Newz in a bubble jungle

This is quite a fresh and funky way of news gathering. The bubble news feed has been introduced before on the Grocott’s Mail Website, and since has been further developed into its own entity by Vincent Maher.

Newzbubbles.com gathers most of the major South African news feeds renders them as bubbles and allows you to see which stories are the most popular.

It is a Web 2.0 application and will grow with feedback from its user base. It might seem strange to brows the news via bubbles, but they do give a clear indication, through the graphical representation, which stories are most popular.

By: Gregor | Thursday, August 31 at Thursday, August 31, 2006 | |

Have fun poking sunbathing women

I found this site whilst doing some Flash research. Not that it is in anyway helpful for what I was looking for but it is kinda quirky. Have fun!

By: Gregor | Monday, August 28 at Monday, August 28, 2006 | |

Jo's Toolkit - We're Live!

Finally! We are live, we are online! After months of preparation, and a couple of weeks of intense work, especially the last week, we have finally launched Jo s Toolkit – 'The essential journalism toolkit for student and
grassroot media'.

Carly and myself have established and developed this website which will hopefully change and influence the communication between journalists, on an academic, professional, grassroot or student level. Our aim is to create an environment which will teach, train, give advice, create a dialogue and be free to use - no registration, no fees, just good content and no authoritive
voice.

Jo's Toolkit is a journalism resource. We have especially targeted the student and grassroot media as potential users for this site. It allows anyone to submit content, to comment on content, to download documents (such as style guides or workshops), with the aim of aiding, stimulating and developing student and grassroot media.

Our contributors list is growing steadily, and we are motivated and excited to see where this site will take us and student / grassroot media.

We have certified all content under a Creative Commons License, making the content available for re-use, re-work and hopefully opening up the idea of an open-source, sharing community.

You will be able to find examples of writing styles, photography and design. An A-Z Journalism glossary will allow you find terms you need to know. We also offer vast amounts of resourceful links, to aid research, or find interesting sites for specific areas of journalism. Another feature this website boasts are the 10 Tips and Tricks articles, submitted by influential journalists in the country – and even these can be commented on, discussed and debated. And if you have a question directed at any of the contributors, just email (jostoolkit [at] gmail.com) and we will forward it to thespecific contributor.

Check out Jo here, leave some comments, and submit an article, a picture, a design, anything which you think is relevant. You will see from the layout that it is an easy site to navigate, it has the potential to discuss ethical, theoretical as well as practical issues… have fun!

And not to forget, big thanks to Colin who aided the technical and motivational process! Hence all the kick-ass details on the page!

By: Gregor | Monday, August 21 at Monday, August 21, 2006 | |

1.4 Mil for Cop Car? Who has the facts?

I found this post on 4xforum via Muti, presenting a bling Hummer H1, apparently spotted in Johannesburg, represetning a Police vehicle.

Apparetly it is the personal runabout of the National Commissioner of Police, Jackie Selebi.


A forumite (Rat) comments on this pic stating:

So your taxes have illegally imported a left hand drive vehicle for the National Commissioner of Police that drives around without number plates. You try this.

You may believe these photos to be digitally enhanced, but this goes beyond the question if these images are real or not, fact is, it would not come to a surprise that this is possible in South Africa.

I found this on Muti , a site inspired by Digg and reddit but which is dedicated to content of interest to Southern Africans or those interested in Southern Africa. Muti has recently gotten some publicity from CNN.

Vroooooooooooooom.

By: Gregor | at Monday, August 21, 2006 | |

The rebirth of the Dinosaur – bye bye Woof Woo

Here is a new pet toy for you. It looks cute, looks way better than Sony s Aibo hound, and comes with some really funky features.

Popular Science has termed
Pleo the smartest robot pet yet.

