From my personal experience, the guys with the great ideas aren’t usually wealthy. They come up with an invention but because they can’t afford to file for a patent or to develop it, the whole thing may die or some big tycoon steals everything out.
That’s why there is now an Innovation Fund, that will support (actually support the costs) techno-entrepreneurs to file for a Provisional Patent application and will also help them seek commercial partners. If you ask me that’s a great way to encourage South African technopreneurs to do what they do best.
And if you ever wondered how far in tech South Africa is … have you ever heard of the Joule? The South African electric car?
That’s exactly what the IF Pattent Support Fund will do. Help you with your intellectual property rights and commercialization of your innovations, until they hit mass production. A certain focus will be on those people from previously disadvantage backgrounds. The black people.
There are some requirements and rules that make you eligible, so if you have something worth seeing, check out these guys.
I’ve just heard of it, so I though you’d be interested to know a bit more about ArtRevision, a new startup by the dudes from World Wide Creative.
Everything started with Yolande Roed – the main person responsible for great painting skills and amazing results – as a hobby but soon developed into a way for making some extra cash. It became a business.
Their services are clear. You either give them a picture and they turn it into an exceptional oil painting, or you prefer the classics, search their gallery and they’ll hand-paint you a replica of a masterpiece. They’re not going to make you a Picasso replica because of copyright issues, but you can expect to get a great painting from the ‘public domain’, as they call it.
Other than being able to pay with a credit card or via EFT, the guys will take a photograph of the painting and mail it to you for “approval”. That’s what serving a customer is all about. And did I mention they ship FREE worldwide?
For those that see it as an opportunity to making money, then you should know that ArtRevision has a reseller program that will pay 15-percent commission on every sale you make.
I don’t know about you, but I’m sure my girlfriend would like to turn some of our vacation pictures into oil paintings and put them in the bedroom. What do you thin, will you give them a try?
Do you remember Quirk? They are the famous people who developed Search Status last year, the much needed Firefox extension. In March we got word that they’re going to release BrandsEye, the online reputation monitoring tool, but this time it’s something different, and Charl warned us.
Before the rest of us, he managed to get his eyes on the Quirk eMarketing book and said that it has “so much juicy info and a lot of recent case studies”. But what you know, the book is available for download and the best part, it’s for free.
The Essential Guide to Online Marketing was released and licensed under the Creative Commons so that students, educators and practitioners in the corporate sector can use it and benefit from it.You can download the free full text book (12.6 MB pdf link) or buy it online or from one of the many book stores that are stocking it.
Just get to read it as fast as you can because it’s full of wisdom and great case studies. Let us know what you liked in it, and what you can add yourself.
It’s usually hard to explain to others that you’re working online and that it really pays off. They never understand what exactly you can do online other than IM, Hi5 and such. For most regular people, the internet is comprised of Google where they search for stuff, email and some entertainment websites.
The idea of making money on the Internet is a joke for them.
A bunch of people from South Africa including Pam Sykes, Jo Duxbury and Walter Pike decided to take action. They facilitated an event by soloists, for soloists, to spread the knowledge around.
Flying Solo SA is going to be a UnConference for freelancers and other soloists that will begin on Saturday July 26 at the Wild Fig in Cape Town and one week later on Saturday August 2 in Johannesburg, at a venue to be confirmed.
Some of the discussion topics are
- Marketing on a shoestring: What’s most effective? And how do we turn the recession to our advantage?
- What we can learn from the suits: Managing clients, managing money, managing contracts.
- Getting overseas clients and offshore income streams.
- Support networks and collaborations that work.
- Killing the WAB monster – what really works to stop procrastination?
- Systems, accounts, tax and other scary housekeeping stuff.
- Making money: Setting rates, how to charge, dealing with banks.
- What makes a happy client?
Just seeing the topics and I know it’s going to be a great place to attend, so if you are from Cape Town or Johannesburg you may not want to miss it. Check out the Flying Solo website and get your name on the list to make sure you’ll have a chair at the UnConference.
