From southwood@boyden.demon.co.uk Thu Mar 14 20:58:36 2002
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 14:54:11 +0000
From: Russell Southwood 
Reply-To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org
To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org
Subject: [GKD] Balancing Act: ICT and African Development Newsletter

EXCERPTS from Balancing Act's News Update 99

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REGIONAL BURSARIES TO ATTEND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE ART OF MAKING THINGS
HAPPEN

We will offer a limited number of bursaries (covering travel and
accommodation) to attend the workshop taking place in Gaberone on 28
March 2002 to those living in the following countries: Angola, Namibia,
Malawi, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique. There will be three
bursaries covering travel and accommodation and several others for
travel only. If you would like to attend this workshop, send your name,
address and e-mail contact details to info@balancingact-africa.com

This is the last in the current series of one day workshops are aimed at
existing and potential entrepreneurs in the internet, telecoms and
computing areas. The workshops will be addressed by those involved in
investing in new companies and existing entrepreneurs and will have
active sessions where participants work up business ideas.

The Botswana workshop will be held in Gaberone on Thursday 28 March 2002
at the Botswana National Productivity Centre. The event is organised in
association with the Botswana Information Society and the Government
Computer Bureau.

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SURVIVING AS A CONTENT-BASED WEB SITE - MEDIA.TOOLBOX KEEPS LEAN AND
VIRTUAL
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These have been tough days for anyone interested in producing quality
content on the web in Africa. With the end of the dot.com boom, there
has been a steady trickle of content web site owners pulling down the
shutters and calling it a day. Content has not generated cash. With only
a few high-profile exceptions, no one - neither users nor advertisers -
seem to want to pay for it. Nonetheless there are those who have worked
out a way of surviving and thriving by keeping their operations lean and
virtual and/or making them an adjunct to some other activity.

A good example is South Africa's media.toolbox which has focused on a
group of people who are used to sophisticated media choices: the media
industry itself in South Africa. It's highly targeted and within a short
period of time has carved itself a convincing niche. Herman Manson
explains how it has been done.

A final thought. It used to be said what happened in the USA happened in
the UK a year later. It may be that internet ideas that happen in South
Africa may migrate northwards to the rest of Africa. How long before
there is a Media.Toolbox equivalent for the rest of the continent's
fragmented media?

What does an out-of-work journalist do? Easy: launch a newsletter on the
Internet. That is exactly what I did in 1998 when I left my position as
assistant editor at an information technology magazine to jump into the
then-brand-new world of Internet publishing. Aimed at Web developers,
marketers and publishers, media.toolbox's first issue went out to fewer
than 50 people, mostly culled from my personal address book. That number
doubled over the week following the first issue and grew to reach more
than 1300 email subscribers and around 3000 monthly users who make use
of our website, which was launched in 1999 and is now updated daily.

Today the magazine covers all aspects of business and media issues in
the knowledge economy. The Digital Internet Media Association (DIMA), a
non-profit forum servicing the interactive media services industry, has
endorsed media.toolbox as an official media partner, as have First
Tuesday South Africa.

The magazine has no central office. Instead, the editorial, sales and
production teams work remotely from their homes in Cape Town,
Johannesburg and Grahamstown to put every issue together. media.toolbox
recently appointed its first Johannesburg-based editor, Mandy de Waal,
to manage our writers based in that city. media.toolbox has managed to
attract some of South Africa's top technology and media analysts to
contribute to its pages, including Michael Herman, Greg Gordon, David
Shapshak, Andrew Miller and Di Paice. All contributors to the magazine
volunteer their services, while advertising revenue subsidises
infrastructure and administrative costs.

In September 2000, the media.toolbox team launched Mobile.Works, one of
the first African news sites dedicated to covering mobile and wireless
commerce. That magazine launched into print in September 2001 as a
quarterly in a joint venture with Connexity Publishing. Mobile.Works
aims to help readers assess the real value of interactive commerce,
content, and advertising on wireless platforms, from WAP-enabled phones
to PDAs.

One of our first initiatives this year will be the launch of a
comprehensive database-driven directory of South African Web developers.
It s currently being built by Cape Town-based Stonewall Productions, and
should go live before the end of February. The Web Developer Showcase
hopes to initiate more collaboration within this industry.

The team behind media.toolbox has worked hard to make the magazine a
well- respected, well-read asset to the community it reports on. The
experience has been more than gratifying.

media.toolbox: http://www.mediatoolbox.co.za or
mailto:join-mtbmail@elist.co.za Mobile.Works :
http://www.mobileworksonline.com or mailto:join-mworks@elist.co.za

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AFRICAN WEB NEWS AND USEFUL SITES
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*   MEDIA PLACEMENT PORTAL LAUNCHES

The African Extension and Exp.Momentum, recently launched the African
Media Portal, a placement system for all forms of media in all of the
countries on the African continent.
http://www.mediatoolbox.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=2908&p=39


*   SA STUDENT PORTAL OFFERS LOW-COST SERVICE WITH INTERNET SOLUTIONS

Local student portal, Get a Life (gAL.co.za), has launched a
pay-as-you-surf Internet service provider, where consumers can pay R39
per month, paying per hour after the first four hours. Surfers can also
buy unlimited access for R75 per month.

"The costs of using the Internet and e-mail are very high - way too high
for most South Africans. Two years ago, it was R99 a month. Last year it
went up to R119 a month. Now it's about R130. That's over R1 500 a year.
Not only is the cost too high, but it's rising much faster than
inflation," says Get a Life founder, John Kuhn.Internet Solutions will
provide the bandwidth and 24-hour e-commerce backup will come from
another young company - Cyberpro.Get a Life previously worked with
Cyberpro last year to compete head-on with Naspers when it launched its
online bookstore for students.

Kuhn explains the pay-as-you surf option costs R39 per month, and
includes four hours Internet use. Every hour after that will cost R3.50
per hour. For serious surfers, the unlimited access package will cost
R75 per month. However, he says if Get a Life can reach 10 000
subscribers it will increase the hours available on the R39-per-month
package to seven.
(source:http://www.itweb.co.za)

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All material printed in Balancing Act's News Update is subject to
copyright. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without the
express permission of the publisher.

TO CONTACT US:
Russell Southwood, Balancing Act, 71 Crescent Lane, London SW4 9PT
Tel/fax: + 44 20 7720 5993 Cell: 07973 561987 E-mail:
info@balancingact-africa.com



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