Who's who in the non-white Web 2.0 South African Zoo

Mandy de Waal, a freelance journalist, wrote this article on ITWeb, which I found very offensive. The main reasons I found it distasteful is the most obvious one i.e. it is simply an example of lazy journalism. She interviewed 11 people, all white, who their Web 2.0 dream team is. Maybe if she asked one non-white person she could still have made her point without having to call it a white boys club.

Anyway here’s my dream team of non-white web 2.0 or social media experts…

Khaya Dlanga youtube video blogger Khaya Dlanga: A video blogger on Youtube has over 10,000 subscribers on his Youtube channel. I first met him at the annual Digital Citizen Indaba, a blogging conference, at Rhodes University last year. In his day job he works for an advertising agency, according to his LinkedIn profile, the Jupiter Drawing Room, one of the top agencies in South Africa. Another feather in his cap is that Khaya is one of the contributors to the Mail & Guardian’s Thought Leader group blog. What I would like from Khaya is to produce a weekly video blog for myself and in turn I would like to help commercialise his videos. There is a great potential to create a DVDs (like the Ask a Ninja DVD) based on his videos and sell this online, direct to home or to video rental chains in South Africa. His outstanding quality is his sharp sense of humour and wit.

Rafiq Phillips SEO guru bloggerRafiq Phillips: Cape Town based SEO expert, hardcore technology blogger and Internet evangelist blogs at WebAddict. He is the co-creator of iDrive a portal for finding driving schools in South Africa. Both of us represented South Africa as bloggers at the TEDGlobal Conference in Tanzania last year. The iDrive platform was accessible on MXit until recently. The innovation from him has led to him being featured on a Carte Blanche segment in March 2008. Rafiq would be the obvious person to run search engine campaigns and also act as the lead blogger to drive traffic and attention.

Charles Ash bruin-ou.com webmaster (more…)

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Reducing Technology Stress in a Wireless World

You are invited to a this event hosted by Ramon Thomas in association with BulkSMS. These briefings have been designed to be fully interactive and will be looking at real-life examples, common mistakes and effective ways to reduce technology stress in a wireless world.

The cellphone has become an indispensable part of our working life, but our increased accessibility comes at a psychological cost. The cellphone comes with the blessing or burden of the ring. The phone rings and it needs to be answered or left to bother us or those around us. Our decision to answer the phone, be it at home or at the office, means that we disturb the people within earshot of our conversation. Personal issues could be verbally displayed in and around the office, interrupting colleagues. Work could be discussed in the confines of our homes taking up the precious time spent with family. People should be empowered to control their phone, otherwise their phones will control them.

The increase in cellphone usage for work and private calls or messaging can be a source of irritation. This talk will focus on ways that the cellphone and SMS messaging can be used to improve workplace productivity keeping the, sometimes welcome, interruption that the cellphone brings to a minimum and also ways that current technology can be used to reduce what is becoming commonly known as technology stress.

Dr Pieter Streicher BulkSMSSpeakers include Dr Piet Streicher, MD of BulkSMS and Ramon Thomas, leading authority in the psychology of technology.

Other information:
Participants will receive a comprehensive set of notes relating to the workshop, together with supplementary handouts. Participants will also receive tip sheets, and other supporting information, to take away for future reference. Each workshop will be 2 hours long and cost R150 pp.

Some of the topics that will be discussed include:

- 10 Steps for Cleaning up Information Pollution
- The Mobile Worker in South Africa
- The Multitasking Myth
- Increasing Focus and Productivity in the 21st Century office
- Strategies for the Automated Lifestyle

Cape Town:
Date: Thursday 17 April
Venue: The Cullinan Hotel
Time: 15h00 – 17h00 with networking afterwards (drinks & snacks provided)

Johannesburg:
Date: Thursday 15 May
Venue: Balalaika Hotel, Sandton
Time: 15h00 – 17h00 with networking afterwards (drinks & snacks provided)

Durban:
Date: Wednesday 28 May
Venue: Blue Waters, Central City District
Time: 15h00 – 17h00 with networking afterwards (drinks & snacks provided)

To register, email Deirdre van Zyl Smit at rsvp@bulksms.com or call her on 082 3244 639 today.

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Give your dating life a makeover this Valentines Day

Supercharge your dating life and reinvent yourself from the inside out with South Africa’s leading dating and attraction expert…

Love is in the air and South Africa’s “Romance Rescue Team” have announced they will be hosting the first ever Social or Single seminar on the 12 February. The perfect aphrodisiac to Valentine’s Day, guests attending the event will be treated to an evening of lively, entertaining talk by leading dating and attraction experts. Not just for the actively unmarried, the event is open to all and being held at the celebrated Preview Theatre in Bagleyston. It will start with a glass of champagne between 18h30 and 19h00.

Ramon ThomasThe first of its kind in South Africa, this event promises to be such fun,” enthuses top dating coach and SA’s answer to Hitch, Ramon Thomas. “There will be talks on every aspect of attraction including dating techniques and body language, image projection and personal style, sex, love and romance; everything you need to know to supercharge your dating life and relationships.”

