I became the Chairman of the ISPA PR Working Group yesterday. So I get to go to media breakfasts and meet tech journos. How cool is that..

Busy week, kinda lost track of what I as up to.. mostly because I was moving and it was school holidays so Mia was around Thursday-Sunday..

• Monday, signed the new lease, gym, swim.
• Tuesday, moving, figured out the electricity and water, moving, wine on the new deck, unpacking, pizza at Rafiki’s, entertaining story of how Miki started Rafiki’s.
• Wednesday, gym, swim, plumbers, Amobia internet install at the house, Mia time.
• Thursday, gym, swim, Stellenbosch visit to help Georg move.
• Friday, had to keep Mia, three plumbers and two carpet cleaners entertained.
• Saturday, Rocking the Daisies, jumping castles and JacSharp, thanks for the ticket Bev.
• Sunday, Waterfront outing to see the USS Theodore Roosevelt, walked down to the Daily Deli for brunch with Andy, gym, swim, Chardonnay and pizza at Adesso with Vanessa and George, I think it could work for the November GeekDinner.

Idea of the week.. You can’t please all of the people all of the time.

..off to go walk up Lion’s Head. Have a fun summer kids.

A few people asked me to upload my slides from the GeekDinner at Asoka.

A bit overdue, but I was moving house.. so I’m writing this in the new place sipping a glass of Chardonnay, looking out over the city and watching Scrubs. Home sweet home.

Here you go.. Joe’s version of Lifestyle Design.

It was a nice dinner.. cosy, reminded me of the original 2006 geekdinners.

Had some good feedback from my talk. Nice to know I’m not the only crazy one.

Just a week in the life of Joe..

• Monday, interview with The Times about the VANS>ECNS mess, house shopping in Tamboerskloof, cable car run, R29 burgers at Jamaica me Crazy, OC s1 d2.
• Happy Banana Republic day.
• I now have a free subscription to Sports Illustrated. We concur: it’s pretty lame.. not even a few pics of hot woman.
• Tuesday, lunch with Jonathan, OC s1 d3, Asoka jazz night, JacSharp at Bambu, William Wallace moment.. got a phone number, whoot! Bumped into JC.
• Wednesday, Red Herring (Noordhoek) for pizza and beer, drinks at Monkey Valley, try Malibu and Appletizer.. ok, I know it’s a bit girly but it tastes like summer, drinks at Carlisle’s with friends, Graham is back from Aus, played the Nails game.
• There’s something about listening to Mr Jones at a nice pub with a cold beer.
• Track of the month, Mind Circus by Way Out West, Cream 15yr album, disc 3.
• September’s been a month without internet at home, guess I took a break, I noticed a bit of a drop in productivity, but I was looking at my September photos and it’s been a fun month.
• Thursday, gym, OC s1 d3->5, a few glasses of wine with Andy back from London.
• Thursday was odd in the sense that.. I’ve been wishing to just be bored for a while now and I managed that on Thursday for about an hour.
• Friday, Mia and I went to Lourensford to buy some wine and chase a few peacocks around, dinner at Will’s.
• Had a tough (emotional) day, but Mia and a random dinner with a good friend reminded me how lucky I am and cheered me up.
• Saturday, met up with family at the airport, lunch with Debby at Mimi’s, nice afternoon nap, gym, swim, dinner with Cath at Fabulous, drinks at Asoka. Thanks for the suggestion Jono.
• Sunday, slept late, gym, swim, got some sun, Neo moussaka for lunch, worked on my GeekDinner talk, walk by the sea, Clone Wars movie.. it was OK’ish, Kauai snack.
• I’ve been challenged to write a blog post / list (?) defining my perfect match (woman).. that could be tricky.
• Idea for the week.. sometimes it’s just easier to do the right thing.
• Somebody pretty close to me called me a hedonist.. (pure pleasure seeker).. Some days I think I’m the only normal one.
• The three men and a little lady have a new pad in Tamboerskloof, moving in on Tuesday.. “Cape Town in the summertime and the livin’ is easy”.. can’t wait for summer.

See you at Asoka tonight crazy kids..

I was introduced to the local game at Carlisle’s in Vredehoek last night. It’s called: Nails. Good fun.

You’ll find a big chunk of wood at the back (past the bar) with a few people standing around it. The object of the game is to drive your nail into the log before the other guys do. The catch is that you have to use the wrong side of the hammer.. the narrow/sharp side. The hammer must be at your side when you start your swing. The hammer gets passed around the log, one hit per player per turn..

The last guy to drive in his nail (flush) buys a round of drinks.

