Final Countdown to the Digital Edge Live Show National Assembly 2012

The final countdown to this year's premier digital marketing event has begun. All speakers, sponsors, and panel discussion topics have been confirmed and in just one week, these top local and international speakers will be taking to the floor at the Cape Town City Hall for the Digital Edge Live Show – National Assembly on October 4th.

We're all aware that digital marketing is in constant flux. The breakneck pace of innovation alone is causing such dynamic change in this industry that sifting the core trends from the noise in order to ascertain which forces will shape the digital landscape, is no easy feat. The 2012 sitting of the National Assembly has called together a working committee to aid in this sifting process.

Top digital innovators from a range of the country's digital marketing elite will deliberate and state their case with thought-provoking discussions:

Our first panel question: "Are digital agencies 'blinding clients with science'?" will be deliberated by cabinet members Matthew Buckland, Nikki Cockcroft, Ivan Moroke, Arthur Charles Van Wyk, and Andy Gilder, who will deliver an array of practical solutions.

Our second panel will seek to determine whether "South African digital work really is world class" – a question that will be tackled by industry stalwarts Graham Warsop, Rob Stokes, Pete Case, and Jason Xenopoulos.

Panel three's proposed bill: "Building long term social media communities is more important than creating expensive conceptual campaigns" will be answered by the following representatives – Mike Sharman, Dave Moffat, Nic Wittenberg, Dan Pinch and Isis Nyongo.

The final countdown to this year's premier digital marketing event has begun. All speakers, sponsors, and panel discussion topics have been confirmed and in just one week, these top local and international speakers will be taking to the floor at the Cape Town City Hall for the Digital Edge Live Show – National Assembly on October 4th.

We're all aware that digital marketing is in constant flux. The breakneck pace of innovation alone is causing such dynamic change in this industry that sifting the core trends from the noise in order to ascertain which forces will shape the digital landscape, is no easy feat. The 2012 sitting of the National Assembly has called together a working committee to aid in this sifting process.

Top digital innovators from a range of the country's digital marketing elite will deliberate and state their case with thought-provoking discussions:

Our first panel question: "Are digital agencies 'blinding clients with science'?" will be deliberated by cabinet members Matthew Buckland, Nikki Cockcroft, Ivan Moroke, Arthur Charles Van Wyk, and Andy Gilder, who will deliver an array of practical solutions.

Our second panel will seek to determine whether "South African digital work really is world class" – a question that will be tackled by industry stalwarts Graham Warsop, Rob Stokes, Pete Case, and Jason Xenopoulos.

Panel three's proposed bill: "Building long term social media communities is more important than creating expensive conceptual campaigns" will be answered by the following representatives – Mike Sharman, Dave Moffat, Nic Wittenberg, Dan Pinch and Isis Nyongo.



To close the show, Nathan Martin, world-renowned as DeepLocal's founder, will be making the final address –The Maker Culture – which promises to be a wonderfully entertaining and highly informative talk; a game-changer for the local marketing industry.

The Digital Edge Live Show is also proud to announce that one of South Africa's leading banks, Nedbank, will be sponsoring the highly-anticipated event. Nedbank has built a reputation as South Africa's 'green' bank while at the same time making things happen in the sponsorship arena.

The Digital Edge Live Show – National Assembly 2012 is guaranteed to challenge ordinary ways of thinking. Whether you are tech savvy, a fan of all things digital, or looking to broaden your horizons by entering the fascinating world of digital marketing – this is the one event you don't want to miss!

Book your tickets with the Commission of Enquiry – Living Your Brand – at bookings@livingyourbrand.co.za or go to www.thedigitaledge.co.za for more information
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FNB named headline sponsor of Bookmarks 2012



The Bookmarks Awards 2012 – South Africa's annual award for excellence in online publishing and digital marketing – has secured FNB (First National Bank) as headline sponsor.

The Bookmarks Awards, now in its 5th year, is the only platform dedicated to celebrating all that is digital. This is an initiative brought to you by the DMMA (Digital Media and Marketing Association) as an award geared to the strengthening of the profile of online media, as well as to benchmark local talent against international standards.

Last year, the 2011 Bookmarks Awards were powered by FNB, a company that believes in innovation and digital service improvement as a competitive differentiator. Once again, a perfect fit for this year's Bookmarks Awards 2012 to align themselves even more so in the forever expanding digital industry. FNB is a value-based organization, with core values of pride, accountability, innovation, Ubuntu and respect.

