The Reconstructed
Tuesday evening was the start of our new Reconstructed class. This year we basically opened the class to the public and invited people to come and join us on a Tuesday evening. In this class we take people that are not familiar with the World Wide Web (www) and set them up with emails and then eventually allow them to become bloggers and micro bloggers.
The aim of these classes is to empower our communities but also to get the stories out there. The world as we know is full of evil things and people need hope out there. I have personally come through these classes and the journey had been amazing. We now take what we have learned and equip others out there.
Stay tune to see how these peeps develop and who knows they might the next social media gurus to browse and brace the world wide web
Meeting at Mxit
Here is only one of the departments within Mxit
On Friday Dean, Craig and myself headed out Stellenbosch for a meeting with Glenn Alexander from the Mxit staff. Our meeting was held at the Mxit premises and what beautiful offices they have. I was always curious as to what goes on at Mxit and all I can say is that it looked very geeky when I walked in there, FTW. There were guys…And ladies sitting at their work stations, each with two screens (monitors) in front of them, coding and typing away. This was quite impressive to watch.
We met with Glenn as he has heard about our JamiiX application that we are using for our online counselling and wanted to know he could use it for an up and coming project for mxit that he will be heading up. We presented it to him and did a live demo for him. He was impressed with it and will be using JamiiX for his new project. That is all I can say for now.
After our meeting we got a tour of the offices and were shown each department and what they are responsible for. We were also then taken to the “loot” in Glenn’s office where he gave us some cool t- shirts and mxit badges. Not much I can reveal to you guys now and just to say that we had an awesome time at Mxit and thank you Glenn for the tour.
"The Loot"
From Cape Flats to Europe
Guest post on RLABS blog via Marlon Parker
The second leg of the JamiiX World Tour was Helsinki, Finland where it would be the first time JamiiX will be made available to Europe. JamiiX is a Web 2.0 technology that manages and aggregates conversations via (Mobile) Instant Messengers and Social Networks in a central place. The story of JamiiX is that it is the first Web 2.0 technology conceived and developed on the “notorious” Cape Flats in the Western Cape, South Africa.
This European launch of JamiiX was a follow up of the Cape Town event a few weeks ago. With guests from various industries and technology companies including (Nokia, Mobile Brain Bank) including our hosts and partners (Pajat). The event was held at a stunning venue the Royal Ravintola Klub and Terrace where we welcomed the guests with some great South African tunes and Cape Town atmosphere.
The event was co-hosted by Aalto University and sponsored by SAFIPA. The evening was an opportunity to share the history of JamiiX and the people behind it as well as share some key points about JamiiX:
1. It is currently using the FREEmium model.
2. It is a distributed system to manage mulitple conversations via web
3. It is easy to register
4. It is hosted on the Cloud and make use of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model
5. JamiiX eXchanges have special features that was on demo to the crowd
6. Push Technology and conversation management tool is changing the way people will manage conversations
7. Introduction to the JamiiX Open API
8. JamiiX as Contact Centre 2.0
9. JamiiX on mobile
The partner in Europe was also revealed at the launch event with lots of interest from various sectors. The guests at the launch were able to play and test JamiiX after the presentation and Q&A session. Overall the JamiiX technology was very well received with possible contacts and clients to be revealed soon. Thank you to everyone who attended and Helsinki for opening the JamiiX doors to Europe. This adventure is also a testimony that innovations from the dusty streets of Africa can have a global impact. Well done to everyone at RLabs and the community who are the reason for celebrating. Next part of the journey will be in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Have not done it in a while.
Here something I have not done in a long time. After our meeting on Tuesday while we were waiting on our transport to pick us up we decided that we would travel back to the RLABS office via public transport. I cant remember the last time that I have done this. It was not as bad as I remember it lol. Was quite nice to just sit back for once and enjoy the ride. I should really do this more often,hop in a bus and enjoy the ride.
Follow- up at College of Cape Town
On Tuesday Craig, Monique and myself went down to Cape Town College City Campus to do some follow up on the weekends events at the college (Open Day) of which RLABS was part of. We had some meetings set up with various departments of the college and also had to do a presentation to the Arts and Design class, telling them what RLABS is all about.
I felt a bit like a lecturer standing up in front of the class addressing them. Would it not be cool if the RLABS team could do lectures on Social Media as part the student’s curriculum and marketing studies? Watch this space as who knows what will transpire after Monday’s meetings.
