Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Sunday Times publishes under Creative Commons April 17th, 2007
Carly pointed out to me that the Sunday Times site has a Creative Commons licensed special report about digital culture. The whole page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license and it focuses on topics like the Cape Town Free Culture Tour due to run from tomorrow until Friday and Wikipedia.
You can also find two video interviews with iCommons Executive Director, Heather Ford, and some information about Creative Commons itself and how it affects you. The Q&A with Ian Gilfillan about Wikipedia and South African language entries on Wikipedia was pretty interesting as well. There really aren’t that many indigenous language contributions on Wikipedia at all.
This special report is significant because it was published under a Creative Commons license. Typically mainstream media publishes their content under full copyright (where all rights are reserved). I would love to see this become a more common occurrence and have mainstream media content published under some form of Creative Commons license going forward. What do you say Sunday Times? Mail & Guardian?
Technorati Tags:
special report, sunday times, creative commons, digital culture, wikipedia, lessig, wales, cape town free culture, ian gilfillan
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Vincent is a dad! April 13th, 2007
A very big congratulations to Vincent and Daniella Maher. Their little nugget, Michael Liam Maher, was born today, 13 April 2007. Mom is doing just fine as I type this and resting. Very exciting news all around.
Technorati Tags:
vincent maher, michael liam maher, daniella maher, baby, nugget
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Sunday Times has a profile on YouTube April 11th, 2007
Carly dropped me a line this evening and pointed me in the direction of Sunday Times’ profile/channel on YouTube. There are some great videos on the site already including one or two videos featuring David Bullard. This really makes a lot of sense for media houses because it saves on bandwidth, capitalises on the popularity of these sites and the videos can be shared using embedded code. I suspect the local video sharing sites may be wondering why Sunday Times doesn’t have a profile on their site, though? Perhaps the next media house looking to post some video content could consider one of our local video sharing sites too?
Here is a video featuring the religious Jewish reggae/rock artist Matisyahu (quite a combination):
Technorati Tags:
sunday times, video, profile, youtube, channel, david bullard
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All this talk about Identity 2.0 April 6th, 2007
I’m watching this great presentation given by Dick Hardt about Identity 2.0 at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention which I thought I’d share with you (I have a nagging feeling I have posted this before so my apologies if I have!).
(Sources: Identity 2.0 and Morad’s Bloggie)
Technorati Tags:
identity 2.0, dick hardt, presentation, sxip
Posted in Events, People, Useful stuff | Comments (0)
First Tuesday - 3 April 2007 April 3rd, 2007
We attended the First Tuesday breakfast event at the Wanderers Club this morning. The event was packed with a variety of business people ranging from entrepreneurs to corporate-types. The speakers included Vincent Maher, Heather Ford and Mike Stopforth. The theme of this event was “Web 2.0″ and there were quite a few people who were new to the idea of social media and who came away from the event with a little more information about the social media revolution.
The first speaker was Vincent who spoke about some of the myths about Web 2.0 and dispelling them. The main focus was the philosophy behind Web 2.0. Vincent said the first issue is a definition issue. He said Web 2.0 is a cultural issue, a style.
“In short, it is networked interoperability between people”
As he pointed out, this is really just the beginning because with the shift to the Semantic Web, we will see a more radical shift. Getting back to Web 2.0, the starting point is blogging which is the equivalent of a printing press in everyone’s backyard. Vincent then introduced Amatomu to the attendees together with Muti and Digg which, he told them, is driven by the users acting as editors.
Vincent’s tips included starting a blog (and he spoke briefly about Stormhoek), sharing expertise, publishing videos on YouTube, publishing photos on Flickr and releasing APIs to enable other people to build their applications on top of your own platform.
Mike spoke next and he started with the statement “I am a geek!”. The first screenshot was of a site called Afrigator which looks like a tag driven site. While the screenshot was up, Mike recounted the Dell incident (aka the free Dell offer that turned out to be an error a little while ago). The interesting thing about this error was how Dell would respond to the conversation about the mistake and the cheap computers that seemed to be on offer. He made a good point about how companies don’t apologise anymore and tell the truth. Dell should have apologised for the mistake and invited the bloggers around to chat about the mistake. The opportunity was there to embrace the bloggers and create evangelists. The important thing is to remember that we are all human and not to forget the human touch.