"FNB is proud to be associated with the Bookmarks Awards for the second year running. The Bookmarks Awards strive to recognize contributors who have made their mark in the digital landscape. The Bookmarks concept aligns closely with FNB's drive to provide innovative digital solutions to our customers. To create meaningful digital interaction requires talent. This talent is taken from a wide range of disciplines within the digital industry. Recognising and rewarding talent is a key driver to ensuring that the industry continues to attract great minds, provide solutions that will make a real difference and ultimately help South Africa flourish in the information economy.

FNB is a leader in digital enablement and believes that it will becore to the success of all businesses in the future. FNB has the largest online banking population in South Africa with 1.2 million active users and one of the largest mobile banking bases in South Africa. FNB also launched the first Banking App in South Africa in July 2011 and in just under a year it has acquired over 250 000 active users. Further to this FNB is a significant player in the social media space with more than 200,000 Facebook fans and more than 13,000 followers on its Twitter account." Lana Strydom; Head of FNB Digital Marketing and Media

The Bookmarks is off to an outstanding start, breaking the total of entry records of 590 breaking last year's record of 453.

For more information on the Bookmarks and its associated conference, workshop and awards evening, visit www.thebookmarks.co.za
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Self driving Google car almost legal in California



Self driving Google car almost legal in California

Published by Kelly Levinsohn on Sep 25th, 2012, 1 Comment



Google's self-driving car will soon reach legal status, that will allow it to drive on the highways of California.

Jerry Brown, the governor of California will today sign the recently passed Google robot car bill at the tech giant's headquarters in Mountain View. Google co-founder Sergey Brin as well as other local elected officials will be present at this exciting and for some, controversial event.

According to The Bay Citizen, the bill, SB 1298, has recently passed the California legislature after a fierce lobbying campaign by Google who used significant resources to have the bill passed during the 2009/2010 legislative session including:

Paying $140,000 for the lobbying services of Jonathan Ross, from the prominent Sacramento firm KP Public Affairs.

Contributing $64,000 for the campaign to 36 members and successful candidates for the state Senate and Assembly.

Paying $25,900 each to Brown and his unsuccessful Republican rival, Meg Whitman.

The Bay Citizen also stated that the bill would "allow companies to test self-driven cars on public roads and require the DMV to draft rules governing use of the vehicles by the public. The measure also would define a car's "operator" as the person sitting in the driver's seat, or if there's no one in the driver's seat, the person who "causes the autonomous technology to engage."

What do you think of Google's self-driving car operating on public roads – Would you find it scary or exciting?
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Tech4Africa 2012, Johannesburg

Tech4Africa, the premier mobile, web and emerging technology event returns in 2012 congregating some of the best minds in ICT. This year's theme is "Unlocking the next billion consumers".

Sessions will be focused around mobile and content, the enterprise opportunity, entrepreneurship and financing, social business and innovation, while the audience will cut across the whole tech ecosystem of developers, social media marketers, technologists, corporates, students, investors and media.

The Developer Day and Hackathon on Wednesday, 31st October, includes three tracks – a day on Agile software development, a Hackathon with sessions on Ruby on Rails, Python, Raspberry Pi, PhP etc., as well as workshops for social media marketers on apps ecosystem, monetisation etc.

The conference on Thursday, 1st November, includes keynote speakers Tom Rosemalia, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and General Manager of Enterprise Initiatives at IBM and Ralph Simon, Founder & CEO of Mobilium, with other speakers being Amolo Ng'weno, MD of Digital Divide Data in Kenya; Neal Ford, Director, Software Architect and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks; Vérone Mankou, CEO of Way-C in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Emma Kaye, CEO of Bozza, Josh Adler, social entrepreneur and others.

IBM's Global Entrepreneurship Programme has been brought into the Tech4Africa 2012 agenda and Claudia Fan Munce, Managing Director at IBM Venture Capital Group, will introduce GEP and an award programme. Tech4Africa 2012 will also be running Ignite again – a start-up workshop and pitching competition, which is being run by AngelHub and Deloitte.

A Google G+ Hangout will be held live at the conference so that tech hubs from around Africa can be part of the conference and so that delegates can interact with a panel, asking questions and finding out more about what is happening on the ground in Senegal, Liberia, Uganda, Tanzania, Egypt, Kenya, Congo and other parts of Africa.

