Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
must. do. exercise.
Started going to Gym this morning after a long, extended absence of ± 7months.I think that I might keep track of the way I feel here occasionally. The next step is to phase out the heavy smoking, excessive coffee drinking and lack of proper food intake!The reason that I've started doing my cardio workouts is simple: I am exhausted. All of the time. I don't sleep because I am not actually tired. Mentally I'm always tired I think. I'm always thinking, plotting, planning, organising and the like. Physically I sit on my bum most of the day at work, drive while sitting on my bum to meetings, sit on my bum in meetings, drive home and sit on my bum while i watch TV at night. Then press repeat.It's time that changes. I need to get in to bed and pass out, not let my mind wander and keep the thoughts rolling. I am hoping that exercise puts me back on the mental straight and narrow.Image: A Malchik!
Erik Hersman in SA
Having met Erik just once a while back at one of the first 27 dinners I jumped at the chance to catch up with him this time round in SA. For those of you who know nothing of Erik he is the founder of WhiteAfrican, Afrigadget and Ushahidi among many other things I am sure.The first meeting was the "tweetup" held at Garsen's Capellos in Sandton. There I caught up with Erik and this is what he had to say:Then I attended the MobileActive08 conference and had a chance to talk with Erik again. We chatted about Kelele, the first African Bloggers Conference being held in Nairobi next year. The MobileActive08 conference was surprisingly very well organised, massive and educational. The reason I say I was surprised is because I really knew nothing of the conference before I attended. I handed out many, many, many business cards, connected with great people and learned alot.Erik, as always, is jetting of to Pop!Tech very soon so he's on the move but at least I managed to tie him down for a few minutes.
Does elitism stifle growth?
Recently there have been waves of anger, lashing out, disdain and open disrepute online amongst a very, very small percentage of Internet users in SA.The main focus of this disdain has revolved around the concept of elitism. One blogger today wrote that there are less than 200 active social media users in SA. Huh?Anyways, that's not my point. I want to ask the question: "Does elitism actually stifle growth and development?"My immediate answer is no and I think it's one that I am going to stick to forever. Why? Simple. It's because the "elitism" that "everyone" is talking about is simply providing a driving force for so many to push themselves harder, faster, futher and aid in their growth and development.I don't know about anyone else but when someone excluded me, told me I couldn't, shouldn't, wouldn't, I did, evertime. And not only did I do what they told me I couldn't or shouldn't but I made sure that I creamed them at it. I made a point of standing up and having people notice me.Now if something as silly as a perceived elitism is going to get under your skin, knock you down and make you go home and give up then maybe you should just become an employee at someone else's company. There's nothing wrong with that. Not everyone can be evangelists, leaders, gurus, geniuses, experts and the like... or can they?
Online comics I read everyday
One of the joys of online that I have recently discovered (the last year or so) is online comic strips. I absolutely love comic strips. I also have a very offbeat sense of humour and this combination has really proven to be a very good one online.If you are wondering what the hell I am on about here is a list of the comics that I read everyday:Truck Bearing Kibble
Amazing Super Powers
Cyanide and Happiness
John and John (Not safe for people who don't like sexual and twisted off the wall humour)
Babylon Sticks
Dilbert
Buttersafe
Geek and Poke
Jeremy Nell
Now tell me, what are you reading online? Have I missed some pearlers?
Facebook goes all MySpace on us...is this the beginning of the end?
It had to happen. If you are going to open up Facebook (FB) to third party applications you have to expect that someone will come along and change things for those who want change.I hate MySpace because it's so unbelievably kitch and cheesy. Now FB can be those things too. Have a look at my profile.
I read about the application that allows you to do this on ReadWriteWeb. I am all for democracy and choice and blah blah blah, but I honestly think this is horrid.What are your thoughts?The application is put out by PageRage and will definitely help you take one step closer to a MySpace feel to your FB. I'm not convinced about the necessity for this sort of thing.*Note: You need to install the application to see my profile on Facebook and to see anyone else who has an altered profile. I cannot be held liable if your friends leave you and no one writes on your wall subsequent to adding this application to your Facebook.
