The best thing that ever happened to @pigspotter was the news that he was being searched for by members of the Johannesburg Metro Police for "defeating the ends of justice." It turned him into a star and his Twitter following has now jumped to over 10 000, almost doubling overnight.The story of pigspotter was picked up by Dineo Ranaka of YFM, then moved on to the BBC, before shooting around the internet, into the print media and onto the ...

A bank statement from the year 2050 arrived at the office the other day. I was happy to see I received R300 000 back from a “Green Goals Tax Back Incentive" but apparently the One Hour Full left-brain wipe I had cost me R89 000. This obscure, intriguing artifact was created by Atmosphere Communications as part of an innovative social media campaign for Sanlam called Save Your Future.In a bid to give young adults a ‘reality check’ and motivate them ...

Businesses across Africa are expecting a revolution in internet access, technology and costs as a result of the rush of new undersea cables connecting the continent. More than 90 percent of business decision-makers across Africa expect prices to drop and competition to increase dramatically, according to the Telecoms Trends in Africa 2010 report, released today by World Wide Worx and Database 360. The survey, conducted among 1100 internet-using small, medium and large businesses across 20 African countries, also revealed that most African ...

John Waibochi of Virtual City, from Kenya, on Thursday scooped the Nokia $1,000,000 Growth Economy Venture Challenge at Nokia World.Launched at CES 2010, Nokia’s Growth Economy Venture Challenge called on innovators from around the world to create a mobile product or service to improve the lives of people in developing nations and compete for the chance to win venture capital investment of $1 million.This is an investment of $1m in Waibochi’s business, so it comes with support and connections ...

Microsoft has unveiled what it is calling its “fastest, safest” internet browser yet, saying Internet Explorer 9 will redefine the way ordinary consumers interact with the web.The beta version of IE9 is available for free public download from tonight at midnight, with Microsoft's Colin Erasmus describing the new browser as a “game-changing” release.“IE9 will change the web forever. It delivers a fast, clean and safe browsing experience that puts the focus on the sites and programmes that people care about. ...

Computer games can make us better people, argues renowned futurist and game designer Jane McGonigal.In an impeccably researched and delivered presentation at the 2010 London Nokia World Forum, McGonigal spoke about how computer gaming can positively impact the world, turning people into "super-empowered, hopeful individuals".Gaming is mainstream. And if there is anyone who doubts this, the figures speak for themselves. By age 21, an average person in a developed economy would have spent more than 10 000 hours playing computer ...

Here is a list of the top ten worldwide mobile applications from Nokia's "Calling All Innovators" competition. From these ten finalists, one winner will be chosen. The challenge was for developers to submit their best ideas for a new mobile product or solution designed to improve the lives of people in the developing world.The mission? To build a product, which will be a profitable business, that improves the lives of people who live in a part of the world where ...

During a major press event at its San Francisco headquarters yesterday, Twitter unveiled a new version of Twitter.com. The refresh will be immediately available to only one percent of its 160-million registered users at first, but will roll out to everyone during the coming weeks.The biggest notable difference is in the manner that user feeds are presented. A new two pane approach sees the old timeline and tweets presented in the left-hand column, with details about a specific tweet presented ...

Twitter is not a social network says Twitter Vice President for Business and Corporate development Kevin Thau, it's all about news."Twitter is news. It is information. Twitter is actually transforming the nature of news. It's transforming the way you are consuming information and think about news. When it comes to breaking news I don't think there has ever been a platform as interesting as Twitter," he said.Speaking at Nokia World 2010 in London, Thau also spoke about how it ...

With Facebook’s stringent rules regarding contests and competitions on its site, you need a lot more than free giveaways to build your Facebook community. You need to be interesting and relevant to your target market. Content is king, as the saying goes, and that has never been truer than when dealing with Facebook in a marketing context.Here are a few helpful, common-sense ideas that will assist you in growing your business fan base.1. Add Value You need to think about yourself as ...