Tag: twitter

What a good idea

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Sometimes a good idea comes along and doesn’t get anywhere because it doesn’t get the support it deserves or needs to take off. I would give you examples, but because they never got the support they deserved or needed, I’ve never heard of them. Usually, the only ideas that ever get anywhere are those that are going to make someone, somewhere, some money: cars, computers, drugs etc etc.

But the good idea I heard today isn’t going to make much money. Instead of Rands and cents, this one is all about the currency of goodwill. Which makes you feel all happy and warm inside, but won’t buy you beer. So not perfect, by any means, but still pretty good.

The idea is the brainchild of the improbably-named Dean Oelschig, a creative type from Jo’burg. But let’s not hold those facts against him, for he has come up with the idea of #worldcuphost. This is what is called a hashtag, which is a word or phrase, prefixed with a # that people can search for easily on Twitter.
And Dean’s idea is that willing people from South Africa advertise themselves on Twitter as #worldcuphosts so that visitors coming over from foreign parts can ask all those vexing, awkward or downright stupid questions about the country and how to “do stuff” here – and hopefully get a quick, helpful answer.
I am already predicting a plethora of beer-related queries, interspersed with several on transport, a couple on the weather and maybe even one or two on the football. But mainly beer.

And because the people on twitter are generally of a somewhat higher intelligence and educational standing than on other, less enjoyable social media platforms which involve feeding other people’s penguins on their imaginary farms, the answers those tourists will get will be honest, informative and helpful. Right?

So, go and advertise yourself as a #worldcuphost. 
Better still, retweet this post (use the little button below) so that people know what it’s all about, because obviously, the more people that are aware of this – on either side – the better it will work. 
Let’s do our bit to make this World Cup a even better experience for those visiting South Africa.

A Day of Twitter in South Africa

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There have always been a lot of discussions about the use of social media service twitter in South Africa. Apparently allegedly, there are those who tweet too much, over-utilising and polluting the service and there are those under-utilisers who tweet too little. Then there are the ones that use it for work – the creative types, the geeks, the wine traders and the newspaper people. There are the twits who just tell us about their daily life and their kids. And, of course, those that only use it for telling us about their problems. Joy.

Having recently cracked the 500 follower threshold and with the vast majority of those followers coming from the Rainbow Nation, it dawned on me that while everything changes on a daily basis, there has emerged a typical day of tweets in South Africa.
I have attempted to describe this below, without using any twitter usernames whatsoever. However, it’s my guess that many people out there will recognise some of themselves somewhere in the next 24 hours:

  • 0600-0700: Tweets about waking up and requiring coffee. At least one smartarse is in the office already.
  • 0700-0800: First tweets about how nice/not nice the weather is in Cape Town this morning. Most descriptions will include some reference to the mountain and its current state of visibility.
  • 0800-0900: Traffic and coffee dominate this hour. Swear at the BMW driver who’s using his phone while driving and tweet his registration to us all from behind the wheel. And then order a coffee from that coffee shop (or, if you want to be different, that other coffee shop). Make sure you give us all the details and remember that the more complicated the name of the coffee you order, the cooler you are.
  • 0900-1100: The first challenges of the work day arise. Spreadsheets fail to spread, clients become annoying and Julius Malema has said something silly again. At least one person has got a headache and the more rotund twits have already mentioned lunch twice.
  • 1100-1200: The morning is dragging. Just like yesterday’s did at about this time.
  • 1200- 1400: The accepted lunch period. It is vital that South Africa and the rest of the world, plus any aliens who are tuning in, know that your posh sandwich from the local posh sandwich shop is the best thing you’ve ever tasted since your intricate coffee order three hours earlier. Talking of which, you’ll probably be getting another coffee about now. If you brought your lunch from home, tell us. Well done, we’re proud of you.
  • 1400-1500: The work day. Your tweets drop to an average of 3 per minute. Tweet continually to remind us that you are working and please don’t disturb you. Really. You’re working. And don’t need to be distur – hey! – check out this picture of a fluffy kitten!
  • 1500-1600: There’s a thunderstorm in Jo’burg. The clouds are dark, and the rain/hail is like coming down like you’ve ever seen before since this mid-afternoon period yesterday. There is, apparently, nothing like a Highveld thunderstorm. Please feel free to remind everyone of that fact.
  • 1600-1700: The wind down. You leave work at 5pm and because we never learnt to tell the time, you are happy to give us frequent reminders of exactly how long it is until that particular hour. About every 10 minutes should suffice.
  • 1700-1800: Damnit! It seems that everyone else has left the office at the same time as you. Again. Consequently, the roads are clogged and you may complain about the traffic like you did this morning. Taxis are especially good to moan about as everyone hates them and will understand and empathise with your angst.
  • 1800-2000: It’s about this time of evening that I always wonder what other people are eating, as I stare at the assorted crayfish, oysters and swan lying upon my vast and heaving table. Fortunately, that wonder can be remedied with quick check of twitter. Popular choices always include “2 minute noodles”, “tjops on the braai” and “Steers burger”. The usual accompaniment for each of these delicacies is the phrase “nom nom nom”.
  • 2000-2400: Mainly sport and irritating imported american prime-time TV prefixed with a hashtag. And a mention of what you’re drinking. You can even twitpic it if you want. Don’t forget to say goodnight when you go to bed, will you?
  • 2400-0600: Do you suffer from insomnia? Complain about it during these hours. No-one is listening. The only other people awake are other insomniacs who are too concerned with their own mental issues to be bothered about yours.

And that’s about it. We’ll do the same thing again tomorrow. And the day after.

You can follow 6000 on twitter here.