The best way to kill a Parktown Prawn
Ages ago I blogged about my experiences with Parktown Prawns.I have just approved a comment from Mike on that post that I couldn't help but republishing.
We found out about parktown prawns the hard way. One morning, my father woke up one morning and opened his eyes to see the underneath of a large adult prawn sitting on his face. Well, let me just say that his head hit the light fitting.Since then, I have had a few incidents. I put on shoes, tied the laces and only then did I feel something walking around on my foot. I’m so glad I wear socks with shoes.A few days ago, I put on a pair of jeans and sat down to put my shoes on and felt a prick in the side of my leg, like a black jack or something. So I rubbed it a bit and the spikey feeling moved all the way down my leg as I prodded at it until a small parktown prawn popped out the bottom.In the last two weeks, I have had at least one parktown prawn in my house every 2 days. I must have a nest in the garden and my stupid cats seem to enjoy bringing them in to play.I think the best way to get rid of them is with a tennis racket, a container that can close and a brick. (This is a two man approach):Step1:Approach slowly with the tennis racket while your partner stands by with the container and lid.Step 2:Prod the prawn to make it jump.Step 3:When it jumps, take a full swing with the racket, if you hit it against the wall hard enough, you may knock it out temporarily.Step 4:Quickly, get the prawn in the container before it recovers, move fast, it does not take long.Step 5:Find a solid piece of ground outside, this is the messy part.Step 6:Shake the container rapidly to knock the prawn out and chuck it on the ground.Step 7:Flatten the prawn with the brick.Step 8:Clean up the mess before the other prawns find out.Step 9:Run inside and lock all the doors and windows.Step 10:Seek councelling..
Take a joke Lolly Jackson
I recently wrote about a new mobile initiative called Comedy Twist.Subsequent to writing my review of their launch they began an advertising campaign on billboards around Johannesburg. The approach they took surprised me somewhat as it's a dangerous game they are playing.The chose to take on Mr Lolly Jackson of Teazers fame. They created a mock-teazers billboard that had a similar looking logo, a male blow-up doll and other recognisable Teazers brands.Apparently Jackson didn't respond well to these billboards as they were taken down.They were replaced with this:
As I've said, I think Comedy Twist is playing a very dangerous game here but as everyone knows, any publicity is good publicity. Whether Comedy Twist or once again, Lolly Jackson't Teazers is gaining the most exposure remains to be seen.
Zoopy interviews Arianna Star
The lucky devils. Zoopy JHB was fortunate enough to get in touch with the stunning Arianna Star who is this years host at Sexpo!
Did Viral Marketing start with god?
The phrase "Viral Marketing" has become quite the buzz word of late. But I personally don't buy it. It might be fashionable and working for now but it most definitely isn't anything new. Even Wikipedia's definition refers to the use of existing social networks. Pah, as if the web can claim this form marketing.
Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.[1] Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.[2] Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.
The Hypothesis
I'm going to dive right in to my hypothesis. I think that if you go as far back as the birth of christianity you will find viral marketing. Maybe it appeared in different forms (godly or other) but it was present even then.Jesus was a man of old, but his story spread throughout the land back in the day. How? Very simply. He did something amazing, incredible, unbelievable even and word spread. He basically created his own viral video without the video. He did something that no one had done before or seen before and the word spread like wildfire. He created his own version of the Rayban, Evolution of Dance, Avril or Dead Terrorist Youtube video and then the public did the rest.
The Scale
Yes the scale of the word spreading might have been significantly less than the 2 Billion people worldwide who are online today but the principal was the same. Humans like to be astounded. On top of that human beings like to socialise, be the first, follow the group and participate in communities and all of this applied then as much as it did now.
The Message
What was being spoken of, spread around and "preached" back then is significantly different to the content that has become viral nowadays. Christianity and other religions spoke of a life-changing concept that was the word, a god, a set of laws, rules, beliefs and ideas that intended to change people and their way of life.Today content is funny, clever, different, advertising, movies, music videos and clever tricks that fascinate people and keep them occupied for just long enough to want to send on the video, blog post, article, website or concept to their friends and their friends and their friends. Yet again, the basic concept remains the same. I like it, I like to participate with people in what I like and thus I will send it on so I can discuss it with them, debate it with them and enjoy it with them. God, The Bible, a video, blogger or mp3, anything can go viral and has been going viral for centuries.