On Wednesday night, 31st October, there will be a CEO dinner to bring together senior business leaders to network, share ideas and discuss key tech issues with like-minded people, as well as the conference's international speakers and expert guests.

 

Event Details:

When: 31 October  - 1 November 2012

Where: The Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg, Gauteng

Cost - Standard Registration Fee: R1, 800
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IMC Conference 2012 Jhb: Confirms final offering



So we've all been to some seriously yawn-inducing marketing conferences, but that's not how marketing conferences need to be! They can be (and really should be) exciting, intellectually stimulating, motivating, networking goldmines, and anything but a waste of time. The global marketing arena demands continuous trend evolution and constant innovation in order for companies to remain relevant. So it is with this understanding that Living Your Brand presents the Integrated Marketing Communication Conference, taking place on the 15th and 16th October 2012 at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton Johannesburg.

With a unique and unparalleled line-up of guest speakers and workshops that include some of the most prestigious names in the business, the IMC Conference is set to alter the landscape of all aspects of marketing from print media to direct marketing, all the way to the digital and social revolutions.

International Speakers include:

 Joshua-Michéle Ross (Fleishman Hillard Europe)

 Brian Remington (Growth Market Executive at IBM)

Local Speakers include:

 Abey Mokgwatsane (CEO of Ogilvy South Africa)

 Andrea Quaye (GM of Carling Black Label)

 Mike Joubert (Founder of BrandsRock)

 Melissa Attree (Business Developer at Cerebra)

 Melanie Minnaar (Managing Director of Halo)

 Mike Silver (CEO of Stretch Experiential)

 Suhayl Limbada (Senior Brand Manager of Gum at Kraft Foods)

 Ben Wagner (Chief Marketing Warrior at NATIVE)

Workshop hosts and topics include:

 IBM: "Bringing Science to the Art of Marketing"

 Adobe: "Creating Multi-Channel Digital Experiences that Drive Revenue"

 Tribal Fusion: "Audience Insights and Effectiveness Measures: What Works, What Doesn't, and What's Next"

 NXT Digital: "Demystifying digital and the integrated campaign"

 InMobi: "Rich Media capabilities and adoption in South Africa"

 Everlytic: "Email Empire: The state of email marketing in South Africa"

 Cerebra: "Content and community management"

 Strike Media: "How to employ and utilise the phenomenal channel of mobile as a successful and powerful marketing medium"

 Millward Brown: "How to make the most of your marketing investment in a fragmented media environment"

 Halo: "Why the brand why?"

 Fleishman Hillard: "A practical guide to taking social media from Good to Great"

 Acceleration Media: "What ORM is, Why it is a critical component for business today, How it can be managed effectively"

 Prezence Digital: A Q&A session on all things digital

 Boomtown: "Tribal Marketing – the new marketing theory"

 Stretch Experiential: "The experiential banner – from flashy to simplistic tools of engagement"

 SAbest: "Cutting through Marketing Clutter"

Living Your Brand is also proud to announce that leading mobile communications company Vodacom and high-touch online education company Getsmarter have come on board as key sponsors for the IMC Conference.

Delegate seats are selling out fast so book now to avoid disappointment as conference availability is limited. For more information visit www.imcc.co.za, or book your seat directly at bookings@livingyourbrand.co.za
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The entrepreneurial silver bullet

Jess Green is an entrepreneur in Cape Town, South Africa, who has sold one technology company and is building his next. In doing so, he's gathered some interesting advice to share:

Too often I am asked if there is a silver bullet for a start-up, something that you can simply put in your entrepreneurial pistol and fire a bull's eye with. And while nothing on its own can determine your new company's success, I believe one thing counts more than others.

There's a true story about a lady who runs a successful hair salon in Constantia – all her clients are wealthy and she's only ever done one good bit of marketing, which is still ongoing since she started it. Let's call her Linda.

Linda started very small and knew she had to get her client base up and increase her audience – somehow. She also noticed that her best clients were those that drove BMW and Mercedes Benz cars. It was her dream to get more of those. She spoke to them and they all mentioned their cars and how they enjoyed them.

So she picked up the phone and called BMW, and asked them if they would allow her to put a free salon voucher in newly sold BMWs or those coming in for a service. Sure, she was told, but you've got to make it something big, like a basket of flowers and fruit, together with your voucher. Oh, and we're not paying a cent – the cost must be yours.

