South Africans enjoy getting social

Online ad agency Acceleration point out what a great opportunity social networking sites are for SA brands as ads can be geo-targetted (sounds kind of James Bondish... cool). Good point. Personally I love Myspace. It's like starting school all over again and having a whole playground of people to make friends with. Of course, as in the playground, you can also lose friends damn quickly (as I discovered when on day two I deleted all my friends by accident...oops). The only South African's however so far that have joined my online posse are the Real Estate Agents. Thanks for the add*. Also worth visiting is Mika (have been singing Take It Easy ever since I heard it - listen I frickin dare you to disagree) and the alter-ego of one of my Hoxtonite friends Bad Lover (check the splendid video out).

*Myspace speak, get with it

ShowStudio

ShowStudio is the blog/online gallery/digital work book of UK based fashion photographer/visionary Nick Knight. Worth popping in to check out the mix of leftfield and high fashion pics and projects if you get a spare moment... hec it's Monday what else you gonna do?

Adopt An African

It's entirely possible I had too much time on my hands this weekend... Anyhow I decided to create a site for locals to put themselves up for adoption by global mega stars: ADOPT AN AFRICAN. If you would like to take part email at dan (at) totalmedia.co.za with a pic and answers to the standard questions (found on the site). Please don't tell Madonna i'm actually from Hertfordshire...

Rad new Extreme Hotel launches in Cape Town

Whilst I have a bit of a problem with the word "Extreme" (it's such a frickin nineties snowboardin twat kind of a word) I'm quite tickled by a story in The Weekend Argus on Cape Town's new Extreme Hotel. In an unlikely move dull-as-ditch water hotel chain Protea has created a hotel aimed at "extreme sports enthusiasts". There is a whole bunch of quirky features to keep even the shortest of Gen Y attention spans amused, such as a climbing wall on the outside of the building, a swimming pool that doubles as an aquarium for diners, shark cage style lifts and a smoking room with coffins for seats. Shame none of their promotional shots on their rather sparse website really captures any of this...

Design Indaba 2007

The next Design Indaba sounds splendid - with two of my heroes booked (Brian Eno and David Lachapelle). This via bizcom "Expect to see presentations from designers at the vanguard of their respective fields - Daljit Singh, creative director and founder of leading interactive design company in the UK, Digit; music producer Brian Eno; and Dutch design company Droog partner Jurgen Bey. Also on the programme is multi award-winning photographer David Lachapelle, who began his career working for Andy Warhol."

Fad 3.0

Ok, so we're all agreed that web 2.0 is all a big fad then. However web 3.0 is the real deal and we're all gonna be millionaires. Where do I buy shares? According to the NY Times 3.0 is all about being guided to your desired information by smart super computing. Couldn't we rather just get some unemployed people and give them a notebook, a pencil and a living wage?

"Referred to as Web 3.0, the effort is in its infancy, and the very idea has given rise to skeptics who have called it an unobtainable vision. But the underlying technologies are rapidly gaining adherents, at big companies like I.B.M. and Google as well as small ones. Their projects often center on simple, practical uses, from producing vacation recommendations to predicting the next hit song.
But in the future, more powerful systems could act as personal advisers in areas as diverse as financial planning, with an intelligent system mapping out a retirement plan for a couple, for instance, or educational consulting, with the Web helping a high school student identify the right college.
The projects aimed at creating Web 3.0 all take advantage of increasingly powerful computers that can quickly and completely scour the Web." (via NYTimes)

Attack of the space chickens

Ever wondered what happens when you have one of those completely impractical ideas in a brainstorm that everyone thinks sounds amazing but decide the client will never be daft enough to sign it off and then you sneak it into the presentation anyway just for a giggle? Looks like someone working for KFC found out when they slipped the giant Colonel space face into the deck

Can you sue a company for making us look like twats to the rest of the galaxy? (via bizcommunity)

Top Shop plays pass the parcel

man I love this idea (via fashion psfk)

"In a few weeks' time users of topshop.com will be emailed an invitation to 'pass the parcel'. The online game entitles each person to unwrap one virtual layer of wrapping paper to reveal a prize (a discount, free items etc) before getting the chance to forward the 'parcel' to a friend. With the top prize being a year's supply of Topshop clothes."

The Guardian's Web 2.0 issue

Whole bunch of web 2.0 related goodies to be found on The Guardian's site. Including features on Blogger, Flickr, Myspace, Technorati in fact all the new web heroes. Ah makes me nostalgic for the late nineties...