The crusades
The great era of the crusades which were so quickly forgotten by many people today is not necessarily an example of anything viral. It is an example of aggressively marketing a concept to a market that is possibly unwilling or isn't aware that they like the idea just yet. That is, until you shove it down their throats with a blade.Much like today's corporations. If you don't use Google you probably aren't getting the best results. However there are people who use ask.com, yahoo.com, cuil.com (are there people using Cuil?) or any slew of other options. Just as there were people believing in Allah or any number of other gods or demi-gods. If you aren't using Google however it is hard to get away from them, their spokespeople, their marketing - however subversive it may be - or their word of mouth presence. You will succumb to the Google Crusade if you haven't already.An estimated 2.1 billion christians exist in the world today. That is around and about 1/3 of the worlds population. Wouldn't you say that is the greatest viral campaign of all time? I would.
Preaching, Indoctrination, Propaganda and Sheep
Let's be frank about this, we are all sheep of one kind or another. The christian, muslim, hindu, agnostic, atheist, google, mozilla, microsoft, opensource, closed source or any other source out there. We all subscribe to opinions, likes, dislikes and beliefs. It is thanks to this wonder of humanity that viral marketing is and always will be the most phenomenal way to market a product or concept. People like to below, to prescribe and subscribe to something.Coca-Cola, Nike, Google, Apple, Honda, Toyota, Pepsi and Microsoft are all some of the most recognisable brands in the world because there are people sharing the brands and associated products amongst their friends, family and social groups. Viral marketing is not a web 2.0 revolution in marketing, it isn't even a web concept. It's a practice that has been used for millennia to make people money, spread a word or punt a product. Welcome to the wonders of history repeating itself.
An Example: FAIL
The recent "FAIL" trend that has swept the web is the perfect example of a viral concept shared amongst social groups. Everything is a FAIL. It has become a cult that is practiced offline as much as it is online. It started with one simple fail and expanded in to blogs, websites, videos, songs and more. It has transcended race, gender, age, culture, technology and platform. People can fail online, brands can fail with offices, products, articles or just about anything that exists.Viral marketing is most definitely not a FAIL but many have failed at viral marketing.
Zoopy JHB covers its first event... almost live
Last night, instead of joining the thousand or so people partying at the iPhone 3G launch, I was slaving away at my laptop for almost 5 hours.This is not to say that I didn't have a blast, the VIP section was a treat as they always are.The event was one that was intended to be a tester for the Zoopy JHB crew. It was our first major live event that we covered.Terri Hayward and Klaus Bauer (the Zoopy crew) did a sterling job if I do say so myself. They proved that Zoopy can get the interviews, be on top of events and provide top class coverage as it happens, when it happens - to quote a great radio station.Some of highlights included speaking to Shameel Joosub, the MD of Vodacom, DJ Fresh from 5FM, the very first official Vodacom sold iPhone owner and Dot Field the Chief Communications Officer at Vodacom. We were taking photographs, doing interviews and uploading for almost the entire evening and it showed.Zoopy recorded some great stats yesterday and a great achievement for us was having our content shown on CNBC Africa over lunch and in a late afternoon show.So here's to many more events being covered, many more shows being seen and many more interviews being done.If you have an event coming up that you think could do with some almost live coverage, drop me a mail: nic at zoopy dot com.
