Ramon Thomas

A Prayer for Peace Using Social Networking

by Ramon Thomas in Social Networking on 2727/040404/2011201120112011 • No Comments • Hasitha Amarasena, Peace, Prayers, Social Networking

Recently I received a very interesting press release about a new social networking website to promote peace. So I emailed the founder Hasitha Amarasena to request an email interview and give this a better context in a world flooded with Facebook.

1. What is your motivation to start this project?
In the knowing that having a thought is in itself a powerful influential act. From that thought came the idea to create a social network that displayed the world’s problems and giving the whole world an opportunity to contribute positive words or prayers to each world issue. I believe with the power of social media we can energetically connect together and solve the world’s problems. I have a genuine belief we will have world peace within our life time. To finally live in a love based world instead of a fear based world. Prayers for Peace will be the largest Peace movement in the world!

2. How does your social network increase peace, and decrease violence in the real world?
The site presents real-time news updates of worldwide implications and it also ensures that the news remains in the forefront of our thoughts until resolution. Now for the FIRST time you have the opportunity to post your positive expressions along with the news and see how your contribution affects our world. Throughout the centuries great minds have acknowledged the intensity of power resulting from collective positive energy and prayer. Have you ever wondered if prayers and positive thoughts really worked? Now
we have a chance to see the results.

3. How is your social network relevant in a world dominated by Facebook?
Facebook is a one of many social networks. Social networks existed prior to Facebook. Social networks demonstrated how we can easily communicate with people all over the world in seconds. Social networks revolutionized the way we communicate with each other. Here is a list of all the other social networks.

4. How does your social network relate to mobile phone users who don’t have access to a computer/laptop?

We are currently working on applications for the website to work on all mobile devices and are translating the site into different languages.

5. How does your social network relate to South Africa?
We will present real-time news of worldwide implications, which would include South Africa.

Groundbreaking Social Networking Site Has Launched

Social networking is fun! No matter where you and your friends are you can stay connected, share your pictures; exchange updates and always know what’s going on. Now, let’s take social networking to another level and add more features that allow YOU to be part of the solution to the world’s problems. But how?

For the FIRST time ever a social networking site for news, dedicated to Peace has launched. The site presents real-time news updates of worldwide implications and it also ensures that the news remains in the forefront of our thoughts until resolution. You no longer have to feel paralyzed by the news you read or see.

PrayersForPeace.net provides a platform that provides a CONNECTION between YOU and the world’s problems. Throughout the centuries great minds have acknowledged the intensity of power resulting from collective positive energy and prayer. Also, you have been taught that through positive thoughts and prayers, you could move mountains and miracles will occur. Now for the first time you have the opportunity through PrayersForPeace.net

Join PrayersForPeace.net to test these principles and theories and share your positive expressions along with the news and see the effects it has on our world. This social network motivates us to set aside our differences and embraces all cultures, religions, traditions and beliefs. It encourages you to create friendships with everyone in the world. There are no limits to the amount of friends you can have. We have a symbiotic relationship with everyone in the world. What we do to others, we do to ourselves. If you are alive at this moment, you can be part of the solution! We can be the Peace, we want in the world.

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My CNBC Africa interview on Business Networking

by Ramon Thomas in Media on 2626/101010/2007200720072007 • 1 Comment • business networking, cnbc-africa, Mandlakazi Mpahlwa, Social Networking

On Wednesday I will be interviewed for the 2nd time on the Kaleidoscope show on CNBC Africa. The focus was on business networking and social networking. Here’s some of the what I covered in the interview with Mandlakazi Mpahlwa:

MM: How does a delegate begin to Network?

RT: Learn to ask questions. You do not have to have all the answers but if you can ask good questions you allow the other person to open up and tell you what’s most important to them. Once you know what’s important to them you can link what you have to offer to that. And that could be another person in your social network (not something you are selling). Building trust should be your #1 objective.

MM: When and where should one Network?

