Could Julian Assange be the worlds greatest Villain?

I'm going to spew a couple of cliches and some thoughts now. I'd like you to read them in context of Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, and his project, the documents being published and the public reading it.Absolute power corrupts absolutely.Keep your friends close and enemies closer.Who gate-keeps the gatekeeper?Let me state upfront that I am in support of WikiLeaks and Assange. I think he is fast become a world wide target for governments and private entities and he needs to be protected and WikiLeaks needs to be secured.I must also state however, that I am a journalist by trade. I have studied media theory, media law, media ethics and many, many more subjects around media and journalism. Assange is now in the business of media and publishing and has dabbled in media practices in the past (He ran an activist magazine when he was a kid) but he is, by trade, a programmer. This is scary to me. It's scary to me that he is skilled and well-versed in technology platforms, that he is well-connected and that he is being sent some of the most sensitive information the world has every seen. Let me reiterate: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. What makes Assange different? He is no saint (I don't even believe that saints are saints). There is no such thing as altruism, so what's in this for Assange?What does Assange get out of doing what he is doing? Everyone does something for a reason. There's no such thing as a free lunch so who's paying for Assange's lunch? Who's paying Assange NOT to publish their sensitive documents? What happens when Assange is bumped in to walking down the street and he launches an all out information war on the person who bumped in to him?How much does the public really know? As well protected as WikiLeaks is, is not perhaps too open and therefore hiding something in plain sight?I am not a conspiracy theorist but I am 100% certain that human beings are corruptible, are fallible and the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. How can we possibly put so much faith in to one human being and trust him with all of this information? I know that there is much information being published by WikiLeaks that is open to the public, but for every document being published I am sure there are thousands and thousands that are being sifted through, stored and held in the back just in case they are needed further down the line.Again, I have to reiterate here that I am in complete support of what has been done so far by Assange and WikiLeaks but we have to be sure, as a people, not be swept up in the moment and maintain our role as public gatekeepers. Just because WikiLeaks is publishing it does not make it 100% fact, does not give anything context or relevance and does not mean that the source is reliable.What I am calling for, I think, is a sense of ownership of information, judgement and opinion. Have your own opinion and research it, inform yourself and spread the knowledge you gain.

