GeekRetreat.co.za is live!

November 8, 2009 in SA web, events | Tags: , , | by Heather Ford | Leave a comment

geekretreat websiteAs part of the new GeekRetreat at Stanford in the Western Cape, the fabulously talented Jackie Scala (Scala Designs) volunteered her time to develop a new shiny home for the GeekRetreat. Guy Taylor (Telamenta) took Jackie’s design and built a Drupal implementation around it (helped by Noto Modungwa and Skip). We’re slowly starting to find jobs for ourselves as the GeekRetreat community matures. We have a small team working on ‘public relations’ and there are individuals working on sponsorship, nominations and helping out to develop themes and content areas on the wiki.

After working on this kind of self-organising community work for so many years, I still feel that it’s a process with very few rules, and that each time I do this, I feel like I have to start from scratch. So this time, I’m trying to build a process that someone else could follow. It’s not easy, because it seems like every new event will be different, but I’m really determined to at least get some of the way by building templates for invitations, processes, and communication.

It’s been fascinating watching the DrumBeat community at Mozilla go through a similar process. I feel like there is so much great research to do on analyzing these communities and finding easier ways of getting things done in decentralized groups. Maybe *that* would be a good follow-up for GTD in the brave new world of online communities :)

‘Mapping the world class African city’

September 3, 2009 in SA web, the active web, the open web | Tags: | by Heather Ford | Leave a comment

My article on the city of Johannesburg’s closed GIS data policies is now available at brainstormmag.co.za. Also this month is a story that I wrote on technology incubators titled ‘Technology incubators: how successful are they really?‘

The mysteries of how credit card fraud divisions actually work

August 15, 2009 in service | by Heather Ford | Leave a comment

I am without a credit card in the US which is very scary since it’s the only way for me to pay for anything here until I move it to my US bank account. Standard Bank has stopped my card (or have they?) because Mastercard said that it has been “compromised”. I’m documenting the comedy of errors as it happens below:

Day 1. 5am, 13 August: My mom calls me to say that the bank had gotten hold of a friend from work to say that they were stopping my card. The fraud division had stopped my card twice in the past month to “check” whether I’d made purchases online or not. I was traveling when this happened and luckily was able to draw cash. I had called them and told them that Read the rest of this entry »

Call me when I can trust you

August 13, 2009 in blogging, the global web | by Heather Ford | 2 comments

I just found an email dated over a month ago from a representative from the agency Atmosphere Communications asking me to contribute to a project that they are working on ‘on behalf of the Economist’ in SA. According to the representative, the project aims to set up a temporary South African “microsite” called www.theunexpected.co.za in order “to build closer links with its readers across the globe” with an especial “focus on the country due to the 2010 FIFA World Cup”.

How, you may ask, is the Economist attempting to build closer links with its readers across the globe? Is it connecting journalists and bloggers to hear the real story about South Africa? Is it really listening to its readers on the ground? It is profiling the work of aspirant local writers in its publication?

None of the above, it seems. The only ‘closer links’ the company wants to build is ‘closer links’ to your pocket. Read the rest of this entry »

While governments debate, people create

August 11, 2009 in writing | by Heather Ford | Leave a comment

My story about the local chapter of OpenStreetMap for Brainstorm Magazine is now online. It was so much fun to interview this awesome little community of dedicated volunteers – especially since geospatial data is one of those areas where we’re hopefully going to see a lot of innovation in the future.

What’s with all the crazy people?

August 11, 2009 in travel | by Heather Ford | Leave a comment

Bezerkeley, California. Today marks my first week anniversary since I arrived. In that time, I have been called a dunce by a woman shouting at me in the street, I have been jeered at by a guy on the train, and I have been read sections of crazy books by a man in a hat on the street. And so my question, to all the learned men and women studying at this prestigious university, is always: what’s with all the crazy people? Is there some crazy-person magnet that draws people from throughout the US to this town, or is there something in the water that I need to worry about?

The general perception is that social services are really good in this town and that there is a general tolerance for the crazies that doesn’t exist elsewhere in the US. But surely people don’t turn crazy just because they are tolerated? Daniel’s answer is probably closer to the truth: that many of these folk fried their brains with psychedelics in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and this is the result.

This doesn’t explain my run-in with the guy on the train on the way back from San Francisco, though. I was sitting in my seat, minding my own business, when suddenly the guy opposite me who had been lolling asleep sat bolt upright. In a slurry voice and with darting eyes, he fired off a series of questions to everyone who he caught in that flickering gaze.

Now you must understand that this was not an old hippie from the ‘60s. I had actually thought that he looked like a hip Internet entrepreneur or a modern artist and was about to ask him on a date. He didn’t smell and was wearing clothes that indicated a certain degree of fashion-consciousness that certified people probably do not possess. But here it was, 1pm in the afternoon, and the man was either very drunk or very high.

I watched other peoples’ reactions with fascination. They tried to play the pretend-that-absolutely-nothing-out-of-the-ordinary-has-just-happened– and but for the flicker of nervousness in their eyes you would have believed it. But this man wouldn’t be ignored. He was crying out to the world to take notice and to tell him where in the world he was and what day it was. Poor guy. I guess he had a really bad hangover later.

A young woman sitting next to him was very kind (as was I in a “kind of” way). In return, he asked her if she was single, and then he got off at her stop. I do hope both of them are ok.

And so, the madness continues.

Edit Wikipedia for Mandela!