So, for a few minutes, Linda sat back and thought. Over the next week, she made it a point to speak to flower and gift stores, and built up a network of contacts. Then one day it hit her, and she quickly phoned flower shops and fruit basket shops and asked whether they wanted their products marketed in every new BMW sold in Cape Town! They would have to pay, but they would get great exposure. You get the drift already… Linda got her salon's marketing brochures, together with lovely flowers and fruit baskets, in every new Merc and BMW sold in Cape Town, all for free.

That story has so many lessons in it. The fact is, you can accomplish everything you want in business by getting in touch with the right people. Some call it networking, some say it is the "who you know" of your career, but I disagree with all these buzzwords. A business friend of mine in Russia used to say often: "Your most valuable thing is your partners." So, let's simply call it your "relationships".

And if there's a silver bullet to entrepreneurship, as in other parts of life, it's how you connect and nurture those relationships. Notice how I say it's how you connect them – Linda's story shows that she saw a unique way to connect people to achieve a mutually beneficial goal. That's what business is all about.

Honing your skills

Networking is an age old talent that some just have and others work hard at. But to master it as an entrepreneur, one needs to learn how to connect those people you have business relationships with.

Imagine you are starting a website that sells clothing – you are a passionate fashionista and have had the dream of doing this for ages. Well, what have you been doing all this time? Hopefully, getting in touch and connecting with many people in your industry, to the point that when you now want to get going with your website, you have the following relationships in place: a designer for your website, a developer/programmer to build it and many relationships with clothing makers and manufacturers, as well as a delivery company. Some of these you will have to pay for, but some will gladly do the work for a share of your business – the golden way to starting a company: sweat equity.

Recently, I was challenged to build a complex technical solution for the retail market in South Africa, involving hardware rollouts into many stores across South Africa. To pay for this would cost a fortune, but instead I spent two months increasing my network in the right places, attending the right conferences and phoning the right people until I had secured a technology company to build the solution, and another to commit to the installations. I more than gladly parted with a share of my company for their involvement – each is the number one in their field.

A natural trait

I've seen great entrepreneurs in action, and they're always connecting people and telling others who they need to speak to to get something off the ground. This is something quite native about the entrepreneurial way, helping others to achieve their goals, and in turn receiving the same from your contacts.

So take a lesson from the experts out there – networking is not the ultimate silver bullet to start your business. It's how you blend the relationships you have built up, and howyou guidethose newly formed teams on the start-up you have.

How you connect people in your mind will also improve how you build connections to create better business ideas. It is definitely something you can learn, a good skill that adds volumes to both your personality and the way you interact with people in business. And in my opinion, the key factor in how successful your company will be in lifting off the ground.
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2go: The South African mobile app that’s bigger than Facebook

One of South Africa's quietest tech success stories that has managed to get from startup to profitability in four years is mobile social network 2go. It has come to dominate the Nigerian market, where it has over nine million active users – several million more than Facebook.

The secret, says director Peter Lockhart, has been balancing a tight focus on what 2go's users really want – a cheap, easy way to chat and socialise using their mobile phones – with the deep technical expertise needed to deliver that experience across thousands of different devices.

"Building mobile technology for an African market is tough," says Lockhart. "Data and SMS are expensive, and our users are price sensitive and savvy. That means we have to deliver an application that uses the absolute minimum of system resources and bandwidth. Our response has been to develop proprietary communications protocols and compression algorithms that minimise the app's data usage."

The 2go team has also cracked the technical challenge of producing an app that works equally well on all of the myriad feature phones that still dominate the African market. "It's much, much harder to develop for feature phones than for smartphones," says Lockhart, "partly because there is such a variety of platforms and operating systems. You need deep technical knowledge. This technical knowledge also extends to our ability to scale the back-end in a very resource efficient manner."

The fact that 2go works well on many handsets has been critical to the viral spread of the app, says Lockhart, adding "feature phones aren't going away any time soon. Projections from Informa indicate that non-smart phones will still comprise 85% of the African handset market in 2015."

2go has resisted the tempation to bloat its app with added features as users log in and out quickly, several times a day and need things to be quick and simple.

Alongside this technical focus, 2go has also remained extremely alert and sensitive to the needs of its users. "Our target market is not some kind of generic 'Africa'," says Lockhart. "We ask what country are they in, what region, what city? 2go really took off in Nigeria when we noticed that our users wanted to be able to chat within their university communities. So we did the research and created a chat room for each university in the country."

