Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2011/01/20/Andrew_Rasiej_Technology_and_the_Future_of_WeGovernment
Andrew Rasiej, the founder of Personal Democracy Forum, discusses “We-Government,” a movement in which simple innovations aligned with technology, public data, and social media address vital issues to solve public problems. Rasiej highlights Project Masiluleke, which fills the unused space in text messages with public service announcements to help fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
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L2: The Social Graph Clinic
Module 4: Insights and the Future
Technology and the Future of WeGovernment with Andrew Rasiej, the founder of Personal Democracy Forum.
Social media shifts marketing from controlled, one-way communications into collaborative, intimate dialogues with — and among — constituents. The strategies, tools, rules of engagement, and metrics present marketing and digital professionals with a series of challenges that are best distilled into one question: “What do I do now?” – L2
Andrew Rasiej is a social entrepreneur, futurist, and the founder of Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference and community website focusing on and promoting the intersection of politics and technology.
He is also the co-founder of techPresident, an award winning group blog that covers how the 2008 Presidential candidates are using the web, and how voter generated content (a term he coined) is affecting the campaign.
In the 2004 Presidential race he served as Chairman of the Howard Dean Technology Advisory Council. In 2005 he ran a highly visible campaign for Public Advocate of New York City, running in the Democratic primary on a platform to bring low cost wireless internet access to all New Yorkers.
He writes a bi-weekly column for www.politico.com and he appears as an expert on the Internet and politics on major media channels including CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, FOX, BBC and SKY News.
Duration : 0:3:33
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish
Falling prices are fueling growth in high-speed Internet services, especially in developing countries. Recently the International Telecommunication Union released its “Measuring the Information Society 2011″ report. The ITU, part of the United Nations, compared access, use and skills in one hundred fifty-two countries.The report says South Korea has the world’s most developed economy in information and communication technology, or ICT. Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland were also among the top five in the ICT Development Index. The index compares two thousand eight and two thousand ten scores. Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Vietnam and Russia had some of the biggest improvements between those years. Susan Teltscher is head of the ICT Data and Statistics Division at the International Telecommunication Union in Switzerland. She says most of the growth has come from one source. “Mobile broadband is now leading the growth race among the different ICT indicators — much higher than the other key indicators that we look at, like regular mobile phone subscriptions, fixed telephone or fixed broadband. … And the good news is that it’s also starting to grow in developing countries.” Mobile broadband subscriptions reached eight hundred seventy-two million by the end of last year. Three hundred million of those are in developing countries. Ms. Teltscher says “If we can bring Internet over the mobile phones, then we can really make a difference in terms of improving Internet access also in developing countries.” Falling prices are adding to the growth, she says: “Especially in the broadband area, the prices dropped by over fifty percent between two thousand eight and two thousand ten — which is a very encouraging finding because this was primarily drops in the developing countries.” Even so, the report says people in many low-income countries are still paying too much for high-speed Internet connections. In Africa, broadband service for a home or office cost almost three times an average monthly income last year. That was down from six and a half times as much in two thousand eight. Also, there are big differences in broadband speed and quality from country to country. South Korea has Asia’s fourth largest economy. Susan Teltscher says, “If you look at … what they have been achieving in terms of ICT development, it’s actually higher than what you would expect given their national income.” For VOA Special English, I’m Carolyn Presutti.
(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 19Sep2011)
Duration : 0:4:0
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0:00-1:00 Welcome everyone to the first-ever TWiST South Africa meetup, live from Cape Town!
1:00-7:00 It’s been a strange week, hasn’t it? We’re all thinking about Steve Jobs, I know.
10:00-10:30 I learned that if you put a sexy teacher with cleavage in the middle frame, and we get five times the views. And I don’t want to play that game.
10:30-12:30 Thank you to MailChimp for sponsoring the show.
12:30-13:45 Welcome to Tyrone and everyone in South Africa!
15:00-16:00 What is the startup scene like in South Africa?
16:00-17:00 Where are you today? How many people are there?
17:00-19:00 Welcome to Vanessa from Mobiflock (http://mobiflock.com)! (17:30)
19:00-20:30 Tyler, what did you think?
20:30-22:15 Jason and Tyler both give it a 9 on design and Jason gives the product an 8.5.
24:00-25:30 Introducing Nic from Motribe (http://motribe.com). Take it away!
26:45-29:45 Tyler gives Nic a 7 for the pitch and a 8 for the business. Jason gives the exact same scores. The pitch was too fast and not personal.
29:45-32:00 Why did you build this, Nic?
33:00-34:15 By a show of hands, who in the room has been bitten by a shark?
34:15-36:30 Warren from Waytag (http://waytag.com) makes his pitch.
