Over 4000 blogs were nominated in this year’s awards, and over 25 000 people voted.

I also scored some free goodies with the award, including:

• A subscription to the Sunday Times  (I still love reading the newspaper in print as a special treat, so this is a super prize for me);

•  A subscription to Encyclomedia (a PR match-making tool that helps local businesses get press releases out to the right journalists);

• A Quirk E-Marketing text-book (I’ve got one already so will give it to someone in need);

• 12 SA Blog Awards branded Kika-sacks (I’ll use one of them next time I hit the beach and give the rest away with reckless abandon); and

•  ”Black Bottle” whisky (I don’t drink alcohol, but will keep it for cooking).

As much as I enjoying getting free stuff, by far the most enjoyable part of the experience has been all the congratulatory messages I’ve received on Twitter, Facebook, Email and SMS. Thanks everyone

This award and the whole experience of winning it is very encouraging for me as a blogger.

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Kelele, an annual African bloggers’ conference, was announced yesterday at BarCamp Africa at the GooglePlex in San Francisco. This exciting event will be held in a different African city each year and run by an organising committee in that city. Kelele will be held for the first time in August 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Daudi Were is producing the event, along with an organizing committee of bloggers from all over Africa. This includes Ndesanjo Macha, Erik Hersman, Nii Simmonds, Mshairi, Sami Ben Gharbia, and me.

Why Kelele?

Kelele is the Kiswahili word for noise. We are organising a gathering of African bloggers in the tradition of historical African societies where everyone has a voice.

The specific theme of Kelele ’09 Nairobi is Beat Your Drum – which connects the traditional Africa method of getting your message across vast distances – the talking drums – to the 21st century and the tools we use today, blogs and the Internet.

Sponsorship

We are working to make Kelele a world-class conference, but in order to do this we will need Sponsorship to cover costs such as delegate’s flights, venue, AV and bandwidth.

We’d like to invite all organizations with an interest in blogging, Africa and citizen media to become a sponsor of the inaugural African Bloggers Conference: Kelele!

There are a variety of ways that you can become involved as a sponsor for Kelele – your contribution doesn’t only need to be financial in nature. If you’d like to find out more about the sponsorship opportunities, please email daudi.were@gmail.com

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It is agreed that new media options have the potential to be hugely profitable and effective. The spread of global culture will likely be the major determinant of how lives are to be lived now and in the future.

African media leaders recognise the need to embrace and integrate new technology into daily operations.

A legacy of weak communications infrastructure is not necessarily a handicap for information delivery.

The proliferation of cell phones in Africa, together with rapidly developing cell phone technology, provides one of the best opportunities to bridge the information gap among media consumers.

With technology developing faster than media laws, belligerent administrations may find themselves unable to stem the flow of credible information if content providers from the traditional domains of print and electronic media develop strong and mutually beneficial partnership agreements with the technical sector.

The possibility of every cell phone user becoming a content provider exists in today’s digital society, potentially rendering censorship and media house closures lame-duck attempts to stem the free-flow of information.

While traditional media is far from dead, new technology offers the ability to reach those who have had little or difficult access to global, regional and local news streams up to now, and will in fact add value to existing traditional technologies.

Recent events in Kenya demonstrated the power of text messaging following the government’s banning of live current affairs broadcasts.

Delegates recognise the need for a more robust approach to disseminating vital and credible information in Africa’s zones of crisis, noting that in Zimbabwe

* There are increased physical attacks, torture and other forms of intimidation against the general population but in particular against the media, civil, and human rights groups by ruling ZANU PF party supporters, the security forces and extra-legal militia ahead of the presidential run-off election in June.

* Food distribution is amongst the weapons being used to influence voting patterns.

* The MDC says that more than 40 of its supporters have been killed since the March 29th elections.

* These acts of violence are meant to force the population to vote for President Robert Mugabe.

* Delegates condemn this barbaric action and urge the Zimbabwean Government to respect the rule of law and the will of the people.