Master of Ceremonies for the evening, Thomas, will also present a powerful talk on how to shift your dating life from scarcity to abundance. “Dating in the 21 century is challenging,” he maintains, “whether you want to attract more of the right kind of people into your life or transform your relationships so they deepen and last longer. So I’ll be tackling topics like how attraction really works, for both sexes, why living in a heavily populated city actually makes it more difficult to find a mate, and how changing your mind will change your life.”

Koketso MasegoThomas will be joined on stage by Koketso Masego, founder of the BeautyLUSH image consultancy, who will be demonstrating how to find and exploit your personal sense of style by performing a ?live? image makeover. “There is a powerful, symbolic relationship between your outer appearance and your inner feelings and thoughts,” explains Masego, “and I want to show the audience how to tap into that exchange to heighten and express their attractiveness.”

Two internationally-recognised authorities on romance and relationships, Prof Helen Fisher and Dr John Demartini, will also be sharing their expertise with the audience through two highly entertaining and engaging video presentations. “Prof. Fisher will be exploring both why we love and why we cheat and Dr. Demartini will be sharing his powerful ideas on how to transform our relationships,” notes Thomas.

Guests will also stand a chance to win a complete personal ‘dating life’ makeover, valued at over R4000, in the Grand Prize Draw at the end of the evening. “One male and one female guest will each win a free attraction-consultation with Koketso and me,” explains Thomas, “but nobody will leave empty handed because we will also be giving out complimentary DVDs of the entire evening’s info-tainment.”

Brought to you in association with SMARTdate, South Africa?s leading dating agency, tickets for “Social or Single” cost R100 per person and can bookings can be made through the SMARTdate website or by calling 072 464-4253.

Notes to Editors

South Africa’s #1 Dating Coach, professional speaker and regular media commentator, Ramon Thomas is an expert on dating, attraction and romantic relationships in the 21st century. A member of the National Speakers Association and Toastmasters, Thomas is an experienced compeer available for keynote presentation and seminars.

Managed by local cinematic legend, Italo Bernicci, the celebrated Preview Theatre is available for hire as a venue and regularly presents screenings of classic movies. Located on Valerie Crescent, Bagleyston, Johannesburg.

For further information please contact Ramon Thomas directly.

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Link To Your World podcast interview

Recently I was approached to do an interview about the rise of the individual with Link To Your World. Some of the points I discussed was how I moved from working in the corporate sector to starting my own business. And I also discussed the power of social networking and social influence to position you as an expert in your industry.

You can download or listen to the podcast interview with Mike Orshan here.

SMARTdate teams up with Dating Coach at Sexpo 2007

In a country just opening up to the culture of the dating scene it?s hard when you?re newly single to know what to do or where to go. SMARTdate owner Jenny Cereseto will present a number of workshops, with Ramon Thomas, a well known dating coach over the course of the controversial exhibition, Sexpo with intent to educate single people about the dating game.

“As an exhibitor I want to make the dating concept something people understand and remove any hesitation they may have had in the past,” says Jenny Cereseto, owner of SMARTdate. “Most of my clients find speed dating helps expand their social life and in that way meet new people for dating and relationships. Speed dating is a great way of improving confidence, developing social skills and finding a partner.”

Sexpo began in Australia, where the biggest public exhibition is held. Joburg’s version is expected to draw up to 30 000 visitors. The expo, being held from September 27 to 30th at Gallagher Estate, will host 100 exhibitors offering books, toys, gadgets, health, fashion, dating and lingerie.

“Most people today are overwhelmed by choice. Internet dating and cellphones make things easier and more difficult at the same time,” says Ramon Thomas, South Africa’s #1 Dating Coach. “My mission is to show people how to convey what they have to offer and meet better quality people.”

Some of what men will learn at the Sexpo:
- how to overcome social programming
- attraction vs romance vs love
- advanced body language
- eliciting women’s values
- setting up short, medium and long term relationships

An interesting dichotomy emerges in the dating industry with all online dating and SMS dating companies are run by men with majority of users being men. The opposite holds true for most speed dating and dinner dating companies. They are run by women and attract more women than men to their events. ?Men hide behind their computer or cellphone screens instead of going out and meeting woman,? says Thomas. ? I’m determined to show them how to do it.?

There are currently over 40 dating service providers operating in South Africa. This number excludes most SMS services who come and go and old fashioned social clubs, who advertise mostly in local classifieds. Most dating companies do not offer any advice to their clients. While the worldwide trends are that they partner with dating gurus or life coaches.

Thomas confirms the biggest problem in the dating industry is that there is no regulation. Users of online, speed or SMS dating services have no independent body to report any complaints to for investigation. And Thomas has become the unofficial industry ombudsman.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Ramon Thomas, Dating Coach
Cell. 074 124 1696

Jenny Cereseto, owner SMARTdate
Cell. 072 464-4253

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Bloggers represent South Africa at TEDGlobal Conference

Two of South Africa’s leading bloggers will be attending the first ever TEDGlobal conference in Arusha, Tanzania from 4-7 June 2007.