The insights gained in Nigeria have fed back into the South African market, where 2go has 1,5m active users and counting. The app also provides gateways to other popular social networks such as GTalk, MXIT and Facebook. "I use 2go to chat with friends on Facebook and they have no idea," says Lockhart. "Our whole mission is to make chat easy, cheap and painless, no matter what device you're using."

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SA First: Virtual tax assistant TaxTim becomes multilingual



Local startup TaxTim, that was featured on Mzansi Style online, now offers South African tax payers the ability to file their tax returns in English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and isiZulu.

TaxTim, a new web based digital tax assistant aimed at young professionals, is easy and fast and even makes filing your tax returns an enjoyable experience.

For the first time ever, 63% of South Africans can now do their own tax returns in their home language. And so, TaxTim is now the only tax assistant in South Africa that has a multi-language offering.

Previously, the breakthrough online assistant was only able to assist its customers in English. The core product of the tool has now been translated to reach more of the diverse South African market, including a step-by-step guide for getting a tax number and using eFiling, all the content you would need to navigate the tax system and file your return as well as all the essential tax definitions.

"Tax is hard enough to understand in your own language. We are delighted to announce that TaxTim has now made it that much easier for the majority of South Africans to achieve tax compliancy," says co-founder Evan Robinson.

TaxTim used the South African Translators Institute (SATI) to find three qualified and experienced freelance translators to accurately translate the tool into isiXhosa, isiZulu and Afrikaans.


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Nominations now open for the 2012 South African eCommerce Awards

The 7th Annual South African eCommerce Awards are finally here. These awards have been designed to recognise and reward those South African websites that have demonstrated excellence in their use of the Internet as a platform for eCommerce.

Nominations are currently open and will close on 15 August 2012 and the awards are open to all South African eCommerce websites that are based in South Africa.

This is how it works…

Commerce websites only need one nomination in order to be entered into the 2012 South African eCommerce Awards.

The 2012 South African eCommerce Awards will run on a three round voting and evaluation process:

Round 1: Public Voting

The full list of nominees will be available on the awards website on 16 August 2012, when the Public Voting opens. Public voting will determine the top 40 websites that will go through to the initial evaluation round (Round 2). The eCommerce website with the most public votes at the end of the voting process will win the award for The Public's Favourite eCommerce Website. Public voting ended 16 September 2012.

Round 2: Initial Evaluation
The public's votes from Round 1, together with the design evaluations will determine the top 20 websites for Round 3. The design evaluations will be conducted by the independent design company, Druff Interactive.

Round 3: eCommerce Process Evaluation
The top 20 websites will each receive a comprehensive assessment, including the evaluation of their ordering processes, customer service, design standards and ease of use. These evaluations will determine the Winners in the 2012 South African eCommerce Awards.

The Winners will be announced on 15 November 2012 in the following categories:

The Public's Favourite eCommerce Website

Best eCommerce Store

Best eCommerce Services Website

Best Group Buying Website

Best Design, Standards & Ease of use

Best Shopping Process

To nominate a website visit www.ecommerceawards.co.za

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Vodacom multiplatform mobile app workshop, Pretoria

Vodacom is planning to launch South Africa's first multiplatform mobile application development workshop which is aimed at strengthening the mobile app eco-system in South Africa. The workshop will be launched in partnership with some of the best and leading ICT players in South Africa which include BlackBerry, CSIR, Google, Microsoft, mLab, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Technology Innovation Agency and The Innovation Hub.

The workshop forms part of the Vodacom Developer Programme which aims to encourage local developers to design apps that are relevant to the South African market as well as the global market.

"We are thrilled to have partnered with key industry players who have teamed up to drive mobile application innovation in South Africa. They will present their best practice software engineering techniques and provide insights on some of the most advanced mobile application software development tools. Developers will also gain insight on funding options available. We hope this programme will encourage local developers to get actively involved in the creation of an ecosystem of local apps in South Africa," says Prins Mhlanga, Managing Executive of Digital Media at Vodacom.

Below is a preview of topics that will be discussed during day one of the workshop:

Vodacom Developer Programme as a vehicle to drive mobile app ecosystem in South Africa by Prins Mhlanga, Managing Executive at Vodacom.