Fishhoek Shark Attack

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As tweeted by Fishhoek resident Gregg Coppen:

He followed that up with this:

Emergency services just arrived. It must have been a person. The shark breached it’s head out the water no remains http://yfrog.com/1dronnpj

And then this:

We are dumbstruck, that was so surreal. That shark was HUGE. Like dinosaur huge. #sharkattack #fishhoek

Then later:

Helicopters are out and looking for any trace of the remains. Shark headed off Clovelly way #fishoek #sharkattack

This after a shark warning was issued earlier in the day (via http://www.sharkspotters.org.za/)

Wow. More on this developing story later, I’m sure.

UPDATE: Middle-aged man fatally attacked by shark 20m out at Fish Hoek – victim not found (via 567 CapeTalk)

UPDATE 2: News 24 report:

Ian Klopper of the NSRI told News24 that an intensive search was underway to locate the swimmer, but had so far yielded nothing.
A white male, between 32 and 38 years old has been taken by a shark and we have not been able to locate the patient,” Klopper said.
The identity of the victim is still unknown.

Other reports suggest that the victim’s wife was on the beach receiving counselling from emergency services.

UPDATE 3: Cape Times report:

The search has been called off for the night for the body of a tourist from the DRC killed in a shark attack on Tuesday afternoon at Fish Hoek beach on Cape Town’s False Bay coast.
Divers and rescuers from the police and the National Sea Rescue Institute stood down as the water turned murky in failing light.
There has thusfar been no remains found of the man who had been on holiday in SA for a month.

And 6000 miles… commenter accuses shark spotters of negligence & desertion.

UPDATE 4: Joyanne comments that people are still swimming at Fishhoek this morning, despite the “no swimming” flags flying and the ongoing search for the remains of the victim.

UPDATE 5: News24 weighs in with headline “Shark Rips Tourist Apart”, full of conflicting information and reminding us of previous False Bay shark attack in 2005 when a diver was also “Ripped Apart”.

Fry Cocks up again

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With at least eleven people including a police officer currently missing and livelihoods, houses and belongings lost in the floods in Cumbria, Stephen Fry feels that it’s a good time to make a cheap and smutty gag about the worst hit area:

frycock

I’m sure this will be lauded by his legion of 1,000,000+ automatons followers as hugely amusing, but I can’t help but feel it’s insensitively-timed, amazingly juvenile and done in rather poor taste.
But then, he does have a bit of history in that regard:

Words tumbled from my lips during that interview that were as idiotic, ignorant and offensive as you could imagine. It had all been proceeding along perfectly acceptable lines until I said something like “let’s not forget which side of the border Auschwitz was on.”

You can really go off some people.

“OMG! That’s disgusting!” Twitter and Stephen Fry’s ‘free speech’ hypocrisy

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Compare and contrast:

Tuesday last week:
The Trafiguragate scandal, whereby the multinational company, through solicitors Carter-Ruck, succeeded in blocking The Guardian newspaper from reporting on parliamentary goings-on, only to be forced into retreat when thousands of Twitter users (including Stephen Fry) got hold of the story and blew it wide open – effectively negating the gagging order and forcing Carter-Ruck to drop it.

A true victory for free speech.

Friday last week:
Jan Moir shares her views on Stephen Gately’s death in the Daily Mail. Cue widespread outrage on Twitter, a record number of complaints to the Press Complaints Commission (encouraged by Stephen Fry) and even one to the police, forcing Jan Moir into publishing a clarification of her remarks.

A true victory for free speech?

Of course, as many will no doubt tell me very shortly after I hit the PUBLISH button, these stories are completely different. After all, The Guardian was right for wanting to publish that and the Daily Mail was wrong for publishing the other. Right?

Well – who decides? Stephen Fry and his happy band of sycophants had quite a big say in both these issues and as he comments:

Maybe the two twitterstorms of last week point to a new kind of democracy. L’Affaire Moir followed hard on the heels of a quite horrific attempt to muzzle the press by the lawyers Carter-Ruck. In the name of sub judice this notorious law firm slapped a ‘superinjunction’ on The Guardian newspaper forbidding them to mention the name of an MP or the question he had tabled in Parliament on the Trafigura toxic waste dumping scandal. Six hours of TwitterIndignation later, during which time every censored detail was made freely available for all to see, and the injunction was, force majeure, lifted. The internet had hobbled it fatally and it was led limping back to its stall, to the jeers and cheers of the public.

 And I think that we all agree that he’s right, but then goes onto say:

Well, I contend that I do not wield influence. I contend that Twitter users are not sheep but living, dreaming, thinking, hoping human beings with minds, opinions and aspirations of their own. Of the 860,000 or so who follow me the overwhelming majority are too self-respecting, independent-minded and free-thinking to have their opinions formed or minds made up for them in any sphere, least of all Twitter.

Which is utter bullshit. When you have 860,000 people hanging on your every tweet, searching for the “correct”, “trendy” or “socially acceptable” response to any given topic, you wield huge influence and, what’s more, he knows it.
No, not all of his followers are sheep, but let’s face it, to get a record 21,000 letters to the PCC, you only need 2% of them to blindly follow you, the other 98% can stand idly by and graze. 

So it’s the best of both worlds for Mr Fry: he can honestly and truthfully state that “the overwhelming majority” of his followers can think for themselves, while the small minority get on with spreading his gospel on whichever side of whichever subject he has chosen.

I’m not necessarily saying that he was incorrect in his choice of sides on these two affairs, merely that one shouldn’t automatically believe everything that influential people tell you.

Even Stephen Fry. Or maybe even Especially Stephen Fry…
Thou shalt think. For. Yourselves.