Open day at College Of Cape Town City Campus
Here are some pics from the Open Day at College of Cape Town City Campus that was held over the weekend. For more pics on this event go to our Zoppy account
RLABS Collaborates with College of Cape Town,City Campus at their Open Day
This weekend the RLABS team is out once again doing a Social media Surgery. The venue for this weekend’s event was held at the College of Cape Town (City Campus) where their NCV Marketing team ran a social media network workshops on the 30 and 31 July at the College of Cape Town Open Day. As a leading provider of Education and Training, the College of Cape Town has much to offer students and prospective partners. Our courses lead to recognised qualifications that are demanded by commerce and industry.
The RLABS Team came on board and partnered with the college to create an online buss around this event. On the 1st day there weere students from different High schools coming through the door of the college to see what they could possibly come and study at the campus next year. Our aim was to sign these students up with various social media tools such as Gmail, Facebook, and Blogging etc. RLABS aim was also to drive traffic to their group on Facebook.
I love these Social Media Surgeries as it is a good way to interact with the public in an open space. Got to love innovation.
Credit cards maxed out at SABC Education Baba Indaba and Kids Indaba
Those who didn’t book surely lost out! The organiser’s desk was inundated with bookings for 2011!
Weary but elated is the way most exhibitors are feeling after a bumper show in Cape Town this weekend! The Cape Town ICC hosted thousands of moms, dads, babas, kids and grandparents at the SABC Education Baba Indaba and Kids Indaba and boy did it rock! With a total of 39 783 visitors through the door, this show saw exhibitors’ products flying off the stands and to put the sparkly sprinkles on top of the cupcake, visitors were not afraid to make on-the-spot purchases – credit card transactions were coming thick and fast, resulting in a jam until batches were transmitted. Exhibitors such as Gelli Baff, Baby Throne and Educare completely sold out of their products!
More Baba Indaba articles
- Supermodel or supermom – Cape Town’s the place to be 6 Jul 2010
- Pretoria and Midrand alive with activity at Kids Indaba! 8 Jun 2010
- Pretoria and Midrand Baba Indaba dazzles and delights! 3 Jun 2010
- SABC Education Baba Indaba supports Child Protection Week 25 May 2010
RLabs Stimulate Toddlers: Social Media Surgery
Diapers, cots, prams, bottles, soft toys, baby clothing, teething gel are just a few thoughts that spring to mind of an expecting mom. To enrich parents and parents-to-be more about baby stuff was the SABC Education Baba Indaba. The Baba Indaba was designed to inspire new moms to delight in their pregnancy, bring fresh ideas to parents, stimulate toddlers and entice kids with various essential, interesting and fun products.
This annual event was held in Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. On 23-25 July the CTICC was the venue where parents, babies, toddlers and tweens were entertained, inspired and encouraged to discover a world of fun and education with a variety of exhibitors. For the first time in South Africa the Kids Indaba, which focuses on children between the ages 6-12 years, was part of the already well-known Baba Indaba.
Among the necessary new-born products, nutritional and healthy food, educational cartoons and maternity fashion shows, was Bridgetown’s very own Reconstructed Living Lab (Rlabs) to stimulate the children via computers. Rlabs was determined to take Social Media Surgery to the younger generation, who were eager to interact with technology. Rlabs aimed to increase the understanding of technology and to educate the children between the ages of 6-12 years about various educational sites, children from as young as three years old were playing games on the Wii, X-Box and the PC’s.
Most of the children who passed-by showed an interest either by pulling their parents towards Rlabs or running towards a pc or the games projected on the screens. They were knowledgeable as well about the internet and exchanged their favourite sites with the Rlabs team.
Technology has weaved its way to the very young ones and to enhance the phrase “…if you can’t beat them join them,” Rlabs encouraged the parents to embrace the ever transpiring evolution of the online world by introducing them to sites beneficial to their children’s development.
- This was a guest post bt RLABS. www.rlabs.org
Wii all stand together
Who said that you are too old to learn?We have learnt so much from our seniors, and many things they have imparted in our lives while we were growing up. And now it is time to give back and teach them what we have learned. Today Michael did a session with our seniors from our community. He set up the Wii console for them and had them play tennis etc as a form of exercise and a way to stimulate their brains. The seniors had a blast and at the same time ha a workout without them realising it lol.
This is just one of our ways that we utilise technology and a way to give back to our community. It is important that we look after our seniors as they have been praying for us and caring for us over the years. We will be having more Wii sessions with them as time goes on and also look at how we can introduce them to Social Media.
