Monthly Archives: September 2008

Joe on IOL Technology

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I was quoted in an IOL article: Landmark judgment liberates VANS

It’s going to be interesting how many new national telecoms operators pop up… 3, 6, 10? You need a good chunk of change to build network infrastructure.

Reminds me of a theory from iWeek a year or two ago.. somebody commented on why the ISP/ICT industry was not “representational” (too many white faces).. he figured that smart BEE investors would not be interested in telecoms: too risky, unstable, low margins, fast moving, hard to predict.. and very capital intensive.

It is ridiculous to call this an industry. This is not. This is rat eat rat, dog eat dog. I’ll kill ‘em, and I’m going to kill ‘em before they kill me. You’re talking about the American way of survival of the fittest. — Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s

Comes down to a simple question.. how long do you need to have that fibre in the ground before you recover your costs and what else could you have done with your money?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy with the news that VANS get IECNS licenses, but this is the very beginning of a long journey..

Blogging for Directors

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After a recent comment on my blog by Paul from ITWeb and an IOD presentation I attended, I was interested in what you should and should not be blogging about as the director of a company.

The basics:

As a basic principle a director has a fiduciary duty to the company and the shareholders. This boils down to: you must act in the best interests of the company and shareholders when acting as a director. This would certainly extend to the release of confidential information without proper authorisation. It all becomes much more serious when a company becomes public / widely-held.

So you have to ask yourself.. is the information public knowledge and could it harm the business? Would the other directors of the business he happy with the information you publish?

I found this interesting:

..the information in a blog can be considered to be of an uneven distribution and therefore could be considered prejudicial to others who would not normally find it.

I guess it makes sense, but.. truth is free, information costs.. you have to work at finding relevant information. I don’t see how people can expect to be guaranteed to be made aware of information which is freely available.

When I blog about the ventures I’m involved with I most definitely do not want to be the official voice with the clean clinical PR message.. nobody wants to read that. I think people like a more fun, personal and subjective view and a story.

Often I can’t share all the facts, but I’m betting it’s the story you remember more than the facts.

Quick Update

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My week in bullet form..

  • Monday, storage space shopping, sunset run in Mouille Point, sushi with friends.
  • Tuesday, packing, sorting and getting rid of old and unused stuff, Lions Head walk, drinks at Sinn’s, pizza at Knead, Jazz at Asoka, drinks with ma.tt.
  • Wednesday, gym, house shopping in Bo-Kaap, heavy chef meeting at 24.com, Jason gave me a WordCamp t-shirt, turns out Rob reads my blog.. Hi Rob!, 27 Dinner, nice Japanese salad at Balducci’s with Cath.
  • Thursday, lunch with Chris, chatted about WordPress things mostly, cable car run, 5km at ~5min/km pace.
  • Friday, packing and moving, Newlands forest walk with Meebs, sushi at the Vineyard Hotel with the ~ex-wife.
  • Saturday, packing and moving, Betty’s Bay with Mia, Georg, Cath and Parri.
  • Sunday, breakfast in Betty’s, afternoon in Jonkershoek for Debby’s birthday, drinks in Stellenbosch.

Moving is not fun.