All posts in Guru’s

The annual 2007 Weblog awards are on!

by Chris M on November 8, 2007 in Guru's with 2 Comments

The 2007 Weblog Awards

After doing my daily read on Stii.za.net, I saw that the voting was open for the 2007 Weblog Awards. I took a good look around the various categories and stumbled across some fantastic blogs, but I have to wonder to myself – are these really the best blogs around and about? Gizmodo and Lifehacker for example, are fantastic blogs, I will not dispute that, but at the same time, in my eyes, they are not the true sense of what a blog is all about, am I completely wrong?

Stii went on to say “Never the less, there are some awesome blogs over there so go check it out and vote for Yblog ZA who is the only South African blog in the category for Best Middle East or Africa blog.” ~ Only one South African blog in all those categories! I find that really hard to believe – If you look on the sidebar next to this, you will see the topic ‘Web Gurus’ and there’s a reason it has that title – these are web gurus! I feel that there are at least 2 or 3 blogs which deserve to be nominees in the awards.

I guess 2007 is a little soon for South Africa, but I can’t wait to see what 2008 has install for all of us net savvy, blog-mad Saffers!

Afrigator, SA Rocks, my tee’s?

by Chris M on October 7, 2007 in Guru's, My Life with 21 Comments

Two fantastic websites, which I usually visit on a regular basis are Afrigator and SA Rocks. Both of these websites provide fantastic information, and are fun and interesting to read. The bloggers who are involved with these websites, namely, Nic Haralambous, Justin Hartman, Mike Stopforth, Mark Forrester and Stiaan Pretorius are all fantastic bloggers, who all feature somewhere on my blog under categories such as I Support and Web Gurus.

But there is something else these people all have in common. What is that?

I never got my t-shirts! SA Rocks sponsored t-shirts as prizes to people who came 2nd and 3rd for the My Perfect City Challenge featured on Web Addicts, and Afrigator ran a competition for backlinks to their blog in May. In both cases I should have received a t-shirt, but never did. I decided not to say anything right away, because firstly I understand that people are busy, and secondly I figured these things would take a while to arrive, but plenty of time has passed and now I am a little dissapointed. I would have really loved to get both t-shirts, not because I need clothing, but because I would love to wear a SA Rocks tee, and an Afrigator tee to support both ventures!

So, what did happen to the t-shirts? They get lost in the bloggisphere?

Eish.

Web 2.0 moving too quickly

by Chris M on October 1, 2007 in Code, Guru's, Internet with 2 Comments

With the whole move of the Internet to Web 2.0, it is important to stay up to date with certain design elements, as well as certain scripting skills. Web 2.0 to me is something, which is almost too hard to explain in words, but what I can say, is that in my opinion, Web 2.0 has three obvious characteristics.

1. The look and feel of most web 2.0 initiatives is clear, smooth and minimalist, with the use of shadows and ‘pretty’ icons.

2. Social networking, online communication and interaction are another massive area fueling Web 2.0

3. Ajax, making use of CSS, Javascript and Ajax plays a massive role in the anti-refresh surfing.

These three elements are, to me, absolutely crucial when trying to release anything Web 2.0 – I could go on and on about Web 2.0 when I start to think about it, but for this post I have decided just to state the above, and give you three interesting web resources to get a leading start :)

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Badges are a massive hit in web 2.0, and this website will allow you to create your own badges, with a few simple mouse clicks!

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With the use of Ajax, and no refresh website functionality, preloaders are more popular than ever, and if you are like me, you can’t create animated gifs. Ajaxload.info helps you create your own preloaders, based on many available colours and templates – this is a must see!

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Shaddows, as mentioned earlier, are important with web 2.0! Creating a shaddow effect isn’t too difficult, but sometimes you might need a quick fix, and this site will do it for you :)

Right, well that’s my update for now, and my movement towards the Web 2.0 approach to design and development. If you have any questions or suggestions of other websites, please feel free to leave a comment, it would be interesting to see what other resources there are out and about on the Internet!

Save The World

by Chris M on September 22, 2007 in Guru's, Off Topic with 3 Comments

Makes me think of Michael Jacksons song :)

Anyway, David posted a new video he created on his blog, and I really think it was a fantastic effort, so here’s the video: Continue reading →

Chris M gets publicity again!

by Chris M on September 14, 2007 in Guru's, Publicity with 10 Comments

This year has been a great year in terms of publicity for young entrepreneurs, and this morning I was emailed a copy of an article in the Campus Financial Mail, which I was featured in.

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I am not going to go into depth about this, but rather just forward you to the article here (unfortunately you need to subscribe to read the mail), or you can download it here.

I would suggest downloading the article, as the subscription form on the Campuss Mail seems to be broken!

Here are the other Guru’s:

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Well done guys! It’s great to see South African talent shinning through!

Why not take a read about Reader Loyalty with regards to Proof and Recognition..

2.0 Master’s Degree

by Chris M on September 11, 2007 in Guru's, Internet with 6 Comments

So I found an interesting little test online, it’s all about web 2.0, and I managed to score really well in it. Give it a shot, perhaps you’re a guru too ;)

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Eric Jordan’s Genesis Mix

by Chris M on September 2, 2007 in Guru's with No comments

Fantastic news! Eric Jordan, over at Neverrain, has launched his September Mix, “Genesis”. After recently playing at FutureApe, he decided to compile a list of the records he was spinning and mix up a set for all of his online fans. I am currently downloading the set, so I have no listened to it, but his mixes are always amazing, so I have no doubt that this one won’t be amazing too!

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For those of you who have not heard of Eric Jordan, this is the time to take a look, especially if you are a deep house junky like myself. Hits mixes and record selections are truly amazing. If you are interested in downloading his set, you may click the direct link here to download it!