Simple.. yeah, but it’s not that easy. Go try it. I kicked butt (first to drive in my nail).

Ahh, the joys of bachelorhood and public holidays.

Once a year the South African ISP industry gathers at iWeek for 3 days. We listen to presentations, exchange ideas, network and socialise. The event is organised by the ISPA.

Have a look at the program and listen to the podcasts.

I attended the first iWeek in back in 2002, 06, 07 and 08. It’s well worth it.. and it’s free.

iWeek confirms the un-conference “paradox” that free is better.. community driven and democratised events are of more value than expensive and restricted conferencing events.

It was a busy few days. The food was good.. too good, snacks, lunches, dinners every night. I met a number of interesting people.

This year the top three sponsors where all from Cape Town. Amobia and Teraco (new branding) were Gold sponsors. WAPA endorsed the event. Amobia and WAPA had stands in the exhibition area.

I was invited to a panel discussion on the Wireless day as the WAPA chair. I think the wireless session went well.. we had good feedback.

I was elected to the ISPA management committee at the AGM.

Thanks to Elaine, Debbie and Cheryl (WhereNext Event Management) for organising the event. Thanks to Uniforum and the ISPA for the two dinners.

ps. I figure I should just get an Apple laptop again.. it’s a much better road warrior tool than the Ubuntu/HP. Seems the E71 was the toy to have.. bumped into at least 5 very happy new E71 owners at iWeek.

1986 biggest hit of the year in Australia.. *grin* and probably one of the best protest songs..

John Farnham - You’re The Voice

I’m a bit late on the weekly bullet point life stream. I’ve been in Joburg and really needed to finalise the house shopping…

• Monday, gym in the evening.. out of my normal routine, just had to go because a know I get grumpy without exercise, especially in Joburg. Conveyor belt sushi in Obs.
• Tuesday, haircut, fetched the new Amobia banners, nice flight to JHB on the bigger SAA planes, Yaris is not a bad little car, sat nav fun to find my guest house, iWeek stand setup, dinner with Amobia Jhb and Potch crew.
• Wednesday, early run in Bryanston.. jeepers those houses have massive walls, English breakfast, iWeek, bumped into an old (ex-cpt) friend, dinner at Moyo at Zoo Lake.
• Thursday, iWeek panel discussion for WAPA, ISPA dinner.
• Friday, iWeek, bad news for VANS, but.. maybe it’s good for Amobia.. another 6 months of “uncertainty”. ISPA AGM, I was elected to the ISPA management committee, flight back to Cape Town.
• Saturday, house shopping in Obs, time with Mia and Crazy B, Mouille Point playground, Serendipity Maze, a ride on the (mini) Blue Train, Caffe Neo grub for a picnic in the middle of the (mini) train track, Gelato Mania ice cream, Xupa Xupa retail therapy, lost my credit card (aarrh!), watched Extreme Measures.
• Sunday, gym, swim, braai with bunny rabbits, found a new (unhealthy obsession) DVD series The O.C. Season 1, Disc 1

More about iWeek in another post. Still working on that E71 post.
Ooh.. tomorrow is Braai Day.. rain or shine (-:

It’s not over yet..

Today was the last day for ICASA or the Department of Communication (DoC) to appeal the judgement that VANS may self provide infrastructure.

The DoC appealed. WTF!

At least now we have clarity on where the obstacle to an open and deregulated South African telecoms market is. I guess one positive thing is that the market started thinking about how they would use the new licences if they were to get them.

“The digital divide was created and is maintained by African Governments.” — William Stucke, over lunch at iWeek

You have to wonder in who’s interest the DoC are acting.. Infraco? Telkom? Neotel?

We’ll have to wait and see what happens with the 27 VANS marked to received IECNS licenses in the Government Gazette. Will that be revoked? Seems the process is frozen again.

The WAPA case is still pending. Altech have deep pockets. The plot thickens.

I am Joe’s total sense of humour failure..

Themes of past weeks’ updates.. running-geek, golf-geek.. trance-geek, well almost, but it was a bit rainy on Sunday..