SpeakZA - Bloggers for a Free Press

Last week, shocking revelations concerning the activities of the ANC Youth League spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu came to the fore. According to a letter published in various news outlets, a complaint was laid by 19 political journalists with the Secretary General of the ANC, against Shivambu. This complaint letter detailed attempts by Shivambu to leak a dossier to certain journalists, purporting to expose the money laundering practices of Dumisani Lubisi, a journalist at the City Press. The letter also detailed the intimidation that followed when these journalists refused to publish these revelations.We condemn in the strongest possible terms the reprisals against journalists by Shivambu. His actions constitute a blatant attack on media freedom and a grave infringement on Constitutional rights. It is a disturbing step towards dictatorial rule in South Africa. We call on the ANC and the ANC Youth League to distance themselves from the actions of Shivambu. The media have, time and again, been a vital democraticsafeguard by exposing the actions of individuals who have abused their positions of power for personal and political gain.The press have played a vital role in the liberation struggle, operating under difficult and often dangerous conditions to document some of the most crucial moments in the struggle against apartheid. It is therefore distressing to note that certain people within the ruling party are willing to maliciously target journalists by invading their privacy and threatening their colleagues in a bid to silence them in their legitimate work.We also note the breathtaking hubris displayed by Shivambu and the ANC Youth League President Julius Malema in their response to the letter of complaint. Shivambu and Malema clearly have no respect for the media and the rights afforded to the media by the Constitution of South Africa. Such a response serves only to reinforce the position that the motive for leaking the so-called dossier was not a legitimate concern, but a insolent effort to intimidate and bully a journalist who had exposed embarrassing information about the Youth League President.We urge the ANC as a whole to reaffirm its commitment to media freedom and other Constitutional rights we enjoy as a country.Blog Rollhttp://thoughtleader.co.za/siphohlongwanehttp://rwrant.co.zahttp://vocfm.co.za/blogs/munadia/http://vocfm.co.za/blogs/shafiqmorton/http://blogs.news24.com/needpointhttp://capetowngirl.co.zahttp://thoughtleader.co.za/sentletsediakanyohttp://thoughtleader.co.za/davidjsmithhttp://letterdash.com/one-eye-onlyhttp://boyuninterrupted.blogspot.comhttp://amandasevasti.comhttp://blog.empyrean.co.za/http://letterdash.com/brencrohttp://6000.co.zahttp://chrisroper.co.zahttp://pieftw.comhttp://hamishpillay.wordpress.comhttp://memoirs4kimya.blogspot.comhttp://thoughtleader.co.za/azadessahttp://watkykjy.co.zahttp://fredhatman.co.zahttp://thelifeanddeathchronicles.blogspot.com/http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/common-dialogue/http://www.clivesimpkins.blogs.com/http://mashadutoit.wordpress.comhttp://nicharalambous.comhttp://sarocks.co.zahttp://blogs.timeslive.co.za/stompies/http://helenmoffett.book.co.za/blog/http://01universe.blogspot.comhttp://groundwork.worpress.comhttp://iwrotethisforyou.mehttp://fionasnyckers.book.co.zahttp://attentiontodetail.wordpress.comhttp://blogs.women24.com/editorhttp://www.missmillib.blogspot.comhttp://snowgoose.co.zahttp://dreamfoundry.co.zahttp://www.vanoodle.blogspot.comhttp://www.exmi.co.zahttp://cat-dubai.blogspot.comhttp://alistairfairweather.comhttp://www.zanedickens.comhttp://www.nickhuntdavis.comhttp://guysa.blogspot.comhttp://book.co.zahttp://baldy.co.zahttp://skinnylaminx.comhttp://blogs.african-writing.com/zukiswahttp://www.mielie.wordpress.comhttp://blogs.timeslive.co.za/gatherer/http://thoughtleader.co.za/sarahbrittenhttp://stii.co.zahttp://blogs.news24.com/FSB_APhttp://twistedkoeksuster.blogspot.comhttp://whensmokegetsinyoureyes.blogspot.com/http://trinklebean.wordpress.comhttp://commentry.wordpress.com/http://matthewbuckland.comhttp://blogs.news24.com/colour-me-franhttp://gormendizer.co.za

Is mobile, hyper-local, location-based n...

Is mobile, hyper-local, location-based news content the way to save mainstream media in the USA?I think it might be. I have been watching closely over the past few months as newspaper after newspaper has fallen away in the US. It's a very scary and very sad situation that American media finds itself in. Resistance to change over the past few years has positioned many papers in a dire situation where it's a matter of shit or get off the pot. And many are shitting themselves.Boston Globe is a one example that I have been watching withe extreme interest. Boston.com is a great resource that has not been used effectively enough to pull Boston Globe out of financial trouble.The resistance to change coupled with a severe drop in advertising and circulation (with thanks to a recession and online media emerging as a force in the media industry) has left the Boston Globe almost crippled. Many people are set to lose jobs and Boston, the city, is set to lose it's competitive media market. If Boston Globe closes down the city of Boston will be left with a single daily newspaper. This defeats the purpose of mainstream media acting as a democratic watchdog or fourth estate. With one media organisation remaining things are not looking good.Enter hyper-local, location-based news content fed to mobile phones produced by hyper-local citizen media producers who put content up via cellphones on to hyper-local portals.This is what Martin Langeveld of Nieman Journalism Lab had to say on the topic of Boston Globe:

Langeveld's advice is to go (almost) online-only with Boston.com, and to launch or subsidise a network of hyperlocal sites all over the area, and launch a network of local niche verticals focussed on weather, traffic, jobs, entertainment, education and more. He proposes a tiered, variable pricing model for all, with most of the content free, but paid premium access for a "small but highly-engaged group." This income could be supplemented with transactional revenue, through selling theatre tickets, for example, or facilitating restaurant reservations.

