a less and less trusted resource by the masses as citizens are taking ownership of their information and news. Celebrities are simply more popular citizens, leaders and trendsetters so they are setting the standards now. However scary a prospect that is, it’s the truth.