The enterprise development opportunities in the mobile space by Paulo Ferreira, Head of Enterprise Mobility at Samsung.

Opportunities for mobile applications in government by McLean Sibanda, CEO at The Innovation Hub.

Developing windows phone games and introduction to developing for Windows 8 by Dave Russell, Technical Developer Evangelist at Microsoft.

Android, HTML5 and mobile web development by Ato Ulzen-Appiah the Developer Outreach Programme Manager of Sub-Saharan Africa at Google and Toby Kurien, the Android Development Freelancer.

Event Details: 

When: 3- 5 October 2012

Where: The Innovation Hub, Pretoria

For more information and to register visit www.vodacom.co.za/developer
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Q&A with Top International Digital Thinker, Nathan Martin

The producers of The Digital Edge Live Show set to take place in Cape Town in October, put some time aside to do an in-depth interview with international speaker Nathan Martin, CEO of Deeplocal who will be headlining the event. Coined by Forbes Magazine as "Willy Wonka with a toolkit from Mythbusters", Nathan has been instrumental in shaping innovation in the ad industry with projects like the Nike Chalkbot robot for the Tour de France and the Prius bicycle with mind-controlled shifting.

With clients that include the likes of Nike, Toyota and Volkswagen, and awards that include AdAge Small Agency of the Year Northeast and Cannes Lions Grand Prix, Deeplocal (with Nathan at the helm) is a force to be reckoned with in the digital marketing sphere. Here's a sneak peak of how the conversation unfolded:

Q: What do you love about the digital marketing industry right now?

A: What excites me most is the competition to be creative. When Deeplocal entered the industry almost four years ago, I don't think many creatives were pushing (or able to sell through) ideas that really blurred the boundaries between art and advertising. Having come from the art world, I see many ideas and work that remind me of the creative use of technology of my previous life. As more work that defies categorisation begins to exist, more clients begin to buy in to more wild ideas and more amazing work is brought to life. And the best is yet to come for digital marketing.

Q: What do you think is currently the most valuable developing media type in the digital arena?

A: I don't think a single media type is most valuable. I think we need to look at our target audiences as holistic humans – just like us. These humans play in many different worlds and engage with many different media throughout any given day or week. The most valuable thing we as advertisers can do is synchronise efforts across media and provide information whenever, and wherever a user needs or expects it. We need to adapt to the user's behaviour.

Q: What do you think is the most important factor that companies ignore when planning a digital marketing strategy?

A: It seems sad and obvious to say but I think that when developing a strategy, many simply forget the "would I like this" question. I think especially with digital marketing, we tend to add too much complexity too quickly. I know I've done this myself. It is very hard to focus on a single simple good idea. Make it simple and make it cool.

Q: What, in your opinion, are the latest innovations in digital marketing and media?

A: Everything old is new again. Many of the latest innovations I've seen are old technology: non-human audible audio to sync mobile device to TV, motion sensors to adapt video to user's movements, RF to link numerous devices to a single source for cheap communication, etc. I think this shows where we are with technology these days. We have enough tools in our shed that we can go back in for a second look and see what we can do now. Smell-o-vision is even making an appearance again.

Q: What was the process behind inventing a concept like the Nike Chalkbot?

A: The Chalkbot was an example of a great collaboration between some cool people at Wieden and Kennedy and Deeplocal. This was our first project in advertising and to us Wieden was simply Adam Heathcott, Jeremy Lind, and Marcelino Alvarez. Those three people were our points of contact, our supporters, and our collaborators. While many were involved, this project like many is about a few good people working their asses off. I have a very long story I can tell but the short version is that Adam, a creative at W+K was inspired by some work I had shown him nearly a decade before Chalkbot. We worked with another outside engineer to prototype a solution to the challenge of printing on the streets, and once proven, we worked together to expand what was possible with the machine and the surrounding system. We had a few days to prototype and five weeks to build the thing. The process was called "get shit done."

Q: Tell us about the Nike Chalkbot's win at Cannes

A: I'm not a huge fan of awards shows myself but it was a tremendous honour for me and everyone at Deeplocal. It meant a lot to receive the respect we did from an industry we did not originally come from. It still means a lot to me.

Q: What can we expect from Deeplocal in the coming year?