This model could also expose the Globe's city-wide reach to a hyper-local market of advertisers (a longer tail than they would previously had access to). This coupled with a free/premium hybrid mode and the paper could be on its way back up.Regarding the print side of things it's a simple mechanic to alleviate some immediate strain: Make the paper a weekly and include the news created over the week from the hyper-local portals and citizens media. Pull city-wide, larger advertisers in to this weekly printed publication to subsidise the cost of the print and drop the price to allow for quantity to be sold and to make the paper appear to be more accessible to the everyday person in the street.There is no quick-fix for papers such as the Boston Globe, that is certain. But it is imperative that these papers start to adapt or simply succumb to a swift death.

I studied to be a journalist. I trained ...

I studied to be a journalist. I trained for difficult situations, for uncomfortable things to happen and for strange situations verging on impossible. I have wanted to be a war-correspondent since I was 10 years old. That will not happen.But on Sunday I was involved in a freak accident involving a plane, a bakkie and a few bloggers freebording. I ran towards the plane as did our whole group and not for one second did I think about stopping, taking photos or video and sending word to a media organisations. I could've, I am capable and I know how to, but I'd rather help. It's that simple and now I am certain of that.

Zoopy features on Maggs on Media

I was recently given the opportunity to appear on Maggs on Media with Jeremy Maggs and talk with him about Zoopy.Here's the piece:

Media have to pay to cover Zapiro's book launch

UPDATE: Apparently there has been some sort of a mixup regarding the Zapiro book launch. It seems as though there is someone from the PR company and Charity organisations involved with Zapiro didn't really know when the book launch was so instead she led us to believe that the launch was at her event which was a charity event and hence we were asked to pay.I am not 100% sure why the lady who we were in contact with didn't simply let us know that the Zapiro book launch is happening in Cape Town on the 27th November 2008 at 18:00 for 18:30. Recreation Centre, Pollsmoor Prison, Steenberg Road, Tokai.My thanks go out to Richard who represents Zapiro, for getting in touch with me personally and sorting things out. Either way I think the Zapiro book launch is going to be fantastic.On a side not: I still maintain that media should never pay to promote events or attend functions.I absolutely love Zapiro's work. I think the man is a genius and one of South Africa's great heroes. With that said, I think he has made a shocking error with his book launch.It is not clear whether Zapiro is calling the shots or whether his PR agency has completely and utterly lost their minds. Either way I am a bit shocked.To attend Zapiro's book launch as media is going to cost R200 per person. Crew of two = R400 for the event. I have done many weird, strange, odd, different and uncomfortable things in my time in the practice of journalism. I have NEVER paid to cover a story or promote an event.Zoopy was told to pay R200 per person to attend the event and were basically told that we should feel lucky because media gets a 50% discount. Really? Media get a discount, well gee-wizz-wow I am bowled over at your kindness.Direct quote from "events coordinator":

As per our discussion earlier, unfortunately we don’t allow any media to attend any of our upcoming events for free.Our normal price per person to attend the event is R427-50 including VAT, however we offer Media a discounted rate of R200-00 per person including VAT.Should you still be interested to attend the event, please contact me before the end of today and have your credit card details ready to process the payment online as we only accept payments upfront to pay the venue. Our system is set-up to only accept credit card payments when a booking is made 5 working days prior to an event.