Bill Gates future gazes

YouTube pah! Bill G is after something much more sci fi (from the Observer):

For Gates, the next revolution is not in the content of websites but the way we physically interact with computers, with keyboard and mouse giving way to speech, touch and mobility.
'The pace of innovation over these next 10 years will be much faster than what we have seen in the past,' he said. Innovations on display at the grandly named Brussels Microsoft Executive Briefing Centre include a mirror which can remember and display people who have looked in it, computers capable of examining and telling the difference between objects, and a smart surface on which documents, maps and videos can be manipulated by hand gestures.
'I'm just sitting here, pulling up the information, showing it to people, and there's no paperwork, there's no old information,' enthused Gates. 'I'm able to access all that information just through these hand gestures. Every desk, every meeting room table, will have that technology in it, you'll just take it for granted.'

I'll settle for a PC that can open Outlook in less than 30 seconds and affordable broadband myself.

Audi Joburg Fashion Week

We've just stated working on the campaign for Audi Joburg Fashion Week. Should keep us from hanging out on street corners chewing matches for a month or two. This from our release:

"Leading international automotive brand, Audi, will become the headline sponsor of South Africa's first annual autumn/winter fashion week, taking place in Johannesburg from the 13th to 17th February 2007.The event, announced earlier this year, will run under the title Audi Joburg Fashion Week at Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton.The launch of this event closes a long-standing gap in the South African fashion calendar, giving the country's top established designers the opportunity to showcase autumn/winter collections at a major fashion week run to international standards.

The event will feature South Africa's foremost designers, including many that are representing the country abroad such as Gavin Rajah (showcasing for a second season at Paris Fashion Week Couture in January), Gideon (recently returned from London Fashion Week), KlukCGdT (showcasing at Russian Fashion Week in the new year) Craig Port and Paul van Zyl Couture (who have both recently returned from Acapulco Fashion).

Other leading designers will include Hip Hop, Gabi Rosenwerth for Rosenwerth, Sonwabile Ndamase for Vukani Collections, Fred Eboka for Eboka, Spero Villioti, Carducci, Warrick Gautier for Jenni Button and Hilton Weiner, Darkie, Lunar and Thomas Red."

Heroin Chic

As an ex-East Londoner (uh the one in the UK) it's with some bitter irony that i've followed the spectacular rise of Pete Doherty as a global fashion icon. It seems the circle is now complete and the Hoxton guttersnipe has now launched his own fashion label. I was worried when I saw his name on trend presentations by a number of local retail clients (names withheld) now i truly despair. He is working with Manchester RocknRoll style label Gio-Goi. Meanwhile girlfriend Kate Moss is designing for Top Shop. Ah well I guess they need something to keep them busy...

Share Your Look

Share Your Look is a new style themed community site that allows global fashionistas to upload a pic of their outfit (being Monday morning I decided against sharing my current one which i'm describing as "dishevelled"). Also allows you to build a "style-blog" and I suspect they have some cunning peer to peer ecommerce idea up their sleeves.

Google ad-revenue beating TV

via Brand Republic

Google's UK ad revenue will overtake Channel 4's by the end of the year, according to the broadcaster's chief executive Andy Duncan.
The search giant, which acquired video-sharing site YouTube for $1.65bn (£884m) last month, will pull in around £900m of ad revenue in the UK by the end of the year according to Duncan, in comparison with Channel 4's estimated £800m.

Finding your MegaNiche

Wired is always a good place to tank up on some new futuristic sounding buzz words. Mega Niche being the latest one i've picked up. It comes from an interesting article about how the Internet is enabling content that in the old media world would be considered ridculously niche to gain significant audiences (million +) online. It's an interesting thought. Certainly most of the sites I visit are very specific to the interests I follow rather than more general portals.

The Purple List

The ever wonderful PSFK have recently launched a worldwide events listing page, The Purple List. Aimed at the kind of people that regularly visit PSFK (ad execs, trendspotters, assorted hipster consultants) I think its a nice source for event ideas and generally seeing what's going on out there.

The World

Whilst flicking through a copy of Tank magazine I came across an article on Dubai (the arab Vegas as they're calling it these days) that mentions The World. Reminds me of those inebriated ideas you come up with at 2am that everyone agrees is complete genius and never happens. Obviously same thing happened in Dubai but with the booze and with gazillions of oil dollars to back it up with. The World is a world shape series (uhm not to scale of course) of man-made islands being constructed off the coast of Dubai. Cuts down on those difficult where to go to this year holiday conversations I suppose.

The Popular Front is away

Instead of being at his desk, The Popular Front has been hit by some strange tropical disease (or flu). Haven't achieved much other than the following:
1: paranoia that the chicken I teased at the Balkanology party last Friday gave me bird flu
2: the completion of the biography of the late John Peel (RIP)
3: the realisation that the Travel and Food channels can lose their appeal
4: the contemplation that the the History channel is strangely fascinating at times
5: the finishing of assorted magazines (including classic GQ article about how Myspace will help you get laid more often.. pfffhh this is why i read Marie Claire instead!)
6: a curious observation that my doctor has a manuscript for a novel on his desk. Couldn't read more than the name Betsy, somewhere in the first couple of lines... intriguing

No doubt this is of no interest to you whatsoever.