RT: You should network everywhere. Therefore you must always, always carry your business cards with you. And don’t wait for the other person to ask for it. After speaking to someone for a few minutes give them your card. Now when they give you there card DO NOT put it away immediately. In Japan its customary to accept a business cards using both hands and bow. And then you keep the card in your hand UNTIL the other person puts it away. By glancing at the card you can begin to remember the person’s name before putting it away. And also looking at the info on their card you can make fairly accurate guesses on the nature of their business. I have networked with people in book stores, coffee shops, conferences, parties, the plane, buses, you name it. There is not perfect place.

MM: What are the No-No’s when networking at a function / conference?

RT: The biggest mistake is trying to sell somebody on your products or services. People are coming together to meet and network to help them solve problems not to buy something. That always comes later. You have to listen, ask questions and once you have an understanding of their pains you can make suggestions. The key is taking time to build trust and find out what’s most important to the other person.

MM: What tools does one require to successfully network?

RT: You can use online tools like LinkedIn, Facebook or MyGenius to manage your growing network of business or social connections. It’s important to touch base with people within the 1st week after meeting them and then once every 90 days. In additional your email software like Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft Outlook can help you keep track of birthdays and you can go as far as sending automated emails using a CRM system.

For me LinkedIn is the most powerful business networking website because:

it has very strict built in privacy management so you cannot spam people
it has very high quality members: many CEOs, Directors or Specialists
over 35,000 South African business people
A goldmine for research, competitive intelligence in the LinkedIn Answers

On the other hand Facebook floods your Inbox with more information than most people can handle, even though you can turn it off. Also many of my business connections are on Facebook, however, they use it to share more personal experiences like family photos, etc.

A Networking Example:

If I meet you at a function and you tell me you’re in the media and you have your own show, etc. I will tell you about some people I’ve met who I think will make good guests. So I’m not saying you should interview Me. I’m suggesting other people and other things in which I’ve have no vested interest. What I’m doing here is playing the connector role. I’m helping people connect the dots. I always play my own role, my own abilities down. I’m being humble.

You may be interested in my business social networking workshop. You will learn how to become more interesting, improving your social intelligence, increasing the depth of your business relationships and most importantly substantially improving the results you get from business networking.

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Podcast – Jeremy Maggs interview on SAFM

by Ramon Thomas in Downloads/Podcasts/Social Networking on 1717/090909/2007200720072007 • 1 Comment • facebook, interview, jeremy-maggs, Lynne-Cawood, mxit, Podcasts, SAFM, Social Networking, steven-ambrose

This was one of the best interviews I’ve done on the topic of Facebook and MXit ever. Also interviewed with me was Lynne Cawood, director of Childline Gauteng and Steven Ambrose, director of World Wide Worx Strategy.

The interview was for a almost an hour on the After 8 Debate, a segment of the morning show on SAFM, hosted by Jeremy Maggs.

Download the SAFM interview here (size 19MB, length 53 mins).

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How is online social networking websites impacting children's ability to communicate

by Ramon Thomas in Social Networking on 0404/090909/2007200720072007 • 1 Comment • childline, facebook, jeremy-maggs, Lynne-Cawood, SAFM, Social Networking, steven-ambrose, world wide worx

This morning I was interviewed by Jeremy Maggs on the After 8 Debate (SAFM). The question on this debate is: are online social networking tools, such as Facebook, MXit & MySpace retarding our children’s ability to communicate? Lynne Cawood, director of Childline Gauteng and Steven Ambrose, director of World Wide Worx Strategy was also on the panel discussion via telephone. I was in studio. I never miss out on opportunities to meet the presenters/hosts in person.

Lynne Cawood stressed the proliferation of sexual images in the media and society in general. This has led to first sexual encounters occurring at younger and younger ages. Forced sexual contact has happened to about 40% of children by ages of 17 to 18 years. My own view is that cellphones/MXit is accelerating the development of relationships between teenagers in an unhealthy manner. They never learn through face to face feedback the lessons, which will become valuable later in life. And more specifically they could experience relationship burn-out as they just have nothing left to say/offer when they do get together face to face.