Exclusive interview with DoNotDateHim.co.za founder
Do Not Date Him has been making waves of late. I took it upon myself to not judge and instead get the information I wanted from the source. So I did just that and got in touch with the founder of the website, Yolandi van Rooyen (28).Here is the interview a nh.com exclusive:Do not date him is a very intriguing concept. Should guys be worried about this particular website?I do understand that most men feel very worried about the site. The main goal of the website is to make women aware of conmen as well as men that are physically,emotionally and sexually abusive. The idea is to be more pro active about these concerns in society and to help women to make more informed choices next time they start a relationship with a man.Why did you start the website?I've been in an physically and emotional abusive relationship myself and I wanted to prevent other women and their children to experience the same pain and suffering.The idea isn't yours, tell me a bit about how you set up the website, did you hire developers and designers or is it all your skill?I read about the American website Dontdatehimgirl in a magazine and I immediately thought that this could be very effective with South Africa's high domestic violence statistics. I did call in the help of developers and a designer and I also had to get a lawyer to help me setup the terms and conditions for the website.You aren't very shy, you were written about in the Saturday Star recently. Aren't you nervous of being outed as the founder?The Beeld published my name in their article and I have to say I did feel a bit nervous about everyone knowing that I am the founder but now that the cat is out of the bag I have accepted the fact. I am still very camera shy though.How are you going to prevent abuse of the your service? What is stopping any woman from gaining revenge through your site?I do moderate all the profiles myself and I am definately in the process of evolving the website into a community site where women will be able to get information and healing. Any user can report a page for any abuse or foul language and when I communicate with my users I encourage them to be responsible with their comments and posts.This site portrays men in a very bad light whether you like to admit it or not. Is this not just perpetuating the cycle?Yes it does make some men look bad, but I,allot of women and men feel that it is time to seperate the good men from the bad. For many years and generations this topic has been a taboo and that also didn't help to stop the cycle. If women can see a very dangerous man's profile on my website it can prevent her from entering a relationship whith this man and can possibly stop the cycle from jumping from one abusive relationship to another.Are you aware of any legal action taken by outed men against the original Don't Date Him Girl website?Yes, Don't Date Him Girl had two lawsuits in 2006 and they won both of them.Have you received any hate mail yet?Yes,What are your plans for the sites future?I am already in the process of evolving the website into a site for information, discussion and healing. There will be experts writing articles about issues that envolve women and the struggles they are facing on a daily basis. A legal expert will help women with issues concerning their rights and the correct procedures to follow. I am also excited to introduce a forum and a rating system.Do you have a Do Not Date Her in mind?The domain was bought on the 3rd of the September when the news of Donotdatehim broke. The site launched this week.Do you plan on making money off the site?Unfortunately I do still need funding to pay for the hosting monthly and to keep the website live.And finally, do you have anything you would like to add?I would like to invite all men to join the fight against women and child abuse. It is not going to help if we stay silent and action have to be taken to eliminate this evil in society.I'd like to thank Yolandi for being so transparent and getting involved online. I truly do hope that the site reaches its intended goal of protecting women and spreading the word against abuse.I have my reservations about the potential success of the site, prevention of abuse and proper use of the service but in the end only time and lawyers fees will be able to tell if the site succeeds or not.
Ricky Januarie - Drink, drive and play professional rugby
Sounds like a plan to me. I am unbelievably disappointed with the officials involved in this.
Springbok scrumhalf Ricky Januarie was arrested on Sunday morning in Durbanville, Cape Town, for drunk driving.
This article was written on September 15th at IOL. Guess what? Ricky Januarie is playing rugby on Saturday for Western Province.What is wrong with society that sports people (celebrities) are allowed to go free in spite of an arrest? Surely Januarie should be suspended until his court hearing? Surely the Western Province board doesn't care that much about winning? Surely it is more important to create a sense of responsibility among the idols of SA rugby?I am going to say it again, I am exceptionally disappointed with the situation and believe that Januarie should be indefinitely removed from professional rugby. This is not his first offense either and that should be even more cause for concern. No, not in our rugby ranks. Here drunk driving is an acceptable crime. Placing other people in danger on the road is seen to be an acceptable way of existing in society. Well I think not. What if Januarie had killed someone? What if he had rammed his car in to someones wall, car, child, mother or grandmother? What then?
