New Media.. Internet.. not the same thing

New Media is the collection of stuff we use daily to get information to travel from Arthur to Martha. The blogs, the wikis, forums, microblogs, social networks, instant messaging and good old email. Who knows what’s next. They’re already laying with Augmented Reality. We could be sending telepathic email using sunglasses equipped with an IPaddress (read Intel chip-enabled) implanted in your Gucci shades 5 years from now. The internet (those networks) is merely the ENABLER of all these facets, platforms and channels that allow the transmission and now also mass storage of information (in the cloud). The internet has always just been an enabler. Nothing more. Apps are built that run on it and those applications are the new media – those ever-evolving information containers and transmitters. So new media is simply “a way to communicate” in the digital space. That simple.

Bye Suzan.. Hi Suzan..

I have read all the above-mentioned posts and they played a huge part in the extent to which I revere Suzan as a thought leader in her area of expertise. Suzan sometimes makes me think of her as Margaret Thatcher – the iron lady – when I read the iciness in her some of her tweets. She does not pull punches. She also makes me think of Cape Town-based webhead Rafiq Philips when she tweets in incomplete sentences. What I like most about her though is that she is completely herself. Although she works in an industry that necessitates communication, conversation and interaction.. her Twitter bio makes it abundantly clear that she has no interest in “tweetups” (meetups with people she connects with on Twitter). I like that.

Make haste while the sun shines

So these were my experiences with two companies doing the exact same thing. They sell books online. The one fundamental difference between the two though, is that the one takes ON-SCHEDULE delivery of books VERY SERIOUS and the other clearly don’t give a shit, because by the time you experience the shitty part of their service offering.. they already have your money.
The lesson that I learnt here though – thanks mostly to Kalahari – is that we have become accustomed to having our needs and wants met within timeframes our parents could never have imagined. The industry of service delivery has evolved from “I do things for my convenience in my own time” to “if I can deliver this faster than the next guy – I win”. Sadly, not many players have kept pace with the game. But simultaneously consumers have all evolved accordingly. We queue in supermarkets because we have to, not because we want to. If a jetpack cost the same as a taxi to work everyday.. Mandla Gcaba would be out of business tomorrow?

27 Dinner – again..

There were a few things that really grabbed me that night. The first were the t-shirts worn by Mike Stopforth and Anice Hassim. Mike’s had the Creative Commons logo on it and said “Creative Commoner”.. nifty. Anice’s shirt said: “I see dead pixels”.. brilliant. The other thing was Anice’s talk. It centred around the infinite potential held by mobile technology and how everyday tasks that we take for granted will someday be done via the interface on your handset. I captured the footage below. If you can actually hear Anice above the noise, you’ll know exactly what I’m on about. I was really impressed by his insight and foresight. I hope I get to hear him do this again soon..

I choose to be remarkable..

The answer to that question weighed strongly in favour of the “i’m here” factor then, but now – in a changed economy – everything is geography-independent and is driven by people with big ideas.. people who make change happen. Then he continues on to something that really abducted all my attention (i’m a natural mental multi-tasker) for the full 2 minutes he spent expounding on this. Mongezi asks why one should give stuff away for free, and his answer is classic. Seth says that two mindsets are at play here. The poverty mindset, which holds that everything is about me.. mine.. more for me and the tendency to hold on to things. The mindset of wealth – on the other hand – says that “i can be generous”. He says people who give stuff away are the ones with real people with real power; the ones who can afford to. Reminded me of Chris Andersen’s “Free”, which I read last year sometime.

..on Talent and on Skill..

The one thing about this video that really grabbed me is how Will Smith breaks down the difference between talent and skill, and which one should be given priority. Without saying too much, I just thought I’d share this with those that know me, those that love me and those that come across this blog via random Googling.

Why Social Media is like Cup-A-Soup

If you’ve never had Cup-A-Soup in your life (and there are some monks in Tibet and India who read blogs that haven’t), then this post will probably not make sense. So my suggestion is that you go to your nearest store, but a few boxes of the stuff, play with it, prepare some, eat some, share some.. and then come back and read this post again. Be warned. You may go away enlightened.

Homebase and Outpost Marketing

I believe in the video above popular blogging guru Darren Rowse explains perfectly what I have been doing for quite some time to build my social media presence. I have just never thought about actually putting it in words and “terming” it.

So there.. YESS.. I’ve been doing Homebase and Outpost Marketing all this time..

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