A: We are growing a bit, moving into a larger facility and transitioning to working a bit more closely with a few of our clients. We don't want to just keep delivering cool physical experiences, we want to change the way our clients do business and engage with customers. Expect to see things that seem out of character with us at first but I encourage you to dig deeper. There is a method to our madness.

Q: How do you think South Africa compares to the rest of the world in terms of Digital Marketing innovation?

A: I hope to learn the answer to that from all of you at the event.

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Teraco to host Durban Internet Exchange (DINX)

Teraco Data Environments, South Africa's first vendor neutral data centre, has won the bid to host the Durban Internet Exchange (DINX). Teraco is set to make internet history with this announcement by providing Durban-based ISPs with a local exchange for the very first time. Lex van Wyk, Managing Director at Teraco says that the launch of the exchange is a major step towards contributing to the health and growth of the internet in South Africa.

"The installation of DINX within our Durban facility has been a long time coming and is a big step for the internet in South Africa. Juniper kindly donated the network switches and Teraco the power and space requirements for the internet exchange. We're proud to say it's already installed and operational," says van Wyk.

Graham Beneke from the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) says that the new exchange is fundamental to furthering economic and societal growth in South Africa. "DINX serves as yet another critical hub for internet data exchange in South Africa minimising our need to send domestic internet traffic onto long-distance international links which ultimately results in higher costs and latency."

"DINX will enrich South Africa's internet ecosystem and pave the way for growth in other areas like cloud applications," says Van Wyk.

Teraco's Durban facility provides power, security, fire protection, cooling and cable management according to a design level resiliency policy. Van Wyk says that the data centre is located on the fibre ring of all the major licensed carriers, all of which have fibre nodes within the building, presented in the Teraco Carrier Hotel. Teraco data centre.

Derek Hershaw, CEO of MWEB ISP says "Teraco, through its continued build of neutral and open access centres, has already positively contributed to the cost of Internet access in South Africa, and I have no doubt their hosting of DINX works towards the same goal of improving the overall Internet economy in our country."

"Internet traffic is increasing in Durban and with the introduction of DINX, we'll see improved performance for traffic within the metropol, cost-savings and an extra layer of redundancy," says van Wyk
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Samsung Galaxy S4 coming March 2013?

Hot off the announcement of the iPhone 5, it seems Samsung didn't want to be out of the spotlight too long. According to sources, Samsung waited until the iPhone 5 was announced to determine their own timetable for the launch of the successor to the hugely popular Galaxy SIII, pictured above.

Even though the SIII was released only a couple of months ago, Samsung want to dig into pockets again as soon as possible. Rumours are indicating that the Galaxy S4 (or is it Galaxy SIV?) will be announced at the Mobile World Congress in February 2013, held in Barcelona.

We were surprised to find that the news came from a reporter at the Korea Times who claims to have an exclusive source at a local Samsung supplier. According to this source, we can expect it to hit stores in March 2013 and the device will retain the "inspired by nature" design. Also, we can expect a quad-core Exynos processor, LTE-compatible radio and maybe even a flexible screen. It won't actually make the device flexible; it is merely to reduce the thickness of the device. Another interesting rumour is that the screen "might get a bump from 4.8 to 5 inches". The device won't be any bigger, though, which means we might get the button free face we were hoping the Galaxy SIII would have.

The source says that Samsung's timetable was agreed upon a mere three days after Apple's smartphone titan was announced last week. It could be a smart move by the Korean firm; by making the announcement so soon they will be hoping to win over some Apple fans that might have been a bit disappointed with the new iPhone.

What do you think about this Samsung strategy? Will it pay off, or will they create an incomplete product with so little time to work on it? Does Samsung really have to keep making their phones bigger and bigger? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Korea Times
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Sony’s ‘Slim’ PS 3 to make worldwide debut in October

According to The Next Web Sony revealed its new Play Station 3 at the 2012 Tokyo Games Show on Friday.

The new slim version of the console, that is 20 percent smaller than its predecessor, will make its North American debut on the 25th September followed by a worldwide rollout in October that includes Japan and Europe.

Other features of the new PS 3 include a decrease in weight of about 25 percent, the choice of two storage options - 250GB and 500GB and a sliding disk cover, with a characteristic curved body design. The console will also be available in black and white.

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public hungry for khaya mthethwa

The public is extremely hungry and fascinated by Khaya Mthethwa.

Tweets, Facebook, newspapers and he is not even on voting stages. In the past few weeks we have featured Khaya Mthethwa on our blogs, needless to say he has smashed and broken our stats records.

