Web 2.0 Growing Pains

I've spent a fair amount of time today looking for a new Wiki to use for our documentation project. I need a Wiki tool that's:

a) WYSIWYG
b) hosted
c) ONLY accessible by invited users

Using the WikiMatrix comparison website, I discovered WetPaint. I was literally jumping up & down thinking that all my prayers had been answered.

Wetpaint is ridiculously easy to setup and start using. Pages can be added & edited easily by my non-techie business partner and I love how simple it is to add links to other pages. Not a single line of markup is needed and formatting is kept even when copying & pasting documents from MS Word.

Before I set up a Wetpaint account I googled 'Techcrunch Wetpaint' to see if Mike Arrington has said anything about it yet. It emerged that Trinity Ventures put some Venture Capital into Wetpaint, so I knew it had to be decent. (I once spoke to Trinity Ventures' Ajay Chopra, one of the more approachable VCs out there. Give him a shout if you're looking for VC!)

As I went through the fantastically slick signup process, I kept thinking how Trinity Ventures made a darn good call on investing in Wetpaint and how Yahoo must simply be itching to buy Wetpaint, particularly now that Google has picked up Wetpaint competitor Jotspot.

But then I discovered the Achilles heel... Anyone can view our Wetpaint Wiki. Our documentation is confidential and I only want invited users to have access. I got that horrible 'i knew it was too good to be true' feeling.

It's really sad when Web 2.0 startups do so many things just right and then stuff up monumentally on something so trivial.

Quick Quick Condoms

I love it when someone comes up with a simple viral marketing campaign that takes off like crazy! Especially if it's at the expense of high profile politicians...

From Pronto Condoms:


Background: Jacob Zuma, the ANC Deputy President said in a court case that he had showered after having unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive in order not to contract the virus.



Background: Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa's minister of Health, is known as "Dr Beetroot" for her advice to those with HIV to eat nutritious food such as garlic and beetroot.

Churches and Business Incubators

Anyone who's ever been to a European village knows that things are centered around the town square or 'piazza'. The most prominent building on the piazza is always the church. In such a village, the church is involved with pretty much everything that goes on in the small town. Whether it be the running of soup kitchens for the poor or having fund raising carnivals on the square.

Without being a confirmed 'member', if you live in such a village, the church will influence your everyday life.

I liken this to my experience with the Cape IT Initiative (CITI).

CITI is playing a major role to make Cape Town the Silicon Valley of Africa. It doesn't wait for entrepreneurs & small businesses to sign up, it goes out and involves them in their 'town square' activities, thus enabling them to in turn become high impact entrepreneurs.

I haven't joined them as a member, but yet they've contributed in various ways to our business. Instead of 'soup kitchens' they have 'soapboxes' and rather than 'carnivals' they have 'gala dinners'. Instead of Sunday School they have the brilliant 'MyMentor' program.

The latest CITI initiative is theVeloCITI business acceleration programme.

VeloCITI is like injecting NOS into your company.

If you're a geek with a clever ICT business idea or prototype but you don't have years of business, finance & marketing experience behind you, then VeloCITI could make the difference between you becoming a has-been inventor or tomorrow's business leader.

Get Smart SAA

We've all had our bad airline experiences. For some reason airlines are stuck in some parallel universe where service just keeps getting worse and worse.

I'll spare you the details of yet another airline horror story and rather skip to some tips for South African Airways:

1. Do NOT use old 747s for short-haul flights. I know you can squeeze more people into a 747. You've already proven that there isn't a snowball's chance in midsummer to get everyone and their luggage on board and the plane in the air on time. Don't print a time on my ticket that you know is not realistic.
   
   
2. Never EVER lie to your customers. You have no idea how bad this is for your brand and your business. Customers today are a lot more educated than ever before. We know how 'systems' work, so don't blame your incompetence/malice on 'the system'.
   
   
3. Never EVER try to exploit your customers with 'crippled' service offerings. A ticket is a ticket is a ticket. It takes me from Johannesburg to Cape Town in an airplane in 2 hours. If I'm flying economy it's economy. I don't care if it's 'Class Q' or 'S' or whatever the fuck you wish to call it. If I wish to fly earlier and there's a seat available, do NOT try to charge me an 'upgrade' fee and tell me it's because I bought a 'Discount' ticket online as if it were a cardinal sin, especially if I'm offering to fly at a significantly less busy time of day, thereby giving you the chance to sell my 'prime time' ticket to someone else and get rid of a 'distress' (empty) seat right now. Oh, and did I mention I'm an SAA frequent flyer?
   

I simply cannot believe how stupid SAA's management is. But then stupidity is often motivated by greed.

However, as we've seen with SAA's phenomenal operating losses, this normally backfires. SAA can blame employee strikes and higher fuel prices all they want. The reason they're losing money is simple: Bad Service.

Bad Service in turn is the result of bad ethics. Fat Cat executives who have no entrepreneurial passion and are more interested in the multimillion rand bonuses that SAA is now famous for.

