…for and from the curious

What led to the creation of Project South Africa – Time for Ubuntu?

We just launched a major initiative to help South Africa dealing with rape, HIV and subsequent problems like sky high numbers of orphans. I have been asked repeatedly how I came up ith the idea and why I am so commited to “South Africa Project - Time for Ubuntu”.

I should have a one-paragraph answer ready eventually. But for now all there is, is the longer version. The following thoughts were circling in my head:

POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media has opened the door for average guys (like me) to get in front of  many people – incl. potential supporters. This allows for a bigger vision. I believe that the word “social” in “social media” has been underutilized. I hope our team can create a real success story here that can show others a meaningful way to use all the great tools at our hands.

SHOCKING STATISTICS
I read a lot and came across the latest number in South Africa. 33% of boys stated in a survey that gang raping is a fun activity to do. 40% of all high school girls stated that they had been raped. 1.2 – 1.4 million kids lost both their parents due to AIDS.

IMPACT OF RAPE
Due to my wife’s studies in the field of depth psychology I understand the impact of rape on individuals and on society as a whole. There is no way of peaceful coexistence in an environment that violent.
Read the rest of this entry »

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How much social media and web 2.0 does the “normal” Internet user really want or need?

Let’s add a few more questions:

• Does my neighbor really want to know which websites I have been on today?
• How do you explain to the next guy on the street why any of your hyperconnectivity really matters?
• Are you possible just giving the vibe that you belong to some digital cult? (be honest!)
• Are you losing people that were once close to you because you have nothing in common to talk about except the good old times?
• Do you tend to define yourselves via: # of blog postings, # of followers on Twitter, # of Diggs received, # of friends on Facebook or contacts on Linkedin?

Do any of these questions sound familiar because you are tinkering around with them (and the answers) as well? Read the rest of this entry »

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Thanks for letting me in

Today marks a special day on my calendar as I turned into an American Citizen.
I have arrived;-)

I visited this country the first time in 1983 and figured that this is where I will eventually end up. I don’t want to bore you with the details and all the different Visa (F1, E2…)  I had over the years.

I have enjoyed living here for over 11 years now and this country is my home. But something felt incomplete: I wasn’t allowed to vote.

Since my wife and my daughter are American it also felt a bit strange not to have the same nationality as my family.

I feel appreciative of the fact to become a “full” member of this society. Not everything here is perfect and I rather look at an “American challenge” than an “American dream” when I am thinking of our future.

But this is a place that let’s me live my life the way I want to.

I can speak my mind. Everyone who knows me knows that I do.

I have the freedom to pursue my interests. Business or personal.

I know I can make a difference and I feel accepted.

I won’t run around draped in red, white and blue. I won’t put flags up on 4th of July. I won’t start singing the anthem before sports games either. God bless America sounds to me like something is missing. All this is simply not my cup of tea.

But America knows all that and it is still letting me in. And for that I am thankful.

I have to confess: I will still root for Germany in soccer;-)

PS:
I did some older ladies injustice on Twitter earlier today. The gathered to sing the anthem and actually did a fabulous job.

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Aloha Social Media Summit Colorado coming up

Here is a rather unique opportunity to get in front of the experts: Dave Taylor and Andy Beal will be hosting the Aloha Social Media Summit Colorado.

The event will be held in Boulder at the “Techstars Bunker” on October 6th & 7th.

It is labeled to be an un-conference. The price is $2499. Sounds a little steep?

You will get one on one time with some of the leading experts in the field of social media.

Depending on what you are up to their input could help you to develop new ideas for your business - hopefully worth much more than $2499.

Take a look at experts:

Om Malik, CEO of GigaOM
Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter.com
Peter Shankman, founder of Help a Reporter Online
Susan Stratton of Personal Life Media
Charlene Li - co-author of Groundswell
Roxanne Darling - host, Beachwalks With Rox

Sounds like a pretty strong line-up to me. Especially since these guys will actually sit down and talk to you.

Learn more about the event here…

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Dinner With The Namibians

Guest Olympic Post From Rohit Bhargava

When I boarded my flight to Beijing, I didn’t have a single ticket for any Olympic events and I wasn’t worried. To understand why, I need to tell you about my best day during the Summer Olympics in Sydney in 2000. I was living there and had one night where I was heading out to see a Handball match (by far my favourite Olympic sport, by the way). I got two tickets last minute and knew nothing about the sport. When I turned up, I was surprised to learn that the sport is basically a cross between soccer with your hands and water polo without the water. It is fast, challenging, and amazingly fun to watch. I discovered a new sport that day, but that wasn’t even the most memorable part of the day. Right after, I managed to get a table at famous S-shaped bar at the one hotel which was at Homebush Bay (the main Olympic Area) outside of Sydney. At the table, we sat with several athletes from different countries including an Eastern European gymnast and an African track and field athlete. I don’t remember their names, or even what we talked about … only that it was one of the most authentic and powerful Olympic experiences I could imagine. And it wasn’t about watching an athlete break a record or win a medal. It was a quiet moment at a shared table over a bottle of wine talking to two athletes who were considered the best in their countries in their respective sports. Read the rest of this entry »

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Our own games won’t happen this August, but…

We had an Idea last week to host our own (Olympic) games. After a week of discussion with our sponsors and our legal counsel we decided to reschedule the event. We wanted to do this in Germany and the legal situation in Germany is just too unclear and to many issues remained unsolved. Germany is a contender for the 2016 games and doesn’t want to mess with the IOC.