Ok, so I’ve downloaded the mix, and it’s definitely banging! 25 minutes into the set, the bassline starts picking up into a punching progressive madness :) All in all, the set is extremely progressive, and definitely a journey is in mind!

Synthasite is completely incredible!

by Chris M on August 29, 2007 in Guru's, Internet with 7 Comments

This post is coming rather late, I admit, but blogging about Synthasite slipped my mind a while ago, so I decided to log into my account, and play around a little before making a post.

I have come across several websites over the years, which have completely blown me away, such as 2Advanced Studios, but Synthasite has completely swept me off my feet this evening. Everyone talks about Web 2.0, and throws the term around in order to sound “down” with the web, but in general, only a select few actually understand what web 2.0 is all about.

Wikipedia describes it as “The phrase Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second-generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. It became popular following the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004,[1] and has since become widely adopted.” (more) – In my opinion, that’s not a bad attempt at all.

Back to Synthasite – Synthasite deals with the next genaration of web publishing:

  • Totally browser based construction – anywhere, any PC
  • Social, collaborative publishing with friends, teams, consultants
  • DIY superstore of components, widgets, templates to construct with

Anyone who is interested in web 2.0 and website publishing, should head on over and sign up for an account. Once your account is created, make sure you watch the Introduction movie, which is located at the top of the popup window, as it gives you an easy to follow guide on how things work. Within literally 5 minutes of being signed up, I had created an entire website, with all sorts of widgets and designs – this is why I was so completely blown away. I actually wondered to myself whether in a few years time, there would be room for web designers and web developers anymore, with it becoming so easy to create websites *eeek*

Vinny Lingham is the man to watch, he’s making leaps into the future with this web 2.0 attack, and his blog is anything but empty. Article after article, Vinny turns out blog posts full of information, valid information, learning information. I noticed that Vinny has started, what looks like, a venture capital website, called Lingham Capital, unfortunately there is no content on the website yet, but I’m sure it’ll appear soon!

Keep up the absolutely amazing work, you are an inspiration!

South African Web Gurus II

by Chris M on August 16, 2007 in Guru's, Internet with 23 Comments

Part II

Ealier today, I was surfing around the Internet, checking out all my regular blogs, when I decided to write briefly about some web guru’s who are moving South Africa ahead in the world of the Internet.

I received a number of comments and email regards this post, so I have decided to look at a second group of people who fall under this bracket.

Mike Stopforth is another great web guru, who most people have heard of. Mike is involved in a number of web trends such as his own company, Cerebra, Afrigator, 27 Dinner, and a couple others. Mike writes interesting articles on marketing, branding, advertising and the likes.

Dave Duarte, is a local marketing geek, if it has to do with marketing and online, chances are, Dave will be listening in closely or involved. Dave would describe himself like this: “I’m an educator, deal-maker and geek-gathering organizer.” He is involved with Cerebra and 27 Dinner, much like Mike, and a typical thing Dave would be doing is: “Checkin out Barak Obama’s social-media vibe for a workshop with some African politicians.” – Interesting? I think so.

Justin Hartman, is a name all of us have heard of – if you haven’t, then you just aren’t exploring South Africans channels enough. Chances are that you heard of Justin once CNN started praising Afrigator. Mike, and Stiaan, are both part of the team which brought Afrigator to its success.

Someone, who I have to mention, is Damien aka coda – since the beginning of my web experience, Damien has shown amazing talent, both in design and development as well as being a proud South African. I am pretty sure that almost every blogger has heard of coda – and there’s a reason for that – he’s brilliant! He might not blog as often as he used to, but when he releases a blog post, there’s not a moments boredom!

Just bouncing around these guru’s blogs, leads you to many other guru’s blogs, and the tunnel is endless. South Africa is starting to produce some of the best start-up projects I have ever seen online, and I can only hope that things just keep on getting better and better!

South Africa Web Gurus

by Chris M on August 16, 2007 in Guru's, Internet with 13 Comments

Part I

Web movement in South Africa is on the up. I have never seen so many people working together to push a country right up into the ‘big boys’ market, and to be honest, I’m proud to be part of such a movement. It is amazing to work with and watch other amazing designer, developers and brain stormers launch ideas, which are truly outstanding, and of course: proudly South Africa. Movements such as Accelerate Cape Town is a fantastic new movement! Accelerate Cape Town (ACT) is a private sector initiative aimed at bringing together stakeholders in the Cape region to develop and implement a long-term vision for sustainable, inclusive economic growth.

Another person playing a wonderful role in the movement of South African web concepts is Mr Eric Edelstein, a self proclaimed capital invester slash entrepreneur, with ideas far greater than the average person can imagine. Eric has been involved in Internet start-up’s for 10years now, being involved in a number of inspiring projects such as: Clicks2Customers, TrafficSynergy, incuBeta and others. Eric spends large amounts of time testing out new Internet Marketing strategies and is passionate about Search Marketing, both SEO and Pay Per Click.

Your Group of Web AddiCT(s); is another group, which is pushing South Africa into a first world web-wise. Rafiq Phillips and Miguel Dos Santos are the web addicts, which bring us all the latest news, usually from a technological point of view. They say that Web AddCT is an acronym for Web, Application Design, Development & Innovation in Cape Town. Good going guys!

Lastly, SA Rocks is a website, run by Nic Haralambous – “SA Rocks is not a website dedicated to blindly praising South Africa. I understand that every country has flaws and I do not deny the flaws of South Africa. I do feel that there are enough people who berate our country and it’s time for people to start acting and thinking positively about South Africa.”

With all these movements in South Africa, it is obvious that South African web gurus are working as hard as possible to bring us up to the same level as the rest of the world!

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