36:30-40:00 This is interesting, but you didn’t give a lot of concrete examples. Jason gives the website a 6.5.
40:00-41:45 Jason gives the pitch a 7 and the business an 8.5. Tyler gives the pitch an 8 and the business an 8.5.
45:00-47:00 Welcome to Jaco of Snapbill (http://snapbill.com) with his pitch.
47:00-49:30 Tyler, based on that presentation, what does this business do?
49:30-52:00 Tyler gives the pitch a 4.5 (because of Jaco’s angry face) and the business a 7.5. Jason gives the pitch a 6.5 and the business a .
52:00-52:30 Welcome to Brad from lessfuss (http://lessfuss.co.za).
55:00-58:30 Jason gives the presentation a 7 and the business a 6. Tyler gives both the presentation and the business a 7.
58:30-1:00:15 Welcome to Patrick from Cognician (http://cognition.com). Let’s hear the pitch.
1:00:15-1:03:15 Tyler: Honestly, I’m still confused. The pitch was a 6.5 and the business was a 6.5. (Jason gives the pitch a 6.5 and the business a 7.)
1:08:00-1:10:00 Let’s hear it for Patrick, nicely done.
1:11:00-1:12:00 Tyler thinks Jason’s #1 was Mobiflock and his #2 was Waytag. Jason thinks Tyler’s #1 was Waytag and his #2 was Mobiflock.
1:12:00-1:13:00 Mobiflock is the winner and Waytag is the runner up! Congratuations! Mobiflock and Waytag will both get five tickets and a table at the LAUNCH conference in March 2012 in San Francisco.
1:13:30-1:14:00 Thank you to Bandwidth Barn for hosting the meetup.
1:16:00-1:17:00 Let’s have a round of applause for Tyrone, for MailChimp and for everyone in South Africa who joined us today.
1:17:00- What’s next on Social Media today, Rob?
Support This Week in Startups and independent media by joining the TWiST Producer Program at TwistList.co!
Multilingual? Translate this episode of TWiST into another language and email the transcript to translate@thisweekin.com
FOLLOW ON TWITTER
Jason: @jason
Tyler: @steepdecline
Tyrone: @tyronerubin
Cognician: @cognician
Snapbill: @snapbill
lessufss: @lessfuss
Waytag: @waytag
Motribe: @motribe
Mobiflock: @mobiflock
Keep up with the latest from our sister company LAUNCH:
Tumblr Tweaks How It Organizes Themes, Adds Real-Time Previews
http://www.launch.is/blog/tumblr-tweaks-how-it-organizes-themes-adds-real-time-preview.html
Fashionistas Rejoice: Brandslane Collects and Organizes the Best Fashion Email Offers
http://www.launch.is/blog/fashionistas-rejoice-brandslane-collects-and-organizes-the-b.html
Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu Broadcasting Google+ On-Air Hangout Peace Lecture
http://www.launch.is/blog/dalai-lama-and-desmond-tutu-broadcasting-google-on-air-hango.html
LAUNCH ‘PAD Tablet: Speaker Lineup
http://www.launch.is/blog/launch-pad-tablet-speaker-lineup.html
TechStars TV: Teams Learn Hard Truths about Money
http://www.launch.is/blog/techstars-tv-teams-learn-hard-truths-about-money.html
Executive Producers
Louis-Eric Simard, Benjamin Gifford, Jacek Artymiak, Octavian Mihai, Will Paoletto, Geoffrey Clapp, Jeff Hoffer, Kyle Lonzo, Austin Miller, Rashaun Sourles, Robb Kunz, Greg Berry, Sean Lynch, Mary Ann Halford, Jim Joyce, Morgan Howard, Margaret Johns, Kyle M. Brown, Paul Cole, Nick Duncan, Magnus Ingvarsson, Amir Ayalon, Carlos Zaidenweber, Avery Keitt, Joshua Shipsey
Duration : 1:20:7
Mark was born and raised in South Africa, and studied finance and
information technology at the University of Cape Town. He went on to found
Thawte, a company specialising in digital certificates and internet privacy,
developed using Open Source software. He sold Thawte to the American company
VeriSign in 1999, and founded HBD Venture Capital and The Shuttleworth
Foundation. In April 2002 Mark became the first African in space, as a cosmonaut
member of the crew of Soyuz mission TM34 to the International Space Station.
Mark maintains that ‘If we are to lift Africa from her current circumstances,
we will need a generation of learners that are gifted with curiosity about
the world in which they live, and the tools to understand and shape that world’.