Pleos movements are fluid; its actions are spontaneous and unprogrammed. Its skin is smooth, seamless and stretchy. Inside, however, the 3.3-pound Pleo is very robotic indeed. It iss stuffed with 38 sensors to detect light, motion, touch and sound. They feed information about Pleos environment to one of eight processors that can handle a collective 60 million calculations per second. A complex computer program determines what the dino pet does next—howl over the edge of a table, sneeze, crane its neck around 180 degrees to see who’s scratching its back, or any of thousands of other possibilities. As Pleos manufacturer, Ugobe in Emeryville, California, develops more sophisticated personality coding, you’ll be able to upgrade the robot through its SD-card slot or from the Web through its USB port.

We discussed the advancement of AI the other day in one of our seminars discussing the potential agency that machines could develop and the possible reprogramming by hackers which occur. By allowing owners to add programs to their dino does create on the one hand a practical forum for development in the bot industry, on the other hand might motivate the recreation of a mechanical Jurassic Park!

Check out this video of Pleo!

Dr. Ian Malcolm: God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs...
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth... (Jurrassic Park, 1993)

By: Gregor | Friday, August 18 at Friday, August 18, 2006 | |

Check out this cute Ninja! He'll slice anything for you

Thanks to the White African, saw the Ninja slicing around your blog :) Go to the Ninja Text Generator and ask the little bugger to slice for you...

By: Gregor | Thursday, August 17 at Thursday, August 17, 2006 | |

Strippers and Soccer

Mike and I produced a multimedia story for the Sunday Times online about how 2010 might inlfuence the sex industry. A rather light hearted story with some great text and interviews with strippers from Teazers... the interviewing process was a great experience too, I wrote about it here. I'm sure the story will generate quite a few hits.

Sex. Nudity. Strippers. Boobs. Nude Schoolgirls?

By: Gregor | Friday, August 11 at Friday, August 11, 2006 | |

NML multimedia live on Sunday Times Online

After a week of working for the Sunday Times online we (Rhodes New Media class) have successfully produced five multimedia stories, focussing on the upcoming 2010 Soccer World Cup.

The special reports can be found on the front page of the Sunday Times, linked by the accompanying graphic!

This marks the end of the NML fieldtrip (at least in the newsroom that is), which has been a very insightful experience.

Multimedia is definitely making waves in current online news trends and our extensive experience managing the Grocott’s Online website has benefited this project greatly.

Another successful New Media Lab project.

By: Gregor | at Friday, August 11, 2006 | |

NML RAW - Let the good times roll!

So we are leaving for Johannesburg on Sunday morning.

We = 6 New Media students and 2 lecturers, an 8 seater van, alot of technical equipment and some Red Bull.

Our mission is to produce MultiMedia stories for the Sunday Times. We will be blogging about this experience whilst in the Newsroom, on Assignment and from the Hotel, so check out our NML RAW Blog, see what we are up to and let us know what you think!

Be sure to see some funny pics, some random remarks and some kick ass MultiMedia!

By: Gregor | Friday, August 4 at Friday, August 04, 2006 | |

Grahamstown weather mayhem!

It has been raining constantly since last night. It has been storming. It has been cold. It has shaken up the town.

This morning on my way into the department I encountered deserted streets, flying umbrellas, stuck cars, and swept away cars, it felt like a battle zone, or somethinglike that.

Colin posted this pic of an uprooted tree. Check my pics on flickr and brows through reporter.co.za, seems like they are collecting a whole bunch of content about the August weather isssue, my pic will be there too.

There is more rain and even stronger winds expected for tomorrow, hold on tight!

By: Gregor | Thursday, August 3 at Thursday, August 03, 2006 | |

1st in Africa - The Digital Citizen Indaba on Blogging

Here is an event I am looking forward too. The Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) on Blogging will be held in September (14-15^th). Where? Well, right here in Grahamstown, and as being part of the New Media Lab, I will be involved in the coverage and participation of this conference which is a first on African soil.

There will be about 90 African bloggers, citizen journalists and media practitioners, partaking in the event and it will be very much focused around developing skills through practical workshops and discussions with experts from around the globe.

Read Colin Daniels (DCI event co-ordinator) official press release here.

Watch this space for further info on the conference.

By: Gregor | Tuesday, August 1 at Tuesday, August 01, 2006 | |