There is so much demand for the young man if it goes this way, start placing your bets, ladies and gentlemen we are having the next "SA Idols 2012 TM"

Endorsement from celebrities have soared. I'm not talking about Tom, Dick and Harry, Ok and Mbali. Here I'm talking about serious entertainment heavy weights with thousands of Facebook Fans and Twitter followers. Not only that, but people with powerful media access and influence, politicians, DJ's, ordinary man on the street, preachers and lastly, very excited young girls.

Khaya Mthethwa is not just another contestant in South African Idols, he is a rare talent. May be another male Zahara (What you think?). The current best selling female vocalist.

Before he started Idols, Joyous celebration opening medley song on YouTube was sitting at below 40,000. Listen, the stats have climbed to over 80,000

His Twitter followers were about 1000 now 9,960

His personal Facebook account reached the limit in the first week of the auditions. The current Facebook Fans page was on 1400 now, 7053 (7/14) tomorrow it will be a completely difference story.

What makes him tick?



1-Time. Opportune moment.

2-Preparation, believe me, he has put a lot of effort in his craft.

3-Joyous Celebration.

4-Divine Intervention. After all he is a son of a preacher. (P.K) 



WHAT DO YOU THINK OF KHAYA??
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Zakwe - A Good Flow Average Rapper

I was listening to new hip hop artist Zakwe, the five time 2012 MTN SAMA nominee, hoping to get eardrum-damaging punch lines. My expectations of his self-titled debut album dropped quicker...

How this nice-flowing chap got five nominations still troubles my mind. Maybe what other people find interesting in him escapes me.

I'd like to believe that it was his nominations that fully made him a household name, not his rhyming skills per se. My belief stems from the realisation that a lot of people began throwing the "who is Zakwe?" question after his multi-award nominations.

Nonetheless, brotherman has one of the freshest and tightest flows that definitely stand him out from the pool of mediocrity which we are forced to drink. His flow ensnared my attention upon watching his Bathi Ngiyacoma (Remix) music video for the first time. He rode on the beat with confidence and oomph that I felt no need to digest his lyrical content. The flow was just lekker. Zakwe is arguably a killer-flow rapper with average lyricism. I guess it is on this basis of his flow that some people consider him tight.

The episode on which I lost my cool came when I read a couple of comparisons punted by people between Zakwe and Pro (kid). The two undoubtedly flow alike, employ venarc-laden kasi rap alike and even ride the beat with similar enthusiasm. But that's where it ends, at least in my opinion. It is their storytelling abilities that set them apart.

And how he got five nominations would give me sleepless nights if I was gunning for a SAMA award against him. But I'm just a fan who wishes to see talent justly rewarded. Hence I insist that there's little justice in Zakwe's SAMA business, something that makes me question the SAMA nomination process. How does it work? Who makes the decisions? Maybe I should ask SAMA CEO but if any of you knows please shed some light.

My opinions are mine and the decision makers have their own too.

What your take????
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ZIBUSISO MKHWANAZI

Zibusiso Mkhwanazi is a South African digital entrepreneur, A World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and founder and CEO of AVATAR - The Digital Marketing Agency.

He is the founder of the Mkhwanazi Academy for Christian Entrepreneurship Zibusiso serves on the boards of the National Economic Education Trust and The red quarter brand agency.

Zibusiso founded Csonke Holdings in 2000 with R2000.00 capital at 17 years old. In 2007 he lead a merger of his web development business and Csonke Holdings subsidiary Csonke.com with KRAZYBOYZ to form KRAZYBOYZ digital, an empowered digital marketing agency based in Sandton and Cape Town. His client base spans SA corporates, Government and international corporates.

Zibusiso is the founder of the Mkhwanazi Academy for Christian Entrepreneurship based in Vosloorus. The academy is one of CISCO's global accredited education institutions that produce ethical South African entrepreneurs from young people from disadvantaged communities.

Accolades :

BBQ Young Business Achiever in 2007

100 Young South Africans June 2007

Top ICT Individual in Africa and Top ICT Young Entrepreneur in Africa, both in 2008

Men's Health Best Man Editor's Choice Award in 2009

200 Young South Africans

IT Personality finalist for 2009 and 2010

World Economic Forum Young Global leader 2011

Finalist for Best Individual Contribution to SA Digital Marketing, 2011.
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