Steven Ambrose said that nothing in society has changes but the technology is allowing you to do same things in new ways. World Wide Worx research shows that teenagers do not even think of cellphones as technology because it’s seen as just being part of their daily lives and more of a fashion accessory for some

Download my latest MXit / Facebook presentation for parents/teachers.

My talks to parents/teachers/children now include information on Facebook. In just 4 months it’s gone from 20,000 to over 250,000 users in South Africa. The number is likely much higher because not everyone is linked with the South Afican network on Facebook.

Something we didn’t address in the interview which I feel very strongly about is the growing productivity challenges for companies with soaring use of the Internet / cellphones in the workplace. This could cost the economy over a R1 billion over the next 12 month in lost hours from employees goofing off during work time.

Facebook drains attention and a mental bandwidth

by Ramon Thomas in Business/Social Networking on 0606/080808/2007200720072007 • 1 Comment • Business, facebook, netiquette, Social Networking, workplace-productivity

This Wednesday morning I will be interviewed on eTV Morning Edition at 6h30am likely just after the news bulletin about the impact of social networking website Facebook on business. The views I am going to express is something that needs to be taken very seriously by companies, especially small business. You see small businesses and entrepreneurs often do not have the tools like larger corporates to block access in the same way. In fact in many cases they may not even realise how much time is being wasted on Facebook or sending/forwarding and reading joke emails. This must be the curse of the knowledge worker i.e. that you can pretend to work whenever you are clicking around on your PC.

There has been several articles and comments in the South African blogosphere about the impact of Facebook. Vinny Lingham highlights how stupid outright blocking of Facebook is and Mike Stopforth gives 5 reasons why you should let your employees use it. Both refer to this News24 article about South African companies blocking Facebook.

As an Internet evangelist I will always support more Internet access. So I agree fundamentally with Vinny that companies should address it on a individual basis. So I would recommend companies write Facebook and social networking access into the Internet Usage policy. Once they have informed employees that their access is being monitored the next step should be compulsory online netiquette training to increase workplace productivity and reduce technology stress.

You see there is a problem with multitasking as reported by CNN back in 2001. And if your block the access outright people will find a way around it. Secondly you won’t be able to monitor or track their activities. Remember nobody is teaching employees basic online etiquette these days. Way back in the early days of the Web there were many people who supervised things on their own accord like your friendly neighbourhood online bodyguard. Today companies are making a lot of assumptions about people’s online behaviour, their levels of self-discipline and their ability to take the initiative in improving their productivity. So for a better understanding of the Attention Age go here.

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The Impact of Social Networking on the Value of Information

by Ramon Thomas in Events/Social Networking on 2929/070707/2007200720072007 • No Comments • Events, facebook, information-pollution, lecture, linkedin, myspace, seminar, six-derees-of-seperation, small-world-phenomenon, Social Networking, university-of-johannesburg

Last week I was invited to present a lecture at the University of Johannesburg by the Department of Information & Knowledge Management where I am an alumni as well as currently registered for my Masters degree in Information Science. Contact Andrea Ferreira if you would to be added to their list for similar seminars held every couple of months.

The key points were as follows:

Information pollution is devaluing faster then ever before – So learn how to avoid or stop information pollution and information overload.
The numbers: Worldwide Internet users over 1.1 billion, worldwide cellphone users: over 2.5 billion, IM users approximately 580 million users, Social networking users approximately over 300 million
MySpace and Facebook are both huge social networks for teenagers and increasingly people over 35. MySpace is particularly strong in the entertainment industry and Facebook has loyal support from the university/college campuses while experiencing explosive growth in South Africa.
LinkedIn is the most useful social networking tool for professionals with over 12 million registered users worldwide and over 25,000 in South Africa. It’s changing the way recruitment is done as well as background checks on new employees. You may be interested in the excellent ebook: How to double your income in six months using LinkedIn.
The concept of Six Degrees of Separation and the Small World theory is the basis for the success of online social networks.
Google has been a key driver in the emergence of the long tail in marketing and onlie retail. Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace for $580 million in 2005 and people thought he was crazy and not long afterwards signed an exclusive deal with Google guaranteeing at least $900 million over 3 years. Facebook users generate about $6 in advertising revenue while MySpace users only generate about $2. And based on Youtube‘s value it’s 124 million unique monthly visitors are worth about $13.
According to Rich Shefren, the information age is dead and we now live in the attention age. People with elements of ADD have an advantage because they can focus for short periods and maintain productivity levels while switching between tasks. Ordinary people’s potential efficiency is reduced each time they change tasks by 20% to 40% depending on the complexity of the tasks at hand. The abundance of choice impacts decision making because most people are NOT trained how to evaluate source of information. And therefore there exists a Paradox of Choice.