When it comes to company intranets there are opportunities to share knowledge and make more of an intranet than a glorified (and very expensive phonebook). Intranets are valuable opportunities to cultivate an internal conversation with your employees and to achieve that you use similar tools to the tools you would use on the Web and you can use them very effectively.
Del.icio.us was introduced to the attendees as not just a web-based bookmarking platform but also as a shared service so other people can see what you are reading on the web. When you bring in the network feature you start building a network of trusted knowledge workers. To add to all of this you also have the option of subscribing to terms and phrases to keep tabs on what other del.icio.us users are reading (Mike quoted a figure of around 3 million del.icio.us users).
Heather was next up to speak about “how new approaches to copyright are driving alternative business models”. This is a topic I am becoming really passionate about and it is always a pleasure to hear from Heather. She introduced Creative Commons as a middle point between public domain works and works under full copyright and used Creative Commons to separate out a number of rights that can be granted or denied. The two main questions are whether to allow commercial use and derivatives. A range of sharing possibilities open through combinations of the licensing elements including collaboration, shared wealth and more. The Diet Coke-Mentos experiment went down pretty well as an example of a shared content model which made video sharing site, Revver, a bit of money from advertising revenue. The bottom line of Creative Commons is that it is democratising innovation both in South Africa and abroad.
A panel discussion followed after the talks which was moderated by Angus Robinson.
Technorati Tags:
first tuesday, mike stopforth, vincent maher, heather ford, creative commons, web 2.0, social media, del.icio.us
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2007 SA Blog Awards March 30th, 2007
We just got home from the 2007 SA Blog Awards held at Cool Runnings in Fourways. We had a great time and each of the winners deserve a hearty congratulations. Rich…! and his Missing Links were there with their gear and helped Jonathan Cherry, the Awards’ organiser, make the event a thoroughly enjoyable event.
Tertia Albertyn won the overall award for Best SA Blog and I agree that her blog is a fantastic example of the talent in our corner of the globe. Well done, my friend!
As some of us married types were leaving we got to see a video which had been put together from footage shot earlier that evening (these Missing Link people are amazing!) which you can expect to see on the Web very soon which is below. All in all we had a great time chatting, playing foosball (I even got to play) and celebrating all of us!
Technorati Tags:
sa blog awards, cool runnings, fourways, blogging, missing link, foosball, jonathan cherry
Posted in Events, Fun, Sharing | Comments (1)
27-3 March 28th, 2007
The 3rd 27 Dinner was fantastic! It was held at the Primi in Melrose Arch in Joburg and was attended by a lot of people. Over 100 people put their names down on the wiki and I can believe that they were there. The venue was a bit noisier than the first one but the venue choice is a work in progress and so far Mike and the dudes have done pretty well with their choices, at least in Joburg. The vibe was buzzing and there was a real sense of purpose there! Sure there were groups all over the place (we were at the cool kids table …) but we were all there together to enjoy the experience.
There were talks by Graham Knox, Heather Ford, Danie Roux, Nic Haralambous, Dominic White and Christof Appel. Each talk was relatively short and the only change I would make is to have fewer talks (although that would mean losing out on some great stuff but then that is what conversations are for).
Vince and Matthew were there in Amatomu t-shirts and Stormhoek was giving away free t-shirts too (and I forgot to get one!). My favourite bit about the evening (aside from the talks) was chatting to people there (ok, the food was good too). I had great conversations with Angus Robinson, Andy Hadfield, Gavin Chait, Justin Hartman, Tyler Reed, Nic Haralambous, Dave Duarte, Andre Odendaal, Daedalus and more. I wish I could have spoken to more people so I’ll have to work on that in May at 27-5.
I have uploaded my photos to Flickr and to my Facebook account (so if you are on Facebook feel free to add me as a friend).
On the topic of Facebook you could tell how geeky/jeeky some of the people there were by which site they were connecting to. Eric Edelstein was observed with his Facebook account open and that led to a few laughs.