So in return for our R400 Zapiro's book launch will get national exposure, a professionally produce media video and the possibility to be featured on some of the biggest news websites in the country. That sounds like a fair trade to me.I am sorry but I don't care if you are a journalism intern, the editor of the biggest magazine or Jeremy bloody Clarkson, media should not have to pay to attend any launch of any book that could aid in the sales of that book.Absolutely ridiculous.The frustrating thing is that Zoopy (and I am sure many other media organisations) have covered Zapiro launches and events very successfully and for free in the past:If you want to read Zapiro I suggest you visit Mail&Guardian online every day and have a look at Zapiro's free.Again I need to state that I think that Zapiro cartoons and all of his work is absolutely incredible, so don't make us pay to help you spread the word.

Highway Africa presentation: Digital Media Business Model

This is the presentation I just gave at Highway Africa 2008.

Digital Media Business Model

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: highway africa)

Are podcasts useful?

Yes, I think podcasts are useful in fact, I think podcasting can be an extremely useful mechanism for relaying a message, point, story or event.I found a post on podcasting being dead or alive through one of Eve's blogs. I must say I immediately sprang to blog about it because I recently made use of podcasting as a citizen journalism media.Admittedly I focus much of my thought around social media and web 2.0 on how it affects the mass media on the whole and how the "little person" or Citizen Journalist can benefit from the trends emerging at the moment.

Early Adoption failed me

Podcasting really caught my attention and I tried my hand at it on SA Rocks and the RocksCast. Must like Dave and Mike with their Amplitude, SA RocksCast died.I think that I tried to jump on the bandwagon and appear to be an "early adopter" with my attempt at podcasting. I didn't really grasp the media platform itself nor fully understand how to market or create these podcasts effectively. So it died a quick death.Vincent Maher and I also tried our hand at a podcasting targeting the local sphere. Flamebait was short lived because we were a bit zealous in our approach to the content and it was shot down by editorial staff. Oh well. Needless to say the actual media itself still intrigues me.So are podcasts dead? No, I don't think so. Taly Weiss brings up a good point regarding the technology behind podcasting. If it is there then podcasting itself is not dead. In other words, if we have iPods and media players that are capable of storing and playing back podcasts then the media is not dead. But that isn't really always true. I still have a VHS player, that doesn't mean that VHS isn't dead, it is. And if you think it isn't, trust me it's on the way to the grave.

Podcasting and Citizen Journalism

While on a mission at the Million Man March this year I discovered that one doesn't need to consistently make use of a specific type of media for it to be effective.While making use of various platforms to update people about the event I was asked to do a podcast interview over the phone for The Times. What a great idea. One of their journalists called me and did a short (one or two minute) interview with me about the event.This proved to be a very effective means to get my message across. Yes it was for a big media organisation so that helped ofcourse. But the essence of that instance made sense to me. Why do we have to produce a podcast every week, month, day etc etc. When all that is really needed is an event or story to make a great podcast.Grassroots media or citizen journalists can really produce viable content for their websites over the phone with simple technology. Use a digital dictaphone, if fact, use the recorder on your cell phone, make sure you are succinct in your 3 minutes and publish it as is.Rally your media around events, don't make an event out of your media.

Who's who in the racial online zoo?

