2007 April archive on youngBLOOD by Colin Daniels

Archive for April, 2007

Apr

You know you’re about to attend a proper Web 2.0 Conference when…

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You get sent a link from the conference organisers to a social calendaring app that intuitively displays each day’s proceedings and allows you to select which sessions you will be attending and then download your custom schedule to a mobile phone or to iCal.

Additionally, you can also see what sessions other delegates are attending and therefore spot who you share interests with. Cloud maps on the homepage display popular tags and speakers – brilliant!

ExpoCal

You can view my custom schedule here. It’s not for the old or the weary and should keep me busy non-stop from the mornings till late evenings. Just the way I like it!

Apr

An ode to traveling

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Why do I enjoy traveling?

Could it be the delicious, fat-free plane food or the friendly staff at the airports or the long flight delays or taking my shoes off all the time or adjusting my seat to the upright position or the pungent smell of the plane lavatories after 16 hours of flight time or the popping noise my ears make before landings or not having my luggage arrive at my destination with me or jet lag?

Well, maybe it’s a combination of all of the above, but sitting in my Hilton hotel room on the 21st floor with a great view of the San Francisco Financial District after what seems like an eternity of getting on and off cramped planes and listening to pre-recorded evacuation procedures – I finally understand why I put myself through all this torture because it sure seems like I’m in heaven right now.

Room with a view

The Web 2.0 Expo starts in a couple of days, so it’s about time that I get rid of this flu and do something about my jet lag! As always, I will keep you all posted

Apr

Breathing a sigh of relief as The Times is officially announced

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It’s been tough over the past few months as we’ve tried to keep news of the new Sunday Times daily, now known as The Times, a badly-kept secret (full story here). I’ve been working in a transit office along with Groogle and Schnitz and we’ve felt like CIA operatives at times (excuse the pun) whilst enduring curious stares and interrogations from colleagues not involved in the project.

The team has already grown quite large, with many more recruitments to follow. At the moment everybody is squashing into our temporary office section like bees on honey as we patiently wait for the renovations of our brand new, fully-converged, multimedia newsroom to be completed.

The Times will be unlike any other newspaper on the South African (and African) market both online and offline. For starters, it will be delivered free of charge to all current and future subscribers of The Sunday Times in most of the existing distribution areas, which already gives the newcomer significant readership and strong brand recognition from the get go.

Secondly, The Times is aimed at a young, affluent, tech-savy audience who doesn’t currently read a newspaper on a regular basis and yearns for news that is accurate, relevant and embraces digital culture. Both the print product and the website will work hand-in-hand in ensuring that these needs are met, regardless of the reader’s daily routines and preferences.

Thirdly, The Times is set to raise the bar in terms of interactivity and reader participation. As stated on Ray Hartley’s blog (the super-smart editor of The Times):

It [The Times] will be a totally integrated paper which will offer readers a 24 hour news experience online and in print.

In essence, content will feed into the paper from the website and not just the other way round, and we will be launching an array of new media product offerings throughout the course of the year.

Watch the events as they unfold on The Times Editor’s blog and follow an interesting discussion on mybroadband.co.za

Apr

Back home (for now) and OR Tambo gets upgraded

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I arrived home late last night after a very successful trip to Sweden. I really enjoyed my trip to Stockholm and was very impressed with the Swedes in general. I already look forward to going back and will uploading the rest of my pictures in the next few days. I have uploaded two versions of my presentation from the Pub 2.0 conference 1) a pdf version of the slides (1.9MB) and; 2) a low-res interactive Quicktime version without most of the bells ‘n whistles of the original and no video (4.2MB). Of course neither of the two come bundled with the handsome and charismatic speaker and comments are welcome.

