Archive for the 'social.media' Category

Podcamp: African style

Published
by
Maximillian Kaizen
on October 23, 2007
in education2.0, learning events, networthing and social.media
. 10 Comments

Podcamp Cape Town techmonkeys
Africa’s first podcamp ROCKED. We had to take the tech to the trees at one point to avoid a roaming pride of lions. But it was all good :-P

It was the stuff of a classic unconference: friendships forged, fresh project collaborations begun, and stimulating pioneering ideas shared in the South African sunshine just before our victorious rugby World Cup win.
We even recorded a podcast: (in Afrikaans - for the popular WOEMF network - why Nico & Glen graciously allowed me to mangle the language I’m not sure, but it was fun) embarrassing video thanks to Zoopy (who did a great job of coverage not just sponsorship).

The podcasting conversation has officially begun in Cape Town, and we hope to be hearing from podcampers rocking the AV option now. I’ll be talking about Doug Kaye’s inspiring concept : Podcorps and other channels for local podcasters interested in social entrepreneurial / pioneering communities around the world.

Thanks again to our generous sponsors (Henk Kleynhans of Skyrove who provided wifi is the 2nd techmonkey in the tree - along with our WebAddiCT mashup meister who still owes me a muti Tshirt), to our valuable contributing speakers (esp. Brad Shrimpton of Apple for doing the podcasting walk.through & demos - see podcasting really is THAT easy!) and mostly to the podcampers who gave up a perfect beach day to come to Podcamp Cape Town!

(extra big warm African hug to the co-daddy of Podcamp Chris Brogan for his message to us - and paying attention to the sadness we feel for the loss of iconic South African Lucky Dube) Please watch the vid if you get a sec: it’s really quick, but a powerful reminder about the power of the social media tools, that we learn to use and share, can have real impact on the world.

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

Good luck with Podcamp Boston 2 from yr extended & growing global family of Podcampers >>

Share This

Linkbaiting 101 for politicians

Published
by
Maximillian Kaizen
on May 21, 2007
in Economic Factors, corporate education, education2.0, executive education and social.media
. 3 Comments

Has Patricia de Lille been to dinner with David Bullard lately?!..perhaps they share the same online reputation management consultant or social media PR specialist?

Thanks 2 Martin for the heads.up this morning. We all had a good laugh and my optimism in the sporadic sophistication of South African politics leads me to believe that this is just effective online marketing at work. Hope Dave doesn’t have National Intelligence on his ass by giving political opinion though if this IS serious. Either way, Paul needs help us get clear on our rights, quickly. I’ve been saying we need to get involved in policy-making if we are to guarantee our rights, or what freedom we enjoy may be a window.

If this isn’t a blogging blast-in, then it’s another tragic display of fear.based rallying. I think we may have a fresh entrant in the social media playground.. especially leading up to elections. Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama of course, and the newmedia star John Edwards make extensive use of social media tools like blogs, twitter, youtube or myspace to connect with constituents, even rustling up raving fans to crowdsource events on a 100th of the traditional cost of campaigning.. who would NOT want to leverage this advantage?

Somehow, I just don’t see a case of digital denial* here (honestly how long did you think it would take our sharpest politico’s to catch-up when the results are so potent for their PR?)

PS. *if this is the case I’m available for the guided tour if you need to map the territory quickly
PPS. Mxit may be one of the greatest tools for us to leapfrog the crisis in education, using lightweight technology to support collaborative future learning environments. Like any powertool.. the capacity to build or destroy is in the hands of those using it. [Again, on matters of emerging technology as an accelerated means to use your powers for good.. I'm available to any political leader brave enough to include tech into their strategic vision, ..rather than a reactive rallying point for those fearful of the future].

Share This

Google.YouTube vs Myspace

Published
by
Maximillian Kaizen
on October 12, 2006
in Economic Factors and social.media
. 0 Comments

Take the ringside seat as the billion $$ behemoths battle it out.
Such fun! our very own pantheon of the gods.
Those who hold sway in this peculiar parallel dimension of online reality, do so by sheer weight of those who believe in them.. (in Google we trust). Once again the big boys are out to play. The brave young hero YouTube has been deified and given a seat on Mount Olympus.. and the writhing shape-shifting adolescent-hormone fueled MySpace is getting edgy. oooh too delicious.

We’ll be sure not to myth out on the next installment: soap-opera for geeks and market-analysts alike, as we all try to predict the next move and extrapolate what cool.tool gifts the benign ones will bless us with tomorrow..

This is one of those moments where you realise that we’re oddly tracking toward the outer edges of capitalism, where peculiarly, in it’s full bloom: with the means of production truly in the hands of the people: it starts looking a lot like true socialism -? without the crappy cumbersome side effects of poverty, scarcity and shocking food that tends to accompany communism.

Hmm.. wonder how my mind wondered off here, anyway, just a thought and perhaps a little hint to the leaders of our beloved South Africa that it’s worth holding the evolving and devolving models from the economic experiments conducted in other countries - side by side - and extract some wisdom thereby. Anyway as I was saying, just a thought.

Share This

Building Bridges for the Born Digital

Published
by
Maximillian Kaizen
on August 6, 2006
in Cape Town, Mixed Reality, creativity and social.media
. 1 Comment
“As once the winged energy of delight carried you over childhood’s dark abysses, now beyond your own life build the great arch of unimagined bridges” - Rilke

Wintery Sunday morning all foggy outside, a mug of rich velvety hot chocolate, broadband …aaaah heavenly :) The teeny little girl on my lap in head-to-toe pinkness has just been introduced to Cute Overload ..interspersed with occassional beeps of the IM (from my matey Rafiq who’s still in bed and connecting on Mxit and then from my brother Dave, working on a Sunday :-/). Alex (the 4yr old laptop) shows me the camera & tells me about Skyping her granny in the States.. and wants to see who I’m speaking to (real-time typing an acceptable form of speaking to her) .. we tootle over to Flickr, where she recognises the painting hanging in the lounge from my photos on Flickr.. and so it goes.. her world seamlessly connected into mixed-reality existence, as with all Born Digital babes, this interconnectedness is normal :-) We are building the multidimensional worlds they will live and work in. NOW.

Continue reading ‘Building Bridges for the Born Digital’

Share This

Close
E-mail It