Author Archive for Hugh

Net Prophet 2010 – The Sophisticat, the Elephant, and the Secret of the Digital Native (By Arthur Goldstuck)

Arthur is an award-winning writer, analyst and commentator on Internet, mobile and business and consumer technologies. He heads the World Wide Worx research organisation, leading groundbreaking research into how change is affecting businesses large and small. Clients of the research include South Africa’s major financial institutions and corporations, Government departments and agencies, and international organisation.

“21st century children are different when it comes to the Internet and computers…allegedly”

“Do you want to sell apps all your life or do you want to change the world?”

May 13, 2010 | 1 comment | View Post

Net Prophet 2010 – The Next Generation (By Stuart Ntlathi)

Stuart Ntlathi (23) heads up the Stuart Ntlathi Science, Engineering and Technology Institute (SNSET INSTITUTE). Established in 2000, the SNSET INSTITUTE believes in the promotion and development of education, specifically in the field of Science, Engineering and Technology amongst the youth. Stuart’s objective for SNSET INSTITUTE is to further expand the infrastructure and develop “Infinite Park”, where young people may congregate, share ideas and work together on Science and Technology projects. “Infinite Park” is envisioned as a launching pad for Science-based business and academic development, which has attracted donations from both Government and corporates.

“Young people in the townships don’t even know what it means to ‘Google’.”

“[The SNSET Institute has] given young people a platform where they can develop their own ideas.”

“The young people you meet today are your consumers of tomorrow.”

May 13, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Net Prophet 2010 – Giving up Gutenberg: Shaping the future of Internet publishing by shrugging off the past (By Patrick Kayton)

Patrick Kayton has spent the better part of ten years putting ideas into people’s heads. As a content architect, Patrick has been responsible for the conceptualisation, design, development and delivery of creative, full colour and highly interactive educational materials, courses and comics principally in the areas of entrepreneurship and innovation. Since 2006, and in partnership with his brother, Barry, they have collaborated on the creation of Cognician, a powerful thought processing software application for the web.

“You can’t shape the future unless you try to shrug off the past.”

“The ideas your content is structured around will have the greatest impact.”

May 13, 2010 | 2 comments | View Post

Net Prophet 2010 – Social Media: The side effects (By Richard Mulholland)

Richard Mulholland is the founder of Missing Link, a specialist conference and presentation strategy company, and co-owner of Thunk! SA’s first perspective lab. Rich’s dynamic way of thinking took him from rigging lights at rock concerts to telling CEOs what and how they should present. A renowned speaker, strategist, creative thinker and capitalist punk, Rich is the guy you hire to make your presentation or conference rock. He also has a deep hatred for pretentious biogs, of which his is a fine example.

“Using Twitter for chit-chat is like having a conversation via megaphone.“

May 13, 2010 | 3 comments | View Post

Net Prophet 2010 – Top of the BOPs: Observations from building online business in Africa (By Stefan Magdalinski)

Stefan Magdalinski is the CEO of Mocality.com, a new mobile business directory (and a lot more to come) providing services to thousands of entrepreneurs across Africa. Mocality’s first city is Nairobi, Kenya. Previously, Stefan was the CTO of MOO.com, the innovative digital printing company, but has been building web applications and online civic hacks since 1994, most of which are start-ups. In his spare time, he wonders why he doesn’t have any.

“We are about to see a transformation [in Africa].”

May 13, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Net Prophet 2010 – The Woo Themes Story (By Adriaan Pienaar)

AdiiRockstar (born Adriaan Pienaar) is an entrepreneur, the co-founder of the very successful online start-up, WooThemes, and a general creator of Rockstar Awesomeness. Along with being a serial entrepreneur, he is also a designer and developer (CSS, PHP and WordPress), which has spawned his other company – a boutique design and development agency – Radiiate. At the young age of 25, Adii has revolutionised both his business and personal life, and in 2007 he decided to call himself a “rockstar”; so the rockstar-tag is very much a result of subjective marketing on his side.

“When we started up we never started a South African company – we were an international company from the get-go.”

May 13, 2010 | 1 comment | View Post

Net Prophet 2010 – Building a Global Business: Lessons learnt (By Vinny Lingham)

Vinny Lingham is a seasoned, globally acclaimed entrepreneur who has founded a number of businesses, including the award-winning search engine marketing company, Clicks2Customers. He was recently chosen as a Young Global Leader Honoree 2009 by the World Economic Forum. He has been recognized as a high-impact entrepreneur by Endeavor Global and awarded the 2006 Top Young IT Entrepreneur.

“Going global is expensive if you don’t know how.”

“Building a product team is critical for funded companies.”

May 13, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Net Prophet 2010 – A Rising Tide: Tech Entrepreneurs in Africa (By Erik Hersman)

Erik Hersman is the co-founder of Ushahidi (which means “testimony” in Swahili), a web application created to map the reported incidents of violence happening during the post-election crisis in Kenya. Currently, he is working with a team of mostly-African programmers to continue development of this new free and open source platform that makes it easier to crowd-source crisis information and visualise data.