As a follow on to Leanne’s blog post below, I think that Ingrid & Jaco’s presentation really gave the parents and students at HeronBridge College some food for thought.
This video was shown at the beginning of the presentation and in 5 minutes certainly shared some mind-blowing statistics …where would we be without the ever changing face of technology? I don’t want to imagine! If you haven’t seen this before enjoy, if you have watch it again
Last night I had the pleasure of attending a talk held at HeronBridge College dealing with all the new online trends and how one can make a career out of this. Guest speakers Ingrid Rubin and Jaco Meiring did a combined presentation, highlighting what is happening within the “digital space” and what effect it is having in our day to day lives.
1989 the year that changed the world – the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Tiananmen Square disaster, Mandela and De Klerk meet and, I suppose, most importantly for us in the digital arena the emergence of the internet – who would have thought that 20 years on we would be accessing internet sites on our mobile phones! Thought this article was very interesting.
Web design has gone from a simple brochure site to a full on service because of new tools presented to us being the web developers. Note I know longer refer to us as being just web designersbut as web creators, because of the awakening of technology and the willingness of clients and allocation of bigger budgets, we can offer services that brochure site could not. We have been presented with tools that enable us to go to a client and say, “we are able to monitor when a user actually goes onto your website, track them from the time they go on the site to the time they log out”. He can be identified, he can be branded. This isn’t possible in a plain brochure website, where you have no idea where the user is, or what he is doing.
So far Cracking the Digital Code has pointed out several key elements of the digital world. But all these digital parts cannot function alone, and are actually part of a whole and this whole you call a strategy. And this is what longtail’s local strategist Japie Swanepoel talked about.
The second LOWE get-together has just been held in at the Hotel Belles Rives in Cannes, France or on the French Riviera…. if you want to make everyone really envious when you mention it. The Cannes Film Festival is also currently running so you can imagine the buzz.
I have to mention the location first because it is almost criminal to have to work when you are in such a beautiful setting; but work we did although it has been really enjoyable so “work” is actually the incorrect term….. it has been a collaboration of like-minded, passionate, beautiful, talented individuals from 12 different countries talking “Digital” and where this community can take this “place, new media, industry”…
The two-day conference covered specific market updates, presentations and discussions around creative work done as well as new tools and trends out there.
The newset members to the community are Arachnid, a really smart digital agency based in KL, Malaysia.
I launched saidWot which is our reputation management tool, perfect to measure effectiveness of campaigns, provide good research data and provide a strong platform for the basis of a strategy.
So on this chilly Wednesday the 23rd of April Christine of MXit gave longtail a brief rundown on the new IM craze to hit South Africa. Now for clueless staff (in the case of MXit anyway) such as myself this was a real eye opener.
Christine certainly exhibits the confidence and enthusiasm in her product as only staff that really believe in their product (or are getting massive salaries) can do. In this case, the confidence was well founded. I had heard of MXit in hushed tones before the presentation, not knowing much/anything about the product what really surprised me was the growth of the IM service, up to 14,000 new users and 200 million messages everyday is something not to be looked lightly at. MXit is the most used IM service in South Africa and this along with the fact that apparently men talk more than women(on MXit anyway) did astonish me.
The interface looks slick, if an iota complicated, but at 25 maybe I’m starting to show my age, can’t keep up with the kids these days. In addition we didn’t actually get to use the program on a phone where I’m sure the usability is excellent.
MXit have started to ramp up their advertising efforts after realising what a lucrative revenue stream this can become for the enterprise. The examples of which Christine showed us were fairly impressive if a little obtrusive for my liking but then again I think ads in movies are intrusive so what do I know.
In summation, MXit is a product destined to be on our radar for some time and if its current growth continues it is fated to be a major player in the digital market for the foreseeable future.
Ringtones, Broadband, 3G Connectivity, home theatres, console gaming, children’s toys, security, MP3 Players, vehicle GPS, home networking systems, smart phones, data backup, cameras, entertainment and gadgets . Anything digital you can think of and it is being showcased at this year’s DigitalLife expo currently on at the Sandton Convention Centre till Sunday 20 April 2008. Some of the members of the longtail team stepped out of the office for a couple of hours to explore all the new hot and happening things in the Digital arena.
One of the highlights was being able to see the fully equipped digital home with broadband and Wi-Fi connectivity. The Digital Home demonstrated the latest in cool home automation, home security and remote control technologies. It featured things like ADSL, Music and Movie Storage, Access Points, Music and Cinema centers, PC’s, and Gaming – naturally all wireless. The possibilities that the future hold is without a doubt exciting, just imagine for a moment a kitchen that can store your shopping list in a database, order online or download recipes to your taste. A family room where your music and movies are stored on a server that can be accessed wirelessly through your plasma screen tv. Just imagine the possibilities…