Interestingly enough, one of the most surprising parts of my trip was arriving back at OR Tambo Airport (formerly Johannesburg International). My usual experience upon arriving back at the international terminal where KLM lands, is a) one of disappointment and b) maddening rage to the point where I feel like picking up my hand luggage and crushing people’s skulls in; but this time was different. For a start, I didn’t need to take a bus from the plane and there were actually home affairs officials waiting at the gate checking people’s passports and directing them to the correct border control desk and that was just the beginning! An abundance of trolleys greeted happy passengers as they crossed through immigration and a clear, well-spoken voice announced which travelator our luggage was on. Airport staff were generally friendly and helpful and there was even a policemen with a sniffer dog checking people’s bags. On the way through customs, a second x-ray scan and search was done before entering the arrivals section. World class.

Everything I have described was unheard of as recently as a few months ago when I last landed at that particular terminal. If the airport continues to make improvements like this, I truly think we will be able to cope with the high influx of tourists that are anticipated over the next couple of years. Thank you ACSA or Fifa or whoever is responsible for the improvements that are being seen on the ground by ordinary citizens such as myself. I am finally optimistic about landing at OR Tambo and I hope the same can be said for other South African airports?

Apr

Stockholm trip summary

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So much has happened in Stockholm that it feels like I have been here for days, not weeks. For starters the following things have defined my trip:

I might as well be Swedish. I have lost count of the number of people that have come up to me and rattled off as if I were a long lost cousin. I have also heard from various sources that I fit in really well. Cool.
Babies. And lots of ‘em. Everyone has babies here! They are like the no. 1 accessory after Gucci and Prada and are so ‘in’ right now. Considering chicks don’t really get hit on at bars and clubs (why?!) and Swedes spend most of their time working and singing in parks, they sure find enough time to have lots of sex!!!
Cost. Sweden and probably most of Scandinavia are very expensive places to live in and travel, especially if you are on a South African budget.
They have the fastest and most reliable Internet access of all places that I’ve visited.
Sweden is like paradise with bad weather.

Anyway, after my presentation last week (which went really well BTW), I was treated to a healthy mix of business and of course pleasure. I had a very productive tour of the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newsroom and met with one of Sweden’s new media legends — Bo Hedin — who was responsible for setting up the first online news website in Sweden in 1994 and currently heads up the new media unit at SvD.

I later sat in on a very long and detailed demonstration of the Polopoly CMS, a successful application born in Sweden and used by many high profile companies in Scandinavia and Europe.

Once the business side of things was temporarily taken care of, I was able to do some guilt-free sight seeing and thoroughly enjoyed my visits to Gamla Stan (the old town) and the Vasa Museum, the world’s oldest restored warship which sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and was later found and fully restored 333 years later. I also got to see a flesh and blood reindeer and elk (amongst many other things) on a visit to Skansen, the oldest open-air museum in the world. Carl, my good friend and tour guide who sometimes masquerades as a developer for Primelabs, knows Stockholm like the back of his hand and was responsible for some trully memorable experiences.
Carl: I hope you get that raise ;-)

My dose of partying was taken care of last night at the ultra exclusive Cafe Opera where I managed to crack a place on the guest list (thanks Barbara!). Imagine 18th Century architecture, stinking rich snobs, Swedish bimbos, ridiculously overpriced drinks with a pumping sound system and you have Cafe Opera – what a great place.

Today we did a boat tour of the Stockholm Archipelago, a series of 24 000 islands that stretches 80 km east of the city and makes for some spectacular viewing, especially considering that things are starting to warm up and masses of trees are getting new leaves.

The evening ended off with chicken curry and a generous portion of Irish whisky courtesy of Mark Comerford, another person you should try and meet if you are ever in the Stockholm area and enjoy humour mixed with blatant honesty and an understanding of journalism and new media that is second to none.

Tomorrow is my last day in Stockholm before I make the long haul back to Jo’burg after receiving a demonstration of Streamio, a video-streaming service used by many organisations including the Red Cross. It’s been a very successful trip on many levels and I’m already looking forward to coming back. Stockholm thanks for having me!

View my Flickr Small Stockholm Photo Set