With this in mind he and his Foundation have invested in projects such as
TuxLabs, HIP2B2, The School Tool Project (to develop a common global school
administration infrastructure that is freely available under an Open Source
licence)and The Ubuntu Project, a community project with participation from
many volunteers, sponsored by Canonical Ltd.
Presented by Marc Chase
Duration : 0:5:7
Lowe Bull Cape Town puts another big-thinking South African into outer space, this time in a new TV commercial for Hansa Pilsener.
Hansa Pilsener, with its kiss of the Saaz hop, is well known for being the beer that is refreshingly different, a beer that is never ordinary. According to creative director Kirk Gainsford, Lowe Bull Cape Town’s new TV commercial for the brand is a compelling and inspirational expression of this positioning.
The talent behind the ad:
* Creative director – Kirk Gainsford
* Art director – Cameron Watson
* Copywriter – Simon Lotze
* Production house: Plank Productions
* Director: Peter Pohorsky
* Production house producer: Di du Toit and Karla Peetz
* Agency producer: Caz Friedman
Duration : 0:1:2
The promise of overflowing returns on interest dominates business talk across Eastern Africa, with the latest addition to the region being a country that’s the third largest producer of oil in Sub Saharan Africa- but that alone is not the only interest…a country that’s starting from scratch, is every investors dream. And as Terryanne Chebet reports, Southern Sudan is ready for business.
Duration : 0:2:37
(UN)EMPLOYMENT
So the South African government has claimed that this is the decade of employment and they will create 5 million jobs or 500 000 jobs a year.
The reality is, the government can only create one thing; DEBT! They borrow money from international banks, half goes into their own back pockets and the rest is spent into the economy to create more jobs. This does not create jobs; it creates more debt, which you must pay off with higher taxes. However, you notice the many countries that are collapsing and going bankrupt? This is because they cannot pay off the debt, as jobs have NOT been created. No jobs means no tax revenue and the government will not be creating any jobs.
In South Africa in 2010, 455 000 jobs were created. 500 000 jobs will mean an increase of 45 000 jobs a year, not 500 000 additional jobs. But whenever Jacob Zuma speaks, he tells us we are all global now, so actually the jobs will be created in China, not South Africa.
But lets give the government the benefit of the doubt. Lets assume that 500 000 jobs are created in 2011. Well 1 million people will lose their jobs in the same time. That’s a 500 000 job loss, not job increase.
Why is this? The government has made it virtually impossible to open a new small business. It’s too expensive and too difficult to comply with all the red tape, bureaucracy, fee’s regulations and permits. This is not by mistake or for your benefit; it’s by design to create a 2 class system. The super rich and the super poor-social welfare with no middle class.
We have one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. 74% of people leaving school or university will not find employment. But you know who is always hiring? The crime networks!
That is why the crime is increasing on a daily basis and as more and more unemployed people are employed by the crime network’s, it means that YOU, the middle class are going to increasing become the target of crime. That’s the only employment that’s going to go up. Not only that, but as taxes and cost of living increase for you, the middle class, the government is going to direct the poor against you.
If you believe the government, well they will actually be creating some jobs. Volunteer jobs for the elections and census. Free jobs, no money jobs, still starving jobs for everyone. (Slavery.)
We are going into the highest unemployment rate you have ever seen. We are going into a society where there is no middle class, the 2-class system. The ANC is communist and that’s how a communist countries work,
You are going to be taxed to death and be regulated out of business. The cost of living is going to increase. Petrol will hit R15 a liter in 2011, food will become too expensive to afford.
South Africa already has the greatest divide between rich and poor already and the government is doing everything to increase this gap. If you cannot see this, then you are blind and you only have yourself to blame when it all happens.
Duration : 0:8:57
Africa Business Report 11 – Zambia & South Africa Mobile – BBC News, recorded 20.02.2010
A monthly look at business across the continent. The BBC talks to the people and businesses who are changing the economic face of Africa. BBC correspondents within each country will report on the growing trends and latest business developments in this region. Recorded from BBC World News.
Duration : 0:10:59
Africa Business Report 2 – South Africa World Cup Boom – Zimbabwe Economy & Kenya Mobile – BBC News, recorded 26.08.2009
A monthly look at business across the continent. The BBC talks to the people and businesses who are changing the economic face of Africa. BBC correspondents within each country will report on the growing trends and latest business developments in this region. Recorded from BBC World News.
Duration : 0:10:50
Africa Business Report 1 – South Africa World Cup Boom & Nigeria Free Trade – BBC News,recorded 26.08.2009
A monthly look at business across the continent. The BBC talks to the people and businesses who are changing the economic face of Africa. BBC correspondents within each country will report on the growing trends and latest business developments in this region. Recorded from BBC World News.
Duration : 0:10:57