So, by now we all know about facebook, MySpace, YouTube and the plethora of social networking sites that are mushrooming on the net.
Not a great deal has been said about social networking via the cellphone though. I know there is a lot of buzz about IM type chatting and sms’ing using cellphones but I have not really come across a channel that allows me to share my experiences with others via either my phone or a website or both and in real time.
Enter kyte. You get to create your own TV and others can watch it from your web site or on their own cellphones as you experience that game drive, boring presentation or rock concert. Now, it starts making sense. How about the family in Canada and Oz, watching live either from their pc’s or cellphones as some-one in good ol’ SA graduates from university or something like that?
Create slideshows, music, video, polls for your web site, etc.
I have signed up and will now see whether they have my cellphone on the list for the software required to start uploading from my phone to the net and to other phones.
A local site of this nature will of course be great!

What a concept!
Take a band, lock them into a fiberglass dome type “bubble” and let them only emerge, 20 days later, when they’ve recorded their new album.
Now throw in the online component with 23 web cams and sneak previews of each track as it is recorded and surely you have a PR exercise second to none. The band is Cartel and the “band in a bubble” campaign is being sponsored by Dr Pepper, MTV, Liquid State and KFC.
Registering on the site will allow you access to certain of the features but fans earn deeper access with codes under Dr Pepper bottle caps.
This is another clear example of how an integrated online campaign can work. In this case, a live band, online web cams, a TV station and web traffic generated via bottle caps.
So, if you are in NY city from 24 May, go to Pier 54 to view the spectacle. For the rest of us, drpepperbubble.com will have to do the trick.

Just like the road infrastructure in the Northern Suburbs, specifically Fourways, that is grossly inadequate, so is my access to the internet. I have a Vodacom 3G card but only ever get GPRS at my home in Fourways and at the office in Lonehill.

I am sitting in front of my laptop trying to listen to a video clip about “search” on YouTube, but I get to hear 3 seconds of talk every 2 minutes. Perhaps if I am patient enough I will get to finish listening to it in 3 hours and 20 mins….only a fool

Think I’ll go and read a book, will get more satisfaction at this stage.

Ingrid

I suppose as a guest contributing to Japie’s blog I had better mind the “Ps and Qs” in my articles….Now on the heavily debated topic of blogging…Over the weekend my husband read an article in the Sunday Times Newspaper - Lifestyle section on the future of blogs, he handed it over to me saying that he cant understand why anyone would want to write a public diary about their thoughts/lives. He is an internet fanatic but isn’t into reality shows and the like and that is why he doesn’t “get” blogs.
The “world” is fascinated by what people do in their everyday lives, I suppose you call it consumerism and a blog is another “reality show” but niched so that you can go and hang out with like-minded people; the added benefit is that you can contribute to what is being said which makes all the difference if you are frustrated with what you are seeing/hearing.
The article in the newspaper referred to doubt as to if blogs would be around for much longer, citing celebrities’ websites and blogs as the reason why they wont last. In my humble opinion this was a very poor example; most celebrities have probably never even been to their website let alone take the time to find out what a blog is. Their Agents/Managers set all of this up and therein lies the problem, blogs need to be authentic, there has to be interest in doing them, not because “it’s the right thing to do/have”. Yes, we will see a huge fall off rate, but the real-ones will survive and continue to provide pleasure to those who are genuinely interested…..Hey your blog may even become a blooker!!
Ingrid Rubin
ingrid@longtail.co.za

Reading the English Sunday Times on the train out of Paris yesterday, it struck me for the 1st time, how to make it BIG on the net.
Casino`s? NO
Porn? NO
Online shopping? NO
Online security? maybe

The real answer though: start a business that you can sell to Google. If they dont like it, offer it to Yahoo!, Microsoft or some-one like that.
Bill Gate`s boys offered $ 2billion to the owners of Double Click, a NY based firm that acts as an intermediary in the buying and selling of online advertising. Double Click thought that they could do better and ended up selling it to Google for $ 3.1billion. That is after the current owners bought it for $1.1billion a mere 2 years ago.
Talk about growth!

Anyway, the good news for online publishers and companies that specialise in online advertising is that Google see money in it , so there has to be money in it.
Maybe I should invest in a local online ad business and get Google to notice the company. How difficult can that be?

Although I am on holiday for the next 2 weeks in France and Belgium, I am very keen to see and experience the uptake and integration of the online space while there.
I will try to absorb as much as possible in order to see what I can learn and to establish for myself whether we are behind the world as is so often stated or whether we are in fact on par or even (could it be…?) ahead.
My partner, Ingrid Rubin, will be a guest blogger during my absence ( so she promised…) and I hope to read her postings while sipping champagne or cappuccino’s somewhere.

I find that actually doing what I preach really gives me a great understanding of how this internet thing really works.
So, I have decided to take the family on a European “safari” next week.
Not having been to Europe on holiday before, I actually had to do some homework on places to see, things to do and most importantly hotels to stay at. In my bachelor days, I would never have thought of booking ahead. Things have changed, as the say, and now I at least need the security of a room at the end of a long day of meeting with Mickey and Goofy, eating frog’s legs and drinking champagne in that province of France. My wife, being a big believer in the “travel book” got the Let’s Go Europe. A nice chunky block of paper with adequate descriptions of the little towns and villages in France, Belgium and Germany we are keen on visiting.
It however only lists 2 or 3 accommodation establishments per town and no photos of the hotels or rooms, no idea of what food they serve there or a map to see where in that town they are situated. I guess one cant expect that from a single guide on Europe, unless you want to walk around with a guide the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica. ( 32 volumes, R 10 000 later)
Enter…Google
I just booked the last of my hotels and was trying to see a pattern in my bookings to try and understand why I have done what I’ve done.
A hotel in Disneyland, then Paris, Reims, Bruges, Houffalize.
The Disneyland hotel I got from the Disneyland web site: conclusion; there is nothing like a direct link to a business from a credible web site to ensure quality traffic.
The hotel in Houffalize( Belgium) I got from the official town of Houffalize’s web site: another link from a credible web site.
The other 3, places I have never been to I got from Google searches and then clicking on the adwords. In every case I went to a portal/aggregator web site to choose my hotel. Once I found what I liked, I searched for that specific hotel on Google to learn more about it.
I however returned to the portal/booking site to make my reservation.
I guess I just felt that they were better equipped to deal with the reservation and online credit card payment than the hotels themselves. None of the hotels I booked were actually listed in the Let’s Go.

So, there I have it: my own online behavioral pattern for international hotel bookings. Now, if I can just find out exactly what every other South African do online when they travel internationally, I can either start my own booking site or sell the information to some-one like Travelstart…

So, we all know about Hellopeter and how it offers the consumer the opportunity to report bad service. Peter Cheales is the owner of the site and also a motivational speaker and author of the book, I was your customer, and 10 other titles. He also has a weekly show on SAFM.
Now I am a big believer in Citizen’s media and giving the consumer a voice. I have also often told my current and potential clients to see what is being said about them on that site (as well as many others). It is important for any company to manage their reputation online.
Reading an article on Reporter.co.za today, I for the first time learned that a company has to pay at least R 13 500 to register in order to respond to complaints, be they true or not. In fact, it seems that if the company wishes to respond regularly, it will cost them R 60 000 per year.
Sure, what is that for one of the big 3 cellphone companies, one of the 4 big banks or other larger corporates.
For my new business, just the R 13500 is totally out of my reach. So, if anyone wishes to badmouth me, Hellopeter is the place for you because I just aint gonna respond…not there, anyway!