Category: Fire (Social)

A potentially exciting development slipped through my radar in late November – the launch of Wikinews. Just as Wikipedia allows anyone to contribute to encyclopedia articles, so Wikinews does the same with news content. With the commercial media so often reduced to regurgitating corporate and government press releases, Wikinews may be another counter to this… Continue reading Launch of Wikinews

Time magazine can’t be doing its international readership any good with its recent choices as Person of the Year. Yes, who else but George W. Bush for sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his ten-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters that he… Continue reading Bush – Man of the Year

Came across an interesting post by Ethan Zuckerman entitled What does Wikipedia want to be? Particularly topical as I’m helping Walton Pantland research an article on Wikipedia, aimed at a South African audience. My main interest in Wikipedia is the potential it has, as a multi-lingual project, to act as a body of knowledge for… Continue reading Wikipedia for Africa

Found out today that Icanonline is closing its doors. After my post on open source and banking it’s now even more urgent to find a decent bank! In a way it’s a relief, another opportunity to leave Nedbank. I’ve always disliked them. To me, they have a reputation as being expensive and inefficient. Twice they’ve… Continue reading Icanonline shutting down

Yes, finally I succumb and write something on the US election. The inspiration was one of my favourite writers, Hunter S. Thompson – see his . excellent article on IOL. A colleague knows a supposedly accurate clairvoyant who’s predicted a Kerry win. With nothing better but a clairvoyant and blind hope to go on I’m… Continue reading Gonzo predicts the US election

Now that I’m finally moved off the Windows2000 machine I’d been using at work (all of the developers have been using Linux a while, either Gentoo, Mandrake or Fedora, as have most of the editorial staff, so it was disgraceful that the IT Manager who got everyone to run on Open Source hasn’t been doing… Continue reading Banking and Open Source in South Africa

Recently the great debate amongst South African media organisations has been on whether to show/link to the beheadings in Iraq. It all began when SABC showed the video in their Xhosa news. The producer was suspended and the SABC fined. Later, Vincent Maher, a lecturer at Rhodes University, ran a poll amongst his final year… Continue reading Media ethics in South Africa

I’ve been thinking, as many new bloggers seem to, about why people blog, as I mentioned briefly yesterday. I haven’t got around to formulating my own views (perhaps I don’t have one), instead I’ve been reading some others. Most discussions aren’t very satisfying, but here’re a few that are: Riba Rambles:`MORE Musings of a Mental… Continue reading Why blog

Finally, I have set up my blog, and am making my first post. As is my wont, I’ve thought about this a long time, and delayed, wanting to do it properly. I tend to find reasons to delay things forever. Blogs fascinate me. One part sees them as egotistical, unimportant waffling written by insignificant people.… Continue reading Neverness – first entry