The company blog [don't fight it]...

It seems there is a trend that the business world is moving towards.... uploading blog sites rather than 'traditional'*yawn* corporate *double yawn* websites... I am sure its not harmful to have both!
My company, Funk that, now has a blog site... check it out ...

Manto loses Face[book]

I was totally flabbagasted to see that there are 3 profiles built for our Minister of Health in Facebook. They are certainly worth the read. Especially since they catch you off guard and at first I thought the government was just being really pro-active in the PR arena..[until I saw the other 2 profiles].
What is scary is how quickly you can lose face [in this case on Facebook] nowadays and how the technological world is aiding this. It really brings freedom of speech to A WHOLE NEW LEVEL! I wonder if Manto has seen her profiles?? Visit the link to check it out... if you are not on Facebook yet.... SERVES YOU RIGHT for not being proactive!

Shuttleworth's a cool geek..

Ok… I know I have been scarce on the blogging front!!! Sorry.. had a really busy 2 weeks…..
I was fortunate enough to meet Mark Shuttleworth recently. I have to say I was impressed. Not sure what I expected [from a famous oke], but in reality he seems to be a friendly normal dude who is more interested in you than talking about himself! He was keen to share what he had learnt in life and I thought I would share some of what he chatted about. He recons that curiosity and perseverance are 2 traits he has seen in successful people he has met worldwide. He mentioned that from space the earth looks very populated and the atmosphere very fragile. [SO BLOODY LOOK AFTER IT..!] He still professes to be a ‘geek’… lets be honest geeks are cool nowdays! His favourite magazines are The Economist and some other science mag I have never heard of…….
He wants to make heros out of talented SA kids by inspiring them and showing them the importance of maths, sciences and technology using his brand HIP2B2 …..

So in a nutshell this is one cool ‘geek’ and the best thing is he is South African!!!

Groovy FREE speech mon...

There is an interesting book out called 'The Cult of the Amateur' written by a guy called Andrew Keen. Love him or hate him he has thrown oil on a debate that has been raging for a while. It’s the [snore…snore] same old discussion about the internet and all its ‘woes’ and I just HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING!

As I am a Libran I tend to constantly try balance things. This book [its worth reading the comments on the book link.. some are hilarious!] is his opinion [which needs to be respected] and some of what he says is valid HOWEVER no matter how much people go on about the net and social media it aint going to go away. No matter how many books anyone writes, the whole ‘democratised media’ thing has hit a nerve with more than a few people and nobody can argue that.

In a way I see shades of what the ‘hippy movement’ did in the late 60’s early 70’s to change the social fabric worldwide. Some good, some bad but the world has never been the same since. Different time, similar debate?
I am grateful that things like blogging have given consumers a voice to challenge service delivery in the business world. I am not fond of using any medium to hurt others [I don’t think most people really have that intention- maybe its that old story of a few ruining it for the rest]. I like free speech… my view is if you don’t like it don’t read/watch it. Companies that are using blogs for ‘spin doctoring’ purposes, as Andrew mentions, will soon be caught out and the damage could be enormous. I think that real bloggers hold integrity and authenticity above all else and would not sell their souls… [yip I am a little bit of an idealist]

This is an out there question but is the web not really a reflection of life, in all its glory and ugliness? You tend to find what you want to see…

We live in a fast paced, ever changing world. The Internet is probably assisting with entrenching a degree of anti social behavior but we need to be aware of that and try work our way around things by using it as a tool for connecting differently. I love the freedom of my ‘little space’ [no pun intended] and I would hate to have to 'conform' BUT a few rules may not be a bad thing? Just not sure in reality how they will be enforced [yuk word…].
Interesting topic… not sure if I would buy the book… I would borrow it though! Anyone brought it yet???

WINK and you are there!

Check out this site! For those of you that think you are anonymous or have a 'unique' name in the world! Think again... check out WINK.Type in your full name and this site searches the dark edges of the web for you!! YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE!!