All in all, I had a great time last night and look forward to the next one!
Technorati Tags:
27dinner, 27-3, jeeks, 27 dinner, great event, blogger event, blogger dinner
Posted in Events, People, Sharing | Comments (3)
SA Rocks badge redesign competition March 26th, 2007
Nic Haralambous, the SA Rocks editor (among other sites), has launched a competition to have the SA Rocks badge redesigned:
This is the SA Rocks badge (left). I think he’s cool. I do however think that there are probably a billion people out there who could design a better badge than this for SA Rocks.
This is what I am asking of you:
Design the best SA Rocks badge and win a South African rugby jersey in time for the Rugby World Cup.Email your submission to competition@sarocks.co.za or post it in the comment section of this post!
I have asked two bloggers to judge the best badge with me (names to be announced). I will open up the badges to votes on SA Rocks too in order to see what the readers dig! From the date of this post there will be two weeks of submissions and thereafter judging will take place.
The specifications for the badge should be as follows:
Note: Width and height specifications have a 5px leeway.
- Width: 80px
- Height: 75px
- PSD or PNG files to be supplied
So why not head over to the site and pitch in and come up with a rocking badge for SA Rocks that you would be proud to display on your blog!
Technorati Tags:
sa rocks, badge, competition, nic haralambous
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ipodcast competition is not for me March 16th, 2007
I was invited to enter the ipodcast competition (we’re highly sought after you know 
) along with a bunch of local podcasters and I initially supported the competition 110%. I was going to edit past and new episodes of chilipod and my own Legally Content podcast for submission this weekend until I read Mike’s post and Peter’s comment querying the rules of the competition on the site.
They literally have fine print and if you are considering entering the competition then you need to seriously pay attention to what all the jargon says. While there is a lot of complicated legalese (it is English, really), these clauses in particular are problematic:
(C) Any Entry Materials which Sponsor, in its sole opinion, deems to be inappropriate for publication will not be considered and the individual submitting those materials will be disqualified. By entering, each individual warrants and represents that all of the Entry Materials (i) is/will be the sole and original creation of the individual (or group in the case of a band) and has not been copied in whole or in part from any other work; (ii) does not/will not violate or infringe any intellectual property right, such as but not limited to, copyright, trademark/trade name, or contract rights, or other proprietary right of any person (including but not limited to rights of privacy or publicity and are not defamatory, slanderous or libelous, or portray in a false light), or entity; (iii) is/will be the sole and exclusive property of the individual (or group in the case of a band); (iv) is not licensed or otherwise encumbered in any manner whatsoever; and (v) complies with (and does not violate) any law, rule or regulation. Entry Materials cannot name, describe, or depict any person or character, living or dead or fictional, except only the band members, and cannot contain any material subject to copyright of any third party or contain the trademark, trade name or logo of any third party (other than that which is displayed on an instrument and applied to that instrument by its manufacturer and then only as it had been applied by the manufacturer). By entering, the individual grants permission for the use of the Entry Materials, and/or name of the band (and the name of each individual member of the band), in connection with the advertising, promotion, and publicity of the Competition and otherwise as stated in these Official Rules (as solely determined by Sponsor).
