On Tuesday evening was the second class of our Reconstructed class that was hosted in the RLABS space. I was so encouraged to see two new young ladies from the community that attended the class. We then assisted them to create a gmail account which they will be using in the applications which we will be teaching then about in the classes to come.

We once again did Gmail and Clive Marcus showed the google docs and all the functionalities within it. This class particularly is learning very fast and growing rapidly. We have 11 more weeks to go before this class graduates from our Social Media for Good course.

Great stuff guys and keep up the good work

A couple months ago we did a social media strategy for the World Bank who was hosting The Innovation Fairconference. The conference was held at the beautiful La Vendome Hotel in Seapoint, Cape Town. At this conference there were guest from all over the world representing various projects that has been selected.

The World Bank approached RLABS to capture this event and create a buzz online. RLABS mission was to drive as many people to their website and their Ning page. There was more than 50 000 hits to their page over the period of two days and the strategy we did for them was very successful.

We met lots of influential people at this particular conference and one of them was Prof. Marion Lees from the University Of Western Cape (UWC). Last week UWC hosted the International Sport and Development Conference – Beyond 2010 and she asked the RLABS team to come out and do the same type of coverage as we did for the World Bank conference.

Here are the topics that were to be discussed and that we were to blog and micro – blog about over the 3 day conference:

DAY 1: Young Researchers Day.

Innovative research about various topics in the field of Sport for Development, including the Millennium Development Goals, Research Methodology, Monitoring and Evaluation, Social Transformation and Peace building, etc. will be presented mainly by BA/Hons/MA-students, PhD-students and Postdocs.

DAY 2 and 3: International Conference.

The impact of the World Cup will be analysed from various perspectives including, Health, Media, Tourism and Social and Economic Development. It will be examined from regional, national and international viewpoints. Lessons learnt as well as initiatives beyond 2010 will be discussed, looking towards next Mega-events, like the 2014 Soccer World Cup and the Olympic Games in Brazil. Therefore the conference hosts various national and international guest speakers.

RLABS is looking at covering and doing more of these types of conferences in the future. If there are any big conference happening out there and you need Social Media coverage you can contact us and we can do the strategy for you.

RLabs have come alongside theBraai4Heritage campaign and we join them in their aim to position National Heritage Day, 24 September, as South Africa’s annual national day of celebration. The gathering of friends, families and Geeks around fires, being the central theme.

National Heritage Day is a public holiday in South Africa. Our government set this day aside for all South Africans to celebrate our rich heritage. The RLabs team invites all Geeks to South Africa’s first “Braai Up” at Tokai Forest for Networking around a fire.

So bring along your chop and join in the Celebration of South Africa uniting around a fire. The RLabs team will be at Tokai Forest between 12 and 3pm.

Entrance to the braai area is R5 per person and R2 per car. Tokai Forest braai area can be found on the right-hand side of Tokai Road, just before the Tokai Manor House. The braai area is open Monday to Sunday from 09h00 to 17h00. For more information, contact the Tokai Forest Picnic area on (021) 712 7471

“The successful networkers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and feeling truly happy about themselves, continually put the other person’s needs ahead of their own.” ~

Bob Burg

In 1997, Tilley joined the department of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges where she taught the core courses on Latin American politics, the politics of development, and Middle East politics, as well as introductory courses on international relations and comparative politics and senior seminars on comparative racial and ethnic conflict. With Professor Kevin Dunne, she developed the International Relations Major and served as Co-coordinator, and for several years led the Development Studies minor.

She was appointed as Associate Professor in 2003[ but in 2005 took leave to conduct research in South Africa, initially at the Centre for Policy Studies in Johannesburg. She resigned from HWS in 2006 after moving to a senior post at the Human Sciences Research Council (South Africa).

With the help of Gmail, Google has turned Google Voice into a legitimate Skype competitor. Is it enough to make people abandon Skype for Google Voice calling?

The Skype software application has been around since 2003. Since its launch, it has garnered hundreds of millions of users because of its ability to make crisp and clear audio and video calls to both phones and other computers. It’s been the gold standard on voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology.

But Google has pushing its own technology hard.Google Voice  takes a different approach by providing each user with his own personal number that can call any telephone, along with features such as voicemail transcription and call screening. Last week, Google  integrated Google Voice into Gmail, providing a single, Skype-like interface where users can make and receive audio and video calls.

While Skype and Google Voice are different products with different goals, you can’t ignore their converging similarities. That’s why they’re the subject of this week’s Web Faceoff. Our question is simple: Do you prefer Skype or Google Voice for your VoIP and phone calls?

Let us know your answer in this week’s poll. Cast your vote by Friday, September 3 at 12:00 PM PT. Let us know what you think of the collision course between the two VoIP services in the comments.

Go the Mashable site to vote now: http://mashable.com/2010/08/31/skype-google-faceoff/

During the week we had a number of discussions and meetings and it is with great excitement that I would like to introduce the world to our FIRST RLabs Social Franchise called RLabs Portugal. The RLabs Portugal initiative will be launched soon in Porto and at a later stage be expanded to Lisbon. Over the next few weeks we will share more about the team and the projects in Portugal. As we celebrate the announcement of RLabs Portugal today you can follow them onTwitter for more updates.

guest post: www.rlabs.org

Twin Towers coming down

Sunday was the day the all famous twin towers on the N2 highway were too come down. The two towers were famous landmarks and will always be remembered by the Cape Town people. So church came out early this morning, round about 11.30am so there was still time for us to watch them come down. The area in which I live (Bridgetwon) one can clearly see the towers from almost anywhere so there was no need for me to travel to witness this historical event.

There were many cars from all over that came through our neighbourhood as one good get a pretty good view from there. I was standing, waiting anxiously to watch the towers to come down as it was almost time. At that very moment someone behind me blowed his vuvuzela so loud and I looked around to ask him to stop. The next thing I know I heard a bang and when I turned back to see what it was the towers was gone. I was so angry at the guy as I missed one of Cape Town’s historical moments. It happened so fast and was over so quick. At least I have the memories of driving past their often. So that is how I missed the coming down of the towers, but I have made peace with it and forgiven the guys that distracted me with his vuvu. Now to see what will be erected there.

The Twin Towers

On Sunday 22nd August 2010 the Cape Town skyline is due to change forever.  The twin cooling towers of the decommissioned Athlone Power Station are coming down.  But don’t worry, unlike the infamous twin towers that came down in New York on 11/09/2001, the loss of Cape Town’s ‘twin towers’ on 22/08/2010 is no act of terror.  The Athlone Towers are due to be demolished by controlled implosion.  And it promises to be quite spectacular!  So if you’re in the Mother City and looking for something to do on Sunday, why not watch history unfold as the towers implode.  A prime location to enjoy the fireworks will be Rhodes Memorial.  Check out this facebook event for all the details.  Also if you’d like some more information regarding the implosion, road closures and public safety, I suggest you check out this article.

Source: http://www.allaboutcityguides.com