While in Ghana –

* The Government is working to pass a freedom of information bill into an act which aims to empower the populace, more so media practitioners easier access to information. While the Ghanaian population is pleased with the prospects of an environment offering freer expression, there is general apprehension that the process is too slow.

* The Ghana Government is therefore urged to finalise the process without any further delay.

And in South Africa

* Delegates condemn recent and ongoing acts of xenophobic violence and in particular the government’s slow reaction to publicly condemn and stem these horrific acts.

* A more pro-active approach by the government and security forces, in concert with civil society, human rights organisations, medical service providers and the media, to operate as an efficient communications conduit is strongly urged.

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Later this week I’ll be going to Kampala, Uganda for the Africa Media Leadership Conference (AMLC) in Uganda.

From Wikipedia:

The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa, bordered on the east by Kenya, the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania

The following is from the conference press release:

AMLC is an annual meeting among African media bosses. This year it is focusing on how the continent is embracing new media technologies to serve the changing needs and interests of their customers.

The conference will be attended by 40 senior editors and CEOs of media firms stretching from South Africa, Namibia and Swaziland in the south to Kenya and Ethiopia in the north and from Senegal and the Ivory Coast in the west.

The topic of the talk I am presenting is: How African Traditional Media can Tap Into New Social Media and Blogs.

The conference is co-hosted by Rhodes University’s Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership (SPI) in South Africa and Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation.

“This year’s conference is looking at a range of digital media platforms that have emerged and continue to emerge around the world and the challenges that face media companies in Africa in adopting and adapting these platforms for their competitive advantage,” said Francis Mdlongwa, Director of the Sol Plaatje Institute (SPI).

“Given the breath-taking technological changes which are re-shaping and even redefining the entire media industry, we felt that Africa should pause, take stock, look at what works and does not work in our part of the world and why, and plan ahead,” he added.

The SPI is Africa’s only university-level institution offering high-level media management and leadership training programmes to both practising and aspirant media leaders from across the continent. It runs a post-graduate programme in media management and leadership and a series of certificated management programmes for senior editorial and business media managers.
Frank Windeck, the head of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s Sub-Sahara Africa Media Programme, the sponsor of the Africa Media Leadership Conference series, said: “These meetings give Africa’s top media people a unique opportunity to network at the highest level and to examine key industry and other issues which concern them and to seek practical solutions by examining case studies drawn from Africa.”

The conference series was launched by the SPI and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in 2002 to promote high-level interaction among Africa’s media chiefs and to seek practical, innovative and creative solutions to challenges faced by the African media.

The conference meets annually in an African country, and past conferences have debated topics such as Revenue Generation for Robust African Media (Cape Town, South Africa); South Meets East: Strategic Challenges for African Media (Nairobi, Kenya); Managing Media in Recession (Mauritius); and Policies and Strategies for Media Viability (Maputo, Mozambique).

I’m looking forward to the trip, and to meeting and engaging deeply with the ideas of some of Africa’s top media people. I will, of course, be sharing as much as possible of the knowledge I gain with you on this blog.

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Glen at theZAshow just announced that PodCamp is coming to South Africa.

Podcamp is a full day unconference, free to attend where people with a shared interest in new-media pull through and get deep on their subjects of interest.

Nice going Glen. This is yet another great initiative that will certainly enhance and develop the South African new-media scene.

Sign up and get involved here.

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Right now I’m sitting on the balcony of the guesthouse with a good bottle of Croatian vino and some free wi-fi which I picked up on by chance from one of the neighbours This is how blogging should be.

There were so many highlights  for me – perhaps the coolest was getting evicted from the Adriatic Sea by Croatian Security at 2am with Cory Ondrejka. There was also, of course, the honour of presenting in front of audiences which include some of the most influential people who are shaping the future of the internet.

