The Myth of the Iranian Twitter Revolution

Posted by Grant Brewer on 17 Jun 2010 | Comments (0)

The Myth of the Iranian Twitter Revolution: "Foreign Policy Magazine: ‘But it is time to get Twitter’s role in the events in Iran right. Simply put: There was no Twitter Revolution inside Iran. As Mehdi Yahyanejad, the manager of ‘Balatarin,’ one of the Internet’s most popular Farsi-language Web sites, told the Washington Post last June, Twitter’s impact inside Iran is nil. ‘Here [in the United States], there is lots of buzz,’ he said. ‘But once you look, you see most of it are Americans tweeting among themselves.’"

(Via Subtraction.)

That doesn't seem surprising — Twitter as a source of breaking news is over exaggerated. The Twittersphere just seems littered with retweets of the same things appearing on CNN.

FIFA World Cup site confusing

Posted by Grant Brewer on 10 Jun 2010 | Comments (0)

Is it just me or is the FIFA World Cup 2010 web site making it extra challenging to find practical information and links to things like changing the people allocated to tickets or finding out how the park and ride works!

The City of Johannesburg site is far better linking to useful, practical information that a fan is likely to need in order to attend a match.

Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds

Posted by Grant Brewer on 10 Jun 2010 |

Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds: "Wordle is a toy for generating word clouds from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends."

This is the word cloud for this site:

A special report on South Africa: The price of freedom | The Economist

Posted by Grant Brewer on 10 Jun 2010 |

A special report on South Africa: The price of freedom | The Economist: "The price of freedom Since embracing full democracy 16 years ago, South Africa has made huge strides. But, says Diana Geddes (interviewed here), not everything has changed for the better Jun 3rd 2010 | From The Economist print edition"

This is a must read for anyone living, working or interested in South Africa.

south africa (5) | change (3) | news (1) | economist (1)

Vodafone to Offer Apple’s iPhone in Ten Markets

Posted by Grant Brewer on 06 May 2008 | Comments (0)

Vodafone to Offer Apple’s iPhone in Ten Markets

Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.

Best press release I’ve seen in years. 56 words, short and to the point. No mention of exclusivity, so the presumption is that other carriers will have the iPhone in these markets, too.

(Via Daring Fireball.)

apple (2) | iphone (1) | vodafone (1) | vodacom (1)

Pick ‘n Pay Home Shopping

Posted by Grant Brewer on 29 Nov 2007 | Comments (0)

I decided to register for home shopping at Pick 'n Pay today. I've been a regular user of Woolworths' home shopping site site for many years, but needed to buy things that Woolworths don't stock. So I pointed my browser at http://homeshopping.picknpay.co.za/ expecting things to go smoothly. Well it wasn't to be.

woolworths (1) | user experience (1) | pick 'n pay (1) | home shopping (1)

The Independent’s Rugby World Cup front page

Posted by Grant Brewer on 12 Nov 2007 | Comments (1)

Justin Hartman got it right when he praised the cover of The Independent newspaper in the UK on the eve of the Rugby World Cup final between South Africa and England. It takes a very smart copywriter to think come up with the idea, and brave editor to put something without a picture on the cover!

In case you haven't realised, the headline is about England not South Africa! And the “slave song” is Swing Low.

world cup (3) | design (3) | newspaper (1) | layout (1) | inspiration (1)

Brazil unveils strategy on crime

Posted by Grant Brewer on 21 Aug 2007 | Comments (0)

So Brazil has announced a strategy to reduce crime -- and what is South Africa doing? Nothing it seems -- believing that the current approach is doing just fine. It is worth understanding what exactly the Brazilian strategy is. Time to go and dig out an English summary of the plan.

south africa (5) | brazil (2) | crime (1)