It seems to come in phases, but this past week has once again highlighted the problems that blogging can cause in the workplace and the dilemmas it often causes for private companies. First of all there was the case of a former employee, who worked for the same holding company as me, that was dismissed for a post he made on Thought Leader where he lambastes the holding company and discloses sensitive information. Vincent has published his views on the matter and I’m not going to take sides as it’s pretty complex and there’s probably a lot more to it, but disclosing confidential information and doing it on a competitors platform is never going to look good.
Then there is the case of a well-known Egyptian blogger, Wael Abbas, who is making international news after his YouTube account was suspended and all his videos depicting alleged human-rights abuses in Egypt were removed.
Whilst these are two completely unrelated examples, it does emphasise the increasing disconnect between public and private interests in the free and open environment that the Net has nurtured. It’s also added additional fuel to the fire around the issue of confidentiality and to what extent something may or may not be in the public’s best interest.
Jason Von Berg from The Times recently interviewed musician and blogger, Steve Hofmeyr, and asked him about his views on blogging and Steve Se Spoeg Blok, his personal blog which is written in Afrikaans and currently one of the most popular blogs in South Africa.
There’s nothing wrong with the interview from a technical perspective, but Hofmeyr’s responses on blogging are weak, in my opinion, and give me the impression that he’s skimmed over Naked Conversations and thrown some of what he learnt back at the camera for the audience to gush over. I’m not what’s known as a Steve Hofmeyr hater, but this interview really got under my skin.
Two statements he makes in the interview that reinforces my point:
“I’m doing it (blogging) because I’m an opinionated musician” – Yeah right. One look at all the animated gifs in both sidebars imply it’s probably more about brand building and the extra revenue he no doubt makes off advertising than simply about “expressing” one’s self…
“(The blog received) 30-40 million hits just for last year (2006)” – This is difficult to disprove, but I seriously doubt it as this would mean he was getting between 3-4 millions hits on average per month, more than top SA news sites. According to Amatomu trends, Hofmeyr’s blog received 40k hits over the past 7 days. Multiply that by 4 and it’s still missing some zeros. Add the fact that SA’s blog traffic increased significantly in 2007 thanks to a more publicised blogosphere and the launch of local blog aggregators, and it becomes a far-fetched over-exaggeration.
A fewpeople have publicly described why it’s a bad idea to get one, and I had previously conceded that I would be waiting until at least the third-generation models are launched, but about a week ago I broke down and purchased an Apple iPhone from a store in San Francisco for $399 plus tax. I took it straight back to my hotel room and had it unlocked + working with my CellC SIM card in under 20 minutes. That’s already 10 points for the *unofficial* iPhone user-community.
I thought it would be self-medicating to list my justifications for doing so:
It’s an iPhone!
I firmly believe the iPhone is a revolutionary ICT-convergence device, and it’s therefore something I need to keep tabs on in my professional capacity
Based on the Rand-Dollar conversion rate, it’s still much cheaper than purchasing an equivalent DumbPhone™
It’s the first device I’ve had that successfully synchronised all my photos, music, email, contacts etc., simply by plugging in a USB cable, and the battery charges at the same time too!
The iPhone graphical user interface (GUI) is simply the best I’ve ever experienced and it really turns mundane tasks into something slightly enjoyable
Not only does an active user-community exist for the iPhone, but it’s also a dream for people that like to customise their gadgets, and once unlocked (read: hacked), a bevy of applications from 3rd-party developers await your perusal ranging from standard productivity tools to web and application servers (I particularly love my etch a sketch and spirit level apps).
Although I am the first one to admit that the device is far from perfect and issues such as lack of 3G support, limited storage capacity, awkward keyboard and being reliant on firmware hacks going forward are some of the things I really dislike about it, I am completely satisfied with my acquisition and hope that the iPhone shakes up the mobile device sector in the same way that the iPod revolutionised the personal music player.
Useful resources for iPhone owners/fan-boys:
- Great step-by-step guide to unlocking an iPhone (and iPod Touch)
- Application sources for Installer App
- Instructions for setting up your voicemail on a different network
- Adding custom ringtones to the iPhone here and here
On my recent visit to the New York Times Towers, the plush new 52-story building co-occupied by NYT situated between 8th Ave and 40/41st Street, it struck me that they would be downgrading, not upgrading if the newspaper crunch was as severe as many have argued.
The New York Times is no local yokel and its parent company has started to diversify in recent times. Their strong international brand recognition and credibility have endured for decades and this has translated well in the online environment, so maybe this is a bad example?
I thought that I had done some crazy things but the last couple of days really takes the cake. I somehow found myself in the midst of a 5-city tour of the U.S — taking place over 10 days. It all started in Boston a few days ago, then Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and finally Seattle before flying back to Jo’burg via Washington D.C next week. Jeesh — I feel tired just typing it all out.
So, the trip has barely kicked-off and I’ve already notched up some bad travel stories. It all started around my first domestic flight from Boston to Philadelphia. I found a counter lady from hell at U.S Airways, who made me unpack my bag 3 times on account of me being 6 lbs (2.7 kgs) overweight. I had to pack clothes in creative places in order to comply and the worst part was that once she was satisfied and I weighed my bag on a different scale, it was underweight by a substantial amount. Not only was the lady jinxed, so was the ticketing machine which randomly selected me and printed a “SSSS” on my boarding pass.
Far from achieving my hopes of winning the airport lotto, I was stopped going through gate security and told that I had been “selected” for an “experimental” security check. Although it was not as exciting as a full-body cavity search, I was properly frisked and had to watch as a security guy went through every piece of my hand luggage (by this stage bursting at the seams thanks to the counter lady from hell) and swabbed each piece before putting it through a contraption that analysed it for recent exposure to explosive residue. This took about 20 minutes and almost caused me to miss my flight (as well as raising my blood pressure significantly!). The end result is that this morning I had to trawl the streets of Philadelphia looking for a new bag because someone’s logic says its ok to fly with 2 bags that weigh 50 lbs (22.7 kgs) each in the U.S, but not 1 bag that weighs 55 lbs (huh?!).
If only that was the end of it. I arrived at the airport this evening in high spirits with my new luggage all set to take on any counter ladies from hell and fly to New York City.
Instead, I managed to find a counter lady from heaven who nonchalantly told me that the flight had been cancelled due to bad weather and that it was the last one of the evening. Unfortunately, I needed to be in NYC Thursday morning for a meeting with the New York Times so this wasn’t something I wanted to hear. My only option? The train.
To summarise without using any offensive language, I’ll somehow managed to get my growing collection of luggage on-and-off 2 narrow trains without scrapping that many ankles and concussing fools who weren’t looking where my luggage was going. With all this overwhelming good luck, I can hardly wait to see what the next 4 flights have in store…
I am currently Head of Digital for the South African division of the Trader Media Group where, amongst other things, I manage a digital department and am responsible for the commercial success of several digital products and services » more
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