30 May 2007 (Johannesburg): South Africa will be represented by two of it’s most distinguished bloggers at the TEDGlobal Conference held in Africa for the first time.

TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is an annual conference held in Monterey, California and recently, semi-annually in other cities around the world as TEDGlobal. The presentations, normally limited to 20 minutes, cover a broad set of topics including science, arts, politics, global issues, architecture, music and more. The speakers themselves are from a wide variety of communities and disciplines.

Nine South Africans have been awarded Fellowships to attend. These Fellowships are sponsored by multinationals like AMD, GE and Google and covers the costs of attending the TEDGlobal conference for those who would not otherwise be able to attend.

“We are very excited to represent South Africa at such an important global conference,” says Ramon Thomas, Managing Director of NETucation, an online research and training organisation. “The conference will expose us to our counterparts in the rest of Africa, and we look forward to collaborating with them to build a new future for Africa.” Thomas will be bloggingu the conference at his www.netucation.co.za, which was a finalist in the Best Business Blog catergory at the SA Blog Awards recently.

The TED.com website has won accolades and awards for it’s video podcasts of the lectures. There are currently a 109 videos available for download from the website and every month new ones are released to the public from the most recent in 2007 going back to 2002 at the moment. The speakers include lumanaries such as Jane Goodal, Richard Dawkins, Ashraf Ghani, former Iraq Finance minister, and many more. Several of the videos focus on solutions for Africa and the thirds world in the areas of poverty alleviation, architecture and town planning.

The conference co-producer is, Emeka Okafor, who spoke with Thomas, at the first Blogging Indaba held at Rhodes University’s New Media Lab in September 2006. Okafor, is a Nigerian living in New York, and blogs about business in Africa at http://timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com. TED invited him to act as program director because of his intimate knowledge of unusual entreprenerial business in Africa.

“I’m thrilled to be attending a TED conference after watching and learning from all the amazing video clips from past events available on their website.”, says Rafiq Phillips, one of the top 10 bloggers in South Africa and co-founder of iDRIVE.co.za – a driving school search egnine, has also been selected with Thomas to attend TEDGlobal as a Fellow. Phillips will be blogging his experiences at www.webaddict.co.za.

There are over 25 South Africans who will attend TEDGlobal as Fellows, attendees, speakers, performers and technicians.

For more on TEDGlobal please visit:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/pages/view/id/49

———————
MEDIA CONTACTS
———————

Ramon Thomas
Managing Director, NETucation
Mobile 082 940-7137
skype:ramon.thomas
mailto:ramon@netucation.co.za

Rafiq Phillips
Founder, Your Group of Web AddiCT(s)
Tel 021 591-3321
Cell 072 399-9888
skype:idrive.co.za
rafiq@idrive.co.za

Summary of the first Internet Cafe workshop

First Internet Cafe Workshop JohannesburgThank you very much for attending our first workshop on Saturday, 24th March. This e-mail is a summary of what was discussed and some suggestions on the next steps for you to consider.

If you have your deposit and a venue contact Terry to place your order on (011) 8346755 contact Ramon Thomas.

The aim of these workshops is to set the scene for those of you who have considered running and Internet Cafe as a small business. This is not yet a franchise business but we are considering that option. The main points we discussed is as follows:

  1. The infrastructure components of the Internet Cafe
  2. The benefits and advantages of this type of small business
  3. Revenue sources
  4. Background on the Internet industry
  5. Background on Ramon Thomas (NETucation) / Terry Mohlala (Terry Computers)
  6. Basic Costs Breakdown + Income Estimations
  7. Internet Cafe Industry Portal www.internetcafedirectory.co.za

To download the Powerpoint Presentation click here. If you have problems downloading the presentation please reply to this e-mail and I’ll send it to you. I’ve decided not to attach the presentation to make this e-mail as small as possible.

Get Your Copy of the Workshop DVD

Ramon Thomas explaining Revenue SourcesAs you may know a recording was made of the workshop including the Q&A and this is available on DVD. To purchase this DVD simply call Terry on (011) 8346755.

Business Plan and Financing

The first problem most people face in starting a business is financing the business. The starting point when seeking financing is to have a business plan. So I’m sending you a sample business plan – also attached. This needs some work from your part to rewrite with your own details and work through some of the numbers. Again through the Business Place you can access experts that will help you writing your business plan. Please contact them via their website here: www.thebusinessplace.co.za or call them on (011) 836 9000.

Marketing Research

If you have some uncertainties about your market size, your competition and you feel like you need some research to be more sure about setting up an Internet Cafe contact me directly on 082 9407137. I am happy to meet with you at your earliest convenience to take this further…

Some Resources

Contact Info

Head Office Cell. 074 124 1696

Email: faye@ramonthomas.com

Hours: Monday-Thursday 08h00 - 18h00

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