It would have put us into too much jeopardy to purse our original plans at this time. We are a pretty adventurous team and up for a lot of crazy stuff but we also have a company to run and wouldn’t want to spend the next year and half in court.

BUT: We found a ton of support for the idea and will move on with it at a later time. I’d like to thank everyone for their sympathy with our efforts. We will take our time and revise our concept. As a result we will come out even stronger.

You’ll hear more about this when we are ready to launch!

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Jacques Rogge wakes up from his nightmare and calls it off

My name is Jacques Rogge. I just woke up from a long and bad nightmare. I just spent 7 years being totally delusional.

Wishful thinking ruled
We had an idea that awarding the games to Beijing would make a difference in the lives of one of the wonderful people of China. Of course we also thought that we could make a boatload of money by attracting sponsors to one of the biggest markets on Earth. After all, that’s how Mr. Samaranch taught us.

Of course our contract with the Chinese government about the terms of our cooperation was top secret. In deed it was so secret that I don’t even have a copy of it.

We knew that a lot of construction would take place and that people would need to be relocated. But we were told that this would be for the better of the people. Really: How could we not trust the Chinese governments’ good intensions? Read the rest of this entry »

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How to address concerns about the Olympics? Let’s just have our own games!

Our team in Germany has done an amazing job so far this week. We were totally late in the game but we had an idea to organize our own Olympics last weekend. We call them the Mobile Olympics or “Handyolympiade” in Germany. Too late? We are guerilla marketers - moving fast is what we do.

We started to approach potential sponsors on Tuesday and it looks we might be able to announce a title sponsor this week. Of course we aren’t looking to raise $866 million like our competiors;-)

But we are offering way more fun for everyone involved:
Of course the Mobile Olympics will be dealing with games including the use of mobile devices.

We are planning some Bike & Talk, SMS Challenges, and Mobile Athletics. The games will be completely uncensored and they won’t stink: The health of the athletes will be guaranteed - clean air for everyone!

We are ready to launch a website to promote and inform about the event. I wish I could show you the micro-site already but we need to keep the lid on until a title sponsor has signed on.

We are planning an offline event in Cologne, Germany later this month. The Obama party in Berlin was organized in 4 days and 200k people came. We’ll pull something memorable off as well.

Please Note:
This is an unfolding story. There is still a small chance that we don’t land the title sponsor we’d need. If that happens we know that we at least tried. Let us know if you’d like to be kept in the loop.

Do you know some fast movers?
If you know of anyone who’d be interested in co-sponsoring the Mobile Olympics then please have them contact us. We expect quite a bit of press coverage and it is a great way to present yourself to a local crowd in Germany - IF someone is able to do things last minute.

If anyone else is as crazy as we are and wants to do a local event here in the US then we might as well coordinate our efforts. We’d be happy to share our concept and we could provide a fully translated website with contact forms etc…within 24 hours. We are quick if we have to be;-)

Olympic spirit shall be available in small and larger bottles…

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How could Lenovo have been more “Authentic”? A personal wish list of politically incorrect videos…

Following yesterday’s criticism of Lenovo Olympic site “Voices of the Olympic Games” I am suggesting a different route. Something a bit more real.

I am focusing on the area of web videos. Everyone looks and talks about videos these days. They are a great way to start conversations. So it is not such a bad place to start with.

How about some web videos of the “other” kind?

I would have asked Lenovo if they are ready to be “real” and show some self humor and criticism. The answer might have been: “Yes, but…”

I would have ignored the but and would have suggested to go the extreme rout. Ready for my “politically incorrect video wish list”?

1. Computers with missing parts
Make a video with computers with missing parts being shipped. Make fun of the fact that Lenovo has been out of stock of some parts because they were too popular.
That happened to me last year. I cancelled my order after 6 weeks. They just couldn’t get their hands on a 17″ screen at that time.

Claim: “Our suppliers work 168 hours a week in 2 shifts. We’ll have your missing parts ready soon.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Lenovo marketing the 2008 Summer Olympics - Voices without a voice?

I waited a few weeks to look around the Lenovo site that was built around the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. I wanted to see how things unfold.
Lenovo created a group blog featuring 100 athletes sharing their experiences before and during the games.

Status Quo
Lenovo is a worldwide partner of the games. Get ready to see their logo everywhere in August. It also happens that they are headquartered in not-so-free-speech China even though their commercials around the world during the Olympics will make us believe otherwise.

On top of that you have the IOC that tries to shut up their athletes and has totally failed with their great idea to bring more openness to China by awarding them the Olympic games. The IOC even agreed to censorship of journalists during the games.

I consider these the most misplaced games since the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. That shouldn’t have happened either.

Enough politics. Let’s move on to the site called “Voices of the Olympic games”.

Here is what you’ll get to see

One athlete from China
She is talking in Chinese. God only knows what she is revealing on the site. She will certainly not talk about the age of some of her team mates. Read the rest of this entry »

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