I am a disappointed in some "online professionals". The reason I am using the term with my tongue poking and prodding at my cheek is because I believe there is a fair amount of professionalism being thrown down the toilet. Mandy de Waal wrote an article for ITWeb titled "Who's who in the Web 2.0 Zoo?".Some people seemingly took great offence that there where no people of colour in the article. Rafiq was invited to participate, he declined. The angle of the article was simply an interview and answer process. Certain people who are major players in the online market were asked to name three people who they would want to work with in the online arena. These people did so. Not based on racial innuendos as justifications. These were simply the people who each interviewee wished to work with on a professional level.Unfortunately someone needed to respond, someone always need to respond, and needed to emphatically make a racial statement. This is extremely sad. Ramon Thomas took up the cause and titled his article "Who’s who in the non-white Web 2.0 South African Zoo". The title alone immediately marginalises his audience and those involved in his article. He immediately boxes those in his article and ostracizes those who read it.The immediate feeling that I get is that this is like affirmative action in sports teams - the Springboks to be precise. The situation that rugby players of colour have faced in the past is a lose-lose, if they are chosen they question the reasons for their selection. If they are not chosen then they wonder if it was due to their race. Lose. Lose.If I was on Ramon's list I'd be pretty upset. The candidates on this list are no longer the best in their profession but only the best in their racial class. Mandy's article might have lacked some depth but she did not force the answers out of the participants, they chose out of their own free will. She also did not classify her article as black or white inspite of the black text and white background colour. Now there are more web professionals who have been dragged in to this to make a statement. They have become pawns in the game of race.Mandy made an error in undermining hew own article when she used a pull quote that included the words "White boys club". If this was the angle of the story then I think that this would have been an integral part of an article that would be able to ask some very important questions about the racial state of the online industry. The pull quote was irrelevant in the context of her story and in my opinion undermined the people who took part in the article.There is an important question to be asked: where are the black professionals in the online industry?Darren Ravens asks the question more appropriately. But I think that Darren Gorton got it right.Personally I would like to be considered a media professional for the work that I do, not for the work that I do as a white(ish), Greek (almost), South African male.

Barriers to entry for media in the "mobile boom"

As many people know the mobile industry is big business, especially here in SA and in the broader African market.I've been making some inroads in to trying to undestand the mobile market as fully as possible recently.I am lookingt at the mobile market as someone heavily involved in the media industry and trying to find a place for the media in the mobile market. I am not considering the mobile market from the point of view of a startup, website, portal, communication idea or gaming company. I am looking at the mobile market from the perspective of an organisation that produces weekly content that goes in to a newspaper.There are some things that I have noticed and some problems that I have seen with the theory that mobile is going to be the next big thing very soon.Lets begin with three quick points:

1. Communication is actually THE mobile market
2. Social Networking is the up-and-commer
3. Gaming is already making a mark - a massive one - on the market
4. The service providers are the ones making the money

And now let us go through the barriers to entry that I feel exist for media in the mobile market.

1. Newspaper content is a push market
2. Mobile users want to own their content - pull it towards themselves
3. Understanding of extensive mobile web surfing is low in higher LSM's
4. Portals are non-exist, with the exception of service providers

The basic barriers that I have listed above make it extremely difficult for media organisations to make a valuable stand in the mobile market. Users are looking to interact with one another and content. This means they want to create the content, interact with it, send it to their friends, invite their friends to interact with eachother and their content. This is difficult as a media organisation when you are producing the content and pushing it to the market.I am interested to know if you agree with these barriers? Do you think that media is stuck in a "push" business model? Or are they making inroads in to the "pull" of content creation, distribution and user interaction?

Why is no one talking about mobile?

Mobile, for the last few years, has generally been accepted as the next big thing. But if that is the case why is there no hype, no blogging and why are many of the articles outdated? Is there no one out there who is willing to step in to the role of the punter?I have just read through 50+ Tech feeds that I subscribe to and out of those a single article from ReadWriteWeb focused on mobile.There is no media talk, no thoughts or opinions and no strategies emerging as a result of mobile being the next big thing and I just don't get it.It could be that I am looking in the wrong place, but it seems as though people are either plotting and keeping their secrets close to them or there is no one with a clue. I am interested to get in to this a but further. Let's see where it goes.

Bring bloggers and editors together

My post about Charl Norman and Intelligence magazine seems to have raised some interesting issues.Bloggers vs journalists, ethics and standards and a broad lack of writing integrity.Vincent has come out and said that he is willing to organise a meeting between bloggers and mainstream media editors (or editor). What do you think?From Vincent:

If any bloggers are interested, I would be happy to organise a session between bloggers and our editor as an ethics and legal primer. Anyone interested? Email me vincent@vincentmaher.com

I think that this is a great idea and one that can benefit various people on various levels. Email Vince and let's get the ball rolling.