Some recommended resources of where you can start research and narrow your focus on more valuable information are: Squidoo, ChangeThis, Google Answers and to a lesser extent Yahoo! Answers. And if you still have not make some time to read the entire Cluetrain Manifesto, published in full on the website. As a side note if you are interested in the rise of Blogging read the quarterly report by Technorati: The State of the Live Web.

You can view the presentation or download it from Slideshare.net here:

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Facebook vs MySpace debate keeps moving ahead

by Ramon Thomas in Social Networking on 0202/070707/2007200720072007 • 4 Comments • facebook, myspace, Social Networking

Facebook has experienced phenomenal growth in South Africa over the last few months. As recently as early May there was only 25,000 registered users in the South African network on Facebook and that has exploded to over 120,000 as of 2 July. That’s over45,000 new users per month for the last two months. Now I have been a MySpace users for about 18 months or longer. I can’t remember when I signed up. And on MySpace I have almost 500 friends while on Facebook I have almost 50 friends. So a funny thing happened a few months ago that led to register on Facebook, one of my friends Shannon Smith, a model and tv presenter announced abruptly that she was moving to Facebook and invited a whole bunch of people to join her. And several did. The amount of interaction for me on MySpace have decreased a little and there is a flood of interactions on Facebook. In my view I can see why Facebook has become preferred because it’s much cleaner and smoother interface. Where MySpace is riddled with adverts and the screen almost clogged Facebook is refreshing.

So it’s with no surprise I just read this insightful article Facebook = Smart, Rich, Cool; MySpace = Dumb, Poor, Loners? And I concur that MySpace will continue to lead with over 120 million registered users vs Facebook’s 28 million registered users because of it’s deep ties with the Entertainment industry. You may also be interested in my mentor, Arthur Goldstuck’s views on Myspace and Facebook.

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How To Social Networking – Introductions

by Ramon Thomas in Social Networking on 0707/121212/2006200620062006 • 1 Comment • how to, introductions, meeting people, Social Networking, strangers

Social networking is a way of interacting with people whereby you actively establish relationships with people you meet. You never know what you could do for them or what they could do for you. So you exchange business cards or contact details. One of the first things I do when I’ve met someone is finding out what they do and where they are going in their career or life. Then I think about who else I know that is on a similar journey and how they could assist this person I’ve just met.

So yesterday I attended a function at Grace Bible Church is Soweto hosted by the Business Women’s Association. The occasion was the first state visit by the new Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency, the Right Honorable Michaëlle Jean. My friend Israel Noko, a Canadian Trade Commissioner had invited me to attend this special event. Well at the table where I sat there were of course a number of women. One friendly lady started introducing herself to everyone else, and I followed suit. What happened was simple. As I listened to people’s stories about what they do, why they were at this event, I started to think of how I could assist them to do three things:

reduce or remove dangers
grasp their opportunities
reinforce their strengths

And the outcome was spectacular at least one lady said out load to the rest that my introducing her to one of the other guests, Ory Okolloh, another famous blogger at the Kenyan Pundit blog, who happens to be working for Enablis, the Canadian Entrepreneurial Network. And I introduced people to each other I ensure that they understand what the one needs and what the other is able to provide. And by doing this on a continuous bases you will also gain because people will trust you a whole lot quicker. And they will look for ways to return the favour.

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Groundbreaking Social Networking Site Has Launched

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