July 16, 2009 in causes | Tags: , , | by Heather Ford | 1 comment

A young Mandela. Public domain image.

A young Mandela. Public domain image from Wikipedia.

I’m a geek who loves words, so what better way to contribute on Mandela Day than by contributing to Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is written almost entirely by volunteers from around the world. It is one of the most popular sites in South Africa – offered free and without advertising to anyone with an Internet connection. Whatever you think about the credibility of the resource, you have to appreciate that Wikipedia has taught us the value of people working together for no monetary gain to create something of major public value.

Wikipedia is mostly valuable when it’s written by people like you and me. The Afrikaans Wikipedia has a dedicated community in South Africa working together to build a rich indigenous language resource. The isiZulu and isiXhosa Wikipedias are smaller but also slowly growing due to the contributions of volunteers. By contributing to these resources, we are able to write our own history, our own view of the world – what could be more valuable?

If you’re interested in editing Wikipedia with others on Saturday from 11.30-12.37 in Jozi, please email me.

The future of “the media”: What exactly are we trying to save here?

July 13, 2009 in Uncategorized | Tags: | by Heather Ford | 1 comment

Below is the first, unedited draft of an article for the next edition of the Rhodes Journalism Review.

Chris Anderson’s new book ‘Free: The Future of a Radical Price’ has stoked the fire of a debate that seems to be never ending in media circles. In it, Anderson talks about how in the digital world, the most effective price is ‘zero’ and that those who have recognised this are generating revenue from models like cross-subsidies (giving away a DVR to sell cable service) and freemiums (offering Flickr for free while selling the superior FlickrPro to serious users).

Anderson’s book has angered (mostly traditional) media professionals whose business model seems to be threatened by such claims. In a post on Twitter (11 July 2009), Mail & Guardian publisher, Trevor Ncube wrote: ‘We need to collectively recover from the cardinal sin of giving content for free & move to sustainable biz models.’

Ncube’s reaction is endemic to the traditional media sector around the world. Unlike Anderson, he does not equate a system where content is given away for ‘free’ with a sustainable business model. People need to once again value the credible information that the media produces, he believes. That is the future.

How do we navigate through the clearly emotional defensiveness of big media and the utopian ideals of technologists to understand an age in which the media have, according to Chris Anderson, ‘lost their monopoly on consumer attention’ and are now flailing about trying to re-assert their value proposition in the midst of all the new competition? Read the rest of this entry »

Twitter made me do it – my thoughts on the .za Geek Retreat

July 2, 2009 in SA web | Tags: | by Heather Ford | 5 comments

The past few months have been an important story in soul-searching for me.

After being shoved gently out of the international non-profit I helped build for three very long years in August, I looked beseechingly to my fellow South Africans. ‘Tell me you’re not as cruel as the rest of the world?’ I seemed to be saying.

Volunteering to judge the SA blog awards was one of my first attempts to re-enter a community that I’d never quite felt a part of. I was a global citizen – a citizen of the world! One toe in South Africa and the others vaguely placed ‘overseas’. I used my citizenship when I needed it, but I was not quite fully committed to the place that only made me sad and frustrated.

The awards only deepened my sense of alienation. A post pointing out what the results of the awards said about the lack of diversity in the South African blogosphere was highlighted by the award-winners, and its henchmen moved swiftly over to hblog to tell me that I should shuddup and go sit on a traffic cone.

As is the case with these debates, a lot of people joined the fray Read the rest of this entry »

Digital Open seeks a few more international stewards

June 15, 2009 in causes, the global web | by Heather Ford | Leave a comment

From now until and August 15, 2009, Institute for the Future, Sun Microsystems, and Boing Boing invite young people from around the world, age 17 and under, to join us as we explore the frontiers of free and open innovation.

The Digital Open: An Innovation Expo for Global Youth seeks projects in a variety of areas ranging from the environment, art and music to the more traditional open source domains of software and hardware. We’re looking for new and fresh ideas that could make a real difference, whether to simplify a process or potentially have a huge global impact. In the spirit of collaboration that defines free and open technology movements, we encourage entrants to start from scratch or to improve upon existing innovations across eight broad categories.

We’re seeking Open Innovation Stewards in as many parts of the world as possible to help us make this a success. As a steward, you should be willing and able people to help mobilize, mentor, and inspire young innovators. You will become an integral part of our outreach effort in finding young people who have something to contribute. Our stewards should be experienced users of all major social networking tools, applications, and media and be confident working with a Drupal website. And, of course, you should have a passion for free and open technology innovation.

An Open Innovation Steward’s responsibilities will include:

* Translating our call for submissions, rules, and category descriptions into the local language(s) of your particular geographic area
* Recruit a minimum of 10 projects from young people between the ages 17 and under
* Promote project by:
1) distributing posters & postcards
2) giving talks in local junior high and high schools
3) reaching out to schools around your country/region
4) blogging about the project
5) reaching out to local publications or other prominent area bloggers
* Participation as judges of submissions
* Translating project descriptions as needed
* Verifying that a project chosen as a category winner meets our rules and requirements, and facilitate contact between the winner(s) and Boing Boing Video

Stewards who recruit the requested 10 projects from their regions will receive a cash reward of $500 USD. And as a thank you for helping out, all stewards will receive a schwag package that includes a Vy&Elle recycled billboard backpack or bag, a solar-powered flashlight, a t-shirt, and some other goodies. We’ll also include your bio on the Open Innovation Stewards page of digitalopen.org.

To apply, please visit http://digitalopen.org/apply/index.html.

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