It seems that Ricky Januarie will be able to play the rest of the year since his driving under the influence of alcohol case has been postponed to 29 January 2009.“Januarie, who was arrested by police in the early hours of Sunday morning in Durbanville near Cape Town, has been named to play for Western Province in a Currie Cup match against Griquas at Newlands on Friday. WP coach Allister Coetzee confirmed this week that he will continue to select the player, despite the scrumhalf’s off-field troubles.” - source
But instead January walks free and gets to earn more money and play more rugby all the while, leaving a great trail for the youth to follow. Well done Januarie, well done.
How many posts do you have on your blog?
I've just surpassed (with this very blog post) my 1000th article on this blog.I am very interested to know how many blog posts people have on their blogs.Bloggers seem to have been around for ages and ages and I think I'd be surprised how many of them have actually written a boat load of posts. I'd love to know how many the likes of Mike, Matt, Vince, Cherryflava, coda, Justin, Keo, Paul, Charl, Rafiq, Elan, Gino, Tyler, Vinny, Quirk, Ideate, Tertia, Ray, Chris and Mark have written.If you have a count, pop it in the comments.
Zoopy goes local and gets fast, really fast
We've just sent out a press release from the Zoopy HQ:
Zoopy increases media delivery speed with local hostingTwo months after receiving investment from Vodacom (which now owns a40% stake in the company), South African social media site Zoopy hasstarted to roll out some of the large scale community improvementsthey hinted at when announcing the Vodacom deal.Members of Zoopy.com, which launched in March 2007, are able to uploadand share videos, photos, podcasts and blogs - both online and via achoice of mobile applications. Until now, users have been doing sousing international bandwidth to connect to Zoopy's overseas servers.This is standard practice for most medium to large online businessesin South Africa, who are often left with little option but to hostinternationally when faced with much higher local hosting fees. Thedownside to hosting outside of the country, however, is reducedloading speed of websites and, in Zoopy's case, media files likevideos and photos.According to Zoopy CEO, Jason Elk, this is now a thing of the past forZoopy visitors. "As of today, we have servers in South Africa thatwill deliver Zoopy content using local bandwidth for South Africans.The significantly slower international speeds and low bandwidth capsin SA (many users only budget for the 3gb they receive per month) haveleft us as frustrated as any other internet user in the country. Sowe're prepared to do what it takes to deliver our media at amazingspeeds, whether viewed on Zoopy.com or embedded on other sites orblogs. And for our members, an increase in upload speeds when addingmedia to your Zoopy profile will make things quicker and moreconvenient too," says Elk.Zoopy has also just increased their upload file size limit from 100mbto 200mb. Elk explains, "If we're giving visitors a quicker and morecomfortable experience over local bandwidth, we wanted to add to theenjoyment by giving them more space to express themselves as well.Members now have 200mb to play with and can upload longer or betterquality versions of their videos, for example. As always, this serviceremains completely free.""These improvements are part of a determined plan to bring the Zoopycommunity everything they need to manage, view and share their mediain all the ways they've hoped for, and more".
This is a very important step for us for various reasons. I wont go in to much detail as there is an entire blog post dedicated to the topic on the Zoopy Blog so head over and read it.For now visit muti and digg and vote up the post.
Murderball (Wheelchair Rugby) at the paralympics
Wheelchair rugby. It's big apparently. There was a movie made about the USA Wheelchair Rugby team at the Athens Paralympic games. I kid you not. In fact it has a nickname: Murderball.Watch this and you'll know why:Now SA has a Murderball team but for some reason we aren't competing at this years Paralympics. Either we didn't qualify or our team didn't make it over there? Strange but intense anyway.
Citizen Journalism - My DCI Presentation
I have only seen this now on Zoopy but the Lovely New Medial Lab at Rhodes University managed to record and summerise my presentation at the Digital Citizen Indaba.Thanks to the involved party for doing a great job. Here's the video:
Do Not Date Him - a website is born
I wonder how much trouble the creators of the site will soon be in?Do Not Date Him seems to be a name and shame website with photos, biographies, stories and other little titbits about men that one should not date.
I am sure this is right up Black Notes avenue and I'm sure that Mr Jacobson will have a lot to say about the potential for drama here.Name and shame. I really kinda like it.
Highway Africa presentation: Digital Media Business Model
This is the presentation I just gave at Highway Africa 2008.