• Monday, good news: Frogfoot and Amobia to get IECNS licenses, drinks at Neighborhood bar.
• Tuesday, lunch at Caveau at the Josephine Mill in Newlands, we kinda started a peering point (again), a wet and windy Mouille Point run with Lindi, drinks at La Vie for George’s birthday, met a tshirt designer.
• Brilliant Zapiro cartoon about O.J. Zuma.. presumed guilty in the “pantoffel” justice system.
• Wednesday, upgraded my (7) blog farm to WP 2.6.2, Amobia exco meeting/dinner at Jamaica me Crazy, mid week trance party at Roots in Obs.
• Thursday, house shopping in Fernwood and De Waterkant, lunch at Waterkant Village Cafe, WineX, Asoka, met somebody from Zeeq.
• I seem to be on a successful retox program - it’s safe to say I’ve had at least two drinks every night for the last 2 weeks.. then again I know somebody who can claim a 5 year retox program. “The price you pay for the life you choose” — used to be on the wall at Caprice, Camps Bay.
• Friday, UCT GSB talk, milkshakes with Mia and the ~ex-wife in Somerset West.
• Saturday, Biscuit Mill Market with Cath, Parri and Georg, watched My Blueberry Nights (Natalie Portman), one of those relaxed white wine afternoons, gym, swim.
• I made up my mind: The Darjeeling Limited mostly sucked, but Hotel Chevalier was enthralling.
• Sunday, pondering an early morning (rainy) Earth Dance mission, gym, swim, Vida, watched Finding Nemo, Waterfront.. maritime museum, toy store, frogurt, scratch patch. Dinner at the Mexican Kitchen in Long Street, fajitas and margaritas.
• Try some pineapple and cinnamon with your next shot of Tequila.
• 250th Crackbook friend.
• This week is iWeek 2008.. I’ll be in Joburg from Tuesday to Friday.. representing WAPA, Amobia and Frogfoot. Will try to keep you up to date on interesting happenings. A good opportunity to use the GPS features of my new phone.

Have a fun week crazy kids.

I attended a talk by Dan Gillmor on Friday at UCTGSB : “Citizen media and its effects on business and culture”

Bumped into the usual crew of web pr geeks.. and met a few new people (Tim, Carla, Jonathan). I had the best seat in the house (-:

There were many interesting snippets of new ideas and trends in media. A few random ideas which ended up in my notes:

• A recurring idea: community collaboration, media about places.. urban villages, geographic relevance
• No more secrets (– Sneakers, 1992)
• Journalistic entrepreneurship, invent your own job, it’s an exciting time in media, it’s cheap to rapid prototype
• Listen.. to your readers, they often know more about a topic than you do
• Read, write, remix
• Database journalism
• Have honour in your publishing (informal media also), quality, credibility, take a long term view

I’ve been thinking about the motivational aspects of publishing recently. I often find myself doing stuff so I can write about it. My friends think I’m strange.. taking notes at WineX for example.

You tend to commit to the things you write.. it becomes more real. Personal publishing (life caching) can be an interesting driver for converting intentions into results.

..only trouble is that I seem to be gathering notes and ideas at a faster rate than I can publish them. I guess there is an optimal ratio of living vs. life streaming to be found.

Georg, Parri, Cath and I attended WineX at the CTICC yesterday. I try to go every year. One year I even did two nights in a row.. you just can’t taste all the wines in one night.. then again, tasting wine is only part of what’s going.

I like to think of WineX as drunken brand surfing.. great fun. It starts off all civilised and cultured.. some Sauvignon to clear the pallet, chitchat about the farm, how many months on oak, rinsing glasses between tastings, people commenting on tannins… but, then it all gradually progresses to two crazed hours of inebriated shop till you drop bite sized sampling and sensory overload.

Apparently wine (marketing) is the second most competitive industry, after music.

A girl I knew in Stellenbosch had a brother that went shopping for music by (only) looking at the cover art on the CD. I suspect visuals are more important than taste at WineX.. visuals and brand recognition. I’m sure there are a few lonely stands that get almost no traffic simply because they are not an existing well known brand and there is nothing to look at.

Yes, visuals are good. The ladies dress up for this event.. and they smell oh so nice. That blind guy from Scent of a Woman would go mad.

Georg and I concur.. Vrede en Lust have perfected the art of the wine stand. Hot woman and chocolate.

A few wines I liked..

• Thelema Chardonnay
• Saxenburg Private Collection Chardonnay 2007
• Springfield Methode Ancienne Chardonnay 2007
• Rustenberg Chardonnay 2007
• Rupert and Rothschild, Classique 2008
• Meerlust Rubicon 2004
• Saxenberg Merlot Private Collection 2005.. ahh, the memories of drinking this at Balducci’s

I’m never sure if I should be asking for wine in Afrikaans or English, since a large number of people in the wine industry seem to be Afrikaans.. but this problem goes away after a few glasses of wine.

Tonight (Friday) is the last night, 17:00 - 21:00, go check it out.

Ok, must dash, off to UCT GSB

ps. I don’t spit.