Anyway, I’ve got to leave for the airport at 4am tomorrow morning so I’d better finish up this post and pack my bags.

ps. Check me out on the bigscreen here in my floppy hat introducing a formal panel from atop a random castle :-p

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Jonathan Foster-Pedley is a leader in South Africa regarding executive development and strategy and creativity education. As the founding director and designer of the GSB’s Executive MBA programme, he led the introduction of new learning methods that integrated systems thinking, rigorous action learning, personal leadership branding, and reflective educational practice that have helped put the MBA in the top 50 globally.

. I am in awe of this man! He is dynamic, creative, engaging and has insights that rock people’s worlds and shift their businesses. He’s also lecturing on the Nomadic Marketing programme, because he “gets” (deeply) how web2.0 is changing business strategy forever.

Professor Eddie Obeng is the founder of Pentacle Business School. He has been described variously by the Financial Times as an ‘Agent provocateur’ and a ‘…leading revolutionary’. The Daily Telegraph described him as the ‘Max Headroom’ of the business school world and ‘unusual to back his ideas with his own money…’ adding that he has a ‘backlist of book titles in a style far removed from the ponderous approach of most management tomes.’ He has been called the “Eclectic Guru” by Business Life.

Venue is the Primi Piatti Studio at the Zone, Rosebank, Jozi. Once again – put your name here to come.

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The vibe will be informal with talks by the two men , and maybe one by Mike Stopforth too, and as always, a great opportunity to meet and connect with cool people who are also interested in business innovation.

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Art with Heart provides those ‘frustrated’ artists working in the advertising, marketing and production industries with the opportunity to create personal artwork in various media and have these exhibited at an annual exhibition where clients and colleagues can discover their other creative sides. All the works will be for sale and the proceeds will be donated to charity.

You can submit Photography, Sculpture, Painting, Knitting, or whatever. And some of the top people in the industry have already signed up to submit. I expect Kirby and Max will be making excellent submissions too:)

Jill and Stanley from Platypus have asked me to put out a request for someone to create and manage a blog for this project. I think it’s gonna be quite a good networking opportunity, possibly for a student looking to get involved in Marketing or Advertising. It will run until November. Please mail me if you’re interested.

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Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal – Picasso

Interesting, considering the source of that one. And:

A dwarf on a giant’s shoulders sees farther of the two. If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. – Isaac Newton

I mention them to emphasise the importance in business of sharing and collaboration in order to increase speed, productivity, and (ironically) creativity. This is a big reason why we should support Creative Commons.

Check out this vid of the recent iCommons Salon (entitled “Bring and Braai”) held in Cape Town, where Lawrence Lessig (CEO of Creative Commons) emphasises the point that digital borrowing and remixing is being criminalized… and what we need to do to make sure that we have the digital freedom to create freely. Jimmy Wales also appears with a call for more African Language contributors on Wikipedia. Heather Ford and I had fun MCing the event :

By the way, Missing Link sponsored and produced this video… They rock!

p.s. 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0 :-p

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Internet visionaries and all-round cool guys Jimmy Wales and Larry Lessig loved the party and were busy the whole time chatting and meeting lots of Cape Town geeks and Free-Culture enthusiasts.

Justin Nurse was there, handing out Googlethu t-shirts and Laugh It Off event calendars. I saw him and the Stormhoek guys hitting it off (perhaps exchanging ideas on how best to disrupt the market:p).

Richard Mulholland and Prof. Lessig were also getting deep on the subject of presentation skills – particularly the world-famous Lessig-Method, I wonder who learned more?

Of course, the purpose of the event was to activate involvement in iCommons – to get the community together, to encourage digital sharing, and to protect our rights online. The Freedom Toaster was there so people could freely upload their own cc-licenced music, and other people could download it freely and pass it along.

I was particularly stoked to chat with Dr. Bobbi Kurshan, who has a global education and learning community called Curriki. We’re looking into using it for the Nomadic Marketing course we’re doing with the UCT GSB.

Good news too: thanks to Missing Link the event has been captured on video. These guys kick butt at making videos and presentations – can’t wait to see the vid! It’ll be posted on the web soon for your viewing pleasure.

The event is done, but the work continues – create, collaborate, remix, share…

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