If you want to meaningfully participate in the world you, never mind change it, you need to know what forces are driving shaping it. Anyone who's still has doubts about how digital online technologies are changing the way we function as human beings need only look at the speaker list for this year's Flux Trends Review, set to take place on 7 June in Johannesburg. The annual event claims to cherry-pick "the best thought leaders to provide a 360-degree look ...

The wait for one of the most eagerly anticipated public debuts in tech history ends tomorrow. Anyone currently biting their nails in anticipation has to be content with the titbits of information coming through from the social network. The latest nugget to come through is that Facebook has confirmed what it will be pricing its stock at. When it enters the NASDAQ tomorrow, ordinary members of the public will be able to buy shares in the world's largest social network ...

Google has just announced the launch of Knowledge Graph, which it sees as a smarter way to search. Knowledge Graph is a way of tying together pieces of meta-data about things, such as their relationships to other things within the world. What this means is that when you search for something that is available in the Knowledge Graph, Google will display additional information about the thing that you searched for, so that you can directly access facts before having to ...

Eight years ago, Facebook was started in a dorm room at Harvard University. Now it's about to become a public company, valued at US$100-billion. Those must have been the craziest eight years of Mark Zuckerberg's life. As the social network's initial public offering (IPO) is scheduled for tomorrow, it seems like a good time to reflect on what the company has become, and ponder if you'll be one of the investors to snatch up a little part of Facebook for somewhere ...

I am, admittedly, not as bad as my mother when it comes to understanding the technological trappings of our modern world. I am even sometimes able to provide her with technical support when she calls me with her problems and queries (examples include "how do I like something on Facebook?" and "where is on?"). But, for someone who was born sometime after 1940, I am somewhat of a technological retard, and here are some of the things I struggle with ...

We've discussed BitCoin at some length on Memeburn, including how it works, its potential downfalls, and its genuine merits. BitCoin has experienced its ups and downs in the few years that it has emerged as an online currency. Last year, a major 'pick-pocketing' scandal when an anonymous BitCoin user claimed that thieves had managed to steal nearly US$ 500 000 worth of BitCoin. Although the case was unverified, a series of similar incidents caused the BitCoin exchange rate to crash ...

As any successful company will tell you, building a good reputation is not an easy process and it usually takes years of hard work to get it done. With the explosion of Web 2.0 in the last couple of years, many companies are focusing on social media experts (brand ambassadors) and trusted PR agencies to build them a positive online reputation around their products, services, and their brand. Everyone that has access to the online universe can be a "citizen journalist" ...

Yes yes we get it, television is getting more social and we can now follow are favourite TV shows on Twitter and Like them on Facebook. Smart TVs allow us to watch and share and that's pretty awesome, but what does all that actually mean for the future of the telly? According to John Cabral of Viacom Media Networks, a new medium is on its way. Speaking at the Korea Communications Conference, Cabral argues that the "current distinctions between the internet ...

Standard Bank has rolled out what it claims is the world's first bank card to include both NFC and debit card functionality. The so-called Muvo card was developed in partnership with the South African bank's business development centre and innovation incubator Beyond Payments. The debit card functionality will come from Mastercard, which has given the card the go-ahead. Beyond Payments claims the dual-function card “is believed to be a world first in the realm of cashless payment technology.” The product was ...

A 13-year-old girl has been raped by a 45-year-old man she allegedly met on Twitter. The young girl had reportedly skipped school to meet up with the accused at her parents home in an affluent suburb of Pretoria, South Africa. "When the girl opened the door, she realised that the man was a lot older than he had pretended to be online", police spokesperson Captain Marissa van der Merwe told the Beeld newspaper. The girl then tried to close the ...