…
4. GENERAL CONDITIONS: By participating, each individual agrees to release, discharge and agree to hold harmless Sponsor, and its respective, parent, subsidiary and related companies, advertising and promotion agencies, and all of their respective employees, officers and directors, representatives and agents, and judges and against any and all claims, losses or damages of any kind (whether due to negligence or otherwise), including personal injury, death, and/or property damage, and/or breach or failure of any representation or warranty, and/or contract rights, and/or infringement of Intellectual Property rights such as but not limited to, copyright, trademark/trade name, and/or rights of publicity or privacy, defamation, slander, or libel, or portrayal in a false light, arising, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any prize or participation in this Competition, or participation in the Competition related activity or travel related activity, and (b) each winner, by acceptance of prize, except where legally prohibited, grant permission, in perpetuity, for Sponsor and those acting pursuant to Sponsor™s authority to use his/her name, photograph, voice and/or likeness, and videos, recordings, prize information, and Entry Materials (and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in these Official Rules license the use of the Entry Materials which may be altered, changed, modified, edited, used alone, together or with other works, and/or used in distorted, illusory or composite form, as solely determined by Sponsor) for advertising, trade and promotional purposes without further compensation, at any times or time, in all media now known or hereafter discovered world wide and on the Internet without notice or review or approval. All Entry Materials will be deemed a work made for hire under the copyright laws of South Africa, but if it cannot be so deemed, then each individual irrevocably sells, assigns and transfers to Sponsor all of his/her right, title and interest in and to his/her Entry Materials, including but not limited to all copyright and trademark rights, in South Africa and worldwide, therein, for valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged. Upon request of Sponsor, for the original music category, each winning band and the individual members of each band shall execute and deliver such additional instrument of assignment, as may be solely deemed by Sponsor, reasonably necessary to establish the ownership of record of the right, title and interest in and to the Entry Materials and of the copyrights transferred hereunder in favour of Sponsor, that the winning band and the individual members of each band may now or later have; and to record and perfect same. Should Sponsor fail to request the said assignment as stated, that shall not be deemed a waiver of Sponsor™s rights and Sponsor may at a later time request the transfer and/or assignment, and each such winning band and the individual members of each band agrees to comply with any such request. INFORMATION PROVIDED IS SUBJECT TO THE PRIVACY POLICY ON THE iPODCAST WEB SITE (www.getpodcasting.co.za). TO ACCESS AND READ THE POLICY, GO TO THE WEB SITE AND CLICK THE PRIVACY LINK. Any dispute concerning the Competition will be governed by the laws of South Africa and adjudicated therein.
The first part of these clauses seem ok but it gets worse as you near the end of it. Here is a summary of what these clauses say:
- the content you submit is your own stuff and it doesn’t violate someone else’s rights (including copyright and trademarks);
- your content is not licensed to anyone else;
- you have to play nice so no name calling or saying nasty things about people;
- you can’t talk about anyone except yourself; and (here is the clincher)
- if you accept a prize you give up your content to the Sponsor (Apple IMC Southern Africa, MINI SA, Coca-Cola South Africa (Pty) Ltd or 5FM) forever and they can do whatever they want with it, chew it up and spit it out.
The problem with this is that once your content goes into that competition and if you are fortunate enough to win one of the amazing prizes, you are going to lose big as the content you worked so hard to produce is yanked out of your virtual hands and sold into bondage. I don’t support this. These rules will, if I submit chilipod and Legally Content material, violate the content licenses that govern the use of that content. In the case of chilipod, the episodes are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. This license enables people to share our content in certain ways that are not possible under copyright (which is pretty much what will be imposed on your content in terms of the rules of the competition) and it is the license which we have chosen to govern use of our content. In fact, going further, the rules provide that you effectively give up any claim of any sort to that content. For this reason my own content will not be entered into the competition (despite the allure of a new MacBook Pro) and I doubt that chilipod will be a part of this either.
Don’t get me wrong, I support initiatives to promote podcasting and other new media elements in South Africa. I support those efforts 110%. What I don’t support is a competition that steamrolls over the rights of those same content creators the competition would seem to promote. That is not on. That being said, I urge you to make up your own mind. This competition could give you fantastic publicity if you do well and that is worth something. Take the time to read the rules (take an afternoon off) and see what you are getting yourself into.
Update: There have been developments here and here!
Tags: getpodcasting, ipodcast, competition, copyright, creative commons, content licensing, fine print, the catch
Posted in Events, Podcasting, Podcasts, Sharing, chilipod | Comments (2)
Cape Town 27dinner video available March 9th, 2007
Quirk did a great job with the video of the Cape Town 27dinner.
I didn’t make it and really enjoyed seeing all the people there and hearing what they thought about the dinner as it was happening. Great job Quirk people and a huge round of applause to Mike, Dave and the Cerebra people for organising the event. The video has also been published on Amplitude.
Tags: 27dinner, cape town, 27 dinner, cerebra, mike stopforth, dave duarte, quirk
Posted in Events, Sharing | Comments (0)