If you want to sponsor the whole thing, don’t be shy, the guys are waiting for your ideas.
UnitedForAfrica.co.za is a new portal dedicated to collective good, that wants to map reports of the current xenophobic attacks happening in South Africa. Visitors can anonymously submit violent incidents to keep each other informed and providing assistance to those persecuted.
The site which uses Ushahidi infrastructure (it’s their engine) and hosting, was put online by Quirk eMarketing, a web marketing agency in Cape Town who designed, manages and maintains it, Rafiq, Tim Shier and David Kobia.
Main reason behind UntedForAfrica is to get the word out and that’s what we’re trying to do here. If you want to know how you can help, call, email or SMS all your friends and get them to spread the word, too. You will not change the world, but will be a small step further for a good cause.
Bandwidth blog has been nominated in the 4th Annual South African Blog Awards for best Technology blog and best post on a South African blog. If you have enjoyed reading our web 2.0 and other tech related coverage please take a second to vote for us. We have worked hard this past year to bring you cutting edge social media coverage from local and international web 2.0 startups.
First nomination – Best post on a South African blog, The offices of today’s leading internet companies made it to the Digg homepage with over 500 diggs.
Second nomination – Best South African technology focused weblog
This is a very competitive category with big industry names filling out the nominations list. Here’s some of the most viewed posts on Bandwidth Blog from the last year:
South Africa’s top startups to watch (Was published in print)
Afrigator beta launched (Was picked up by ReadWriteWeb)
24.com launch Laaik.it social media aggregator (Breaking news)
The offices of todays internet companies (Reached the Digg homepage)
Microsoft wants Yahoo – $50 Bil (follow up – Yahoo rejects offer)
If you want to vote for Bandwidth Blog just hit the SABA badge top left which will auto fill the categories Bandwidth Blog is competing in. Check out some of the other categories and scroll to the bottom to vote.
Good luck to the other nominees!
It’s that time again to nominate and vote for the best of South Africa’s blogosphere in the SA blog awards. Bandwidth Blog will be entering “Best overall blog”, “Best Tech Blog”, “Best New Blog” and “Best post on a blog”. If you have enjoyed reading Bandwidth Blog this past year please take a moment to nominate us in the above categories. Just Click on the badge below to automatically nominate us and then scroll to the bottom of the page to make it official. Thanks and keep on reading!
Some of the cutting edge news we brought you over the last few months -
Local blogging celebs launch gadget blog, Nudjit (Scoop)
Photos of 24.com’s offices (Fresh)
M&G screen shots of upcoming redesign (Scoop)
South Africa’s top startups to watch (Was published in print)
Afrigator beta launched (Was picked up by ReadWriteWeb)
24.com launch Laaik.it social media aggregator (Breaking news)
The offices of todays internet companies (Reached the Digg homepage)
Microsoft wants Yahoo – $50 Bil (Bandwidth Blog’s best rumour published of 2007)
If you are a sports fan or you want to become a sports commenter how about starting on YouCastr. This is a new service similar to Ustream, but very well targeted to sports only, where anyone can stream live broadcasts of game commentary or cut random rants in archived podcasts.
The system is great and knowing that blogging on sports is a big niche I think these guys started on the right foot. Many of these bloggers will probably turn to YouCastr for their podcasts and this is what will make the traffic skyrocket. It’s well know that sports are always easier from the bench or in front of the TV, so I want to see how the members are going to perform.
I am signing up now and will probably use it for CarBlog.co.za. If you are already a member, how about giving some feedback?
The editors here at Bandwidth Blog are proud to announce the launch of our sister blog, ComicJock.com!
Funny pics, Videos, Geek humor, Job laughs, Comics and Illustrations posted daily! If you feel like a laugh each day make sure to log onto ComicJock.com! Post comments and tell us what you think!