Get your act together SAA. Customers are leaving you in droves and sooner or later it won't be just them saying 'Adios' to you, you might have to say goodbye to every single one of them. Of course you, the SAA executive, probably don't care as you'll be long gone sipping Pina Colladas in the Caribbean.

Now, where's Richard Branson?

Business Blogging

Pro Blogger Rafiq Phillips sent me some really good links about business blogging today.

• Essence of Business Blogging
• How To Get More People To Read Your Blog
• How To Get Better Blog Exposure
• Related Post Plugin Stickyness
• SEO for Wordpress Blogs

One of them spoke about the importance of 'claiming' your blog with Technorati, so here's my 'claim it' Technorati Profile

Also check out this excellent first post about 'demon feeding' (aka Blogging) by Ubergeek Johann Botha.

The Thing about Geeks...

Super Connector Dave Duarte organised another 'geeky dinner' last Friday at Sinn's in Wembley Square.



Pictured above are Farzaneh Behroozi and Maximillian Kaizen, the only two 'girly geeks' at the party. Spot the notebook on the table in which Farzaneh is constantly writing down cool ideas!


The thing about geeks is that you always learn something new. I had lunch the other day with Dave Gale when he showed me a cool widget for testing VoIP quality.

He was taking periodic screenshots of the tiny widget using the 'PrtScr' button, so I showed him how to use 'Alt + PrtScr' to capture only the selected window.

In turn he showed me a really nifty trick in Excel. Using the REPT() function you can quickly create ASCII bar graphs!




The reason geeks will inherit the earth is not because of their Mensa worthy IQs, but because they are always looking for a chance to share knowledge, no matter how trivial!

Google Maps adds Cape Town

Was looking at some Wi-Fi hotspots we recently added to our Skyrove Maps website, when I saw (gasp!) a roadmap of Cape Town superimposed on the satellite imagery.

It's still a little bit sparse on the roadnames and many roads aren't even shown, giving the impression that we Africans all live in the bush against Table Mountain, but it's a good start!

Fighting Fire with Fire

I've always maintained that one cannot fight violence with violence. Violence simply begets more violence. My analogy has always been that one cannot fight fire with fire, you fight it with water!

However, it appears I may have been wrong about fighting fire with fire...

Diane Southey, a good friend & botanist who's been studying bush fires in South Africa & Australia told me a story of a group of firefighters who were totally surrounded by a large bushfire and had no escape route.

They had pretty much given up hope and thought they were going to die, when one of them had a bright idea that saved their lives. He started a fire! A controlled fire...

By starting a controlled fire in the immediate vicinity, they managed to burn all the bush where they were. When the larger, more rampant fire finally reached their area, there was no fuel left to fuel the fire! They lived to tell the story.

What amazes me most is that this was not a 'learned' technique, it was an incredibly smart decision made under extreme duress!

Nightmare CVs

I recently posted an advert on the gumtree for an internship position at Skyrove.

Hi,

We'd like to offer an internship to an exceptionally bright CS/EE/IS student for the summer vacation period.

We have several projects available (web development, embedded linux programming, process management, marketing etc)

Please contact me directly if you're up to the task.

Henk Kleynhans
Skyrove CEO
henk at skyrove.com
blog: www.yeahfi.com

p.s. foreign students are welcome

I have received some really great responses, but others have left much to be desired. I thought I'd highlight some of these and give some tips on CVs, cover letters and the use of email for job applications.

1. Please do NOT send me a blank email with your CV attached.

2. Please do NOT have someone else send me a CV 'on behalf of' you

3. Please DO send a cover letter or an email that clearly shows you know a little bit about my company and that you would really like to work here

4. I have 2 words for you: Spell Check! One applicant told me that one of her core competencies was 'great atention to detail'. Even spell check doesn't always do the trick, so PLEASE have someone read your CV. One person meant to say 'Reason for leaving:' (a previous job) but instead typed 'Reason for living'

5. Do not start your email with 'Dear Sir/Madam'. I gave you my name and email address. If you don't know whether 'Henk' is a male or female name, google me.

6. Do NOT send me a generic cover letter/CV. It will NOT work. You need to show an interest in working for me. (or anyone else for that matter)

7. I was a B student at varsity. That means I need to hire A students. However, if you weren't on the merit list and you didn't distinguish yourself in leadership activities, there is still a chance I might hire you. But ONLY if you write me a VERY good cover letter. You need to investigate my company thoroughly and clearly show great excitement for what we are doing.

8. If you've done all of the above and you still don't receive a response from me, don't wait around. You're not at the top of the pile and I'll probably send out a 'we regret' email in another week or so. You have one last chance of redeeming yourself. Phone me. Tell me how badly you want to work here. I WILL look at your CV again and give it some extra thought. It might not work, but you've just made your chances a 100 times better.

Please take these tips to heart. It should greatly help you to get employment anywhere.


If you are looking for a fantastic job-hunting guide look no further than 'What Color Is Your Parachute' by Dick Bolles