A good example of the Semantic Web (a.k.a. Web 3.0 ugh…)

Recently, I discovered this example of what the Semantic Web is about through Neville on Muti. I think this is probably one of the clearest examples I’ve seen to date. Lets look at it.

The problem:
Consider the following sentence:
Voters are heading to the polls
The word heading in this context is an action. Unfortunately in natural language, heading is also a noun which could also mean: a division or section of a subject; a class or category.

So how do we teach a machine that heading in that context is an action and not a noun? Sure, it might be possible to try and parse the sentence and try and couple the word heading with other words that might identify it as an action. For example: condition: if word heading are preceded by an auxiliary verb (i.e. is, are, etc…) then it is an action. Can you imagine though how many possible combinations there would be in only the English language alone?!

The solution:
Enter the Semantic Web. By using simple markup, we can now enable machines to “understand” the context of the words. No need for machines to go through rigorous routines to establish whether or not a word is an action, name, location, etc., the machine is simply told what it is!

I hope you can see the actual advantage of it and how it could improve our online experience tremendously. To see this example in action please visit:
http://www.cortex-intelligence.com/tech/

For a long time now, we have been speculating whether or not the Semantic web would be adopted or not and how long it would be until the big guns start adopting it. Finally, Paul told me, that Yahoo adopted some microformats in a big way! Exciting news! Paul, you asked what I thought and I think it is FANTASTIC! Now it is simply a matter of time. So start adopting and taking this serious folks!

Filed in: Semantic Web by: Stii

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Yes, Twitter is indeed a chat service!

LOL, sorry Paul, I’m also going to be a bit sticky about this. See, the thing is this. If Twitter was not meant to be a chat service, then they should not have allowed for it to be used as such. Its a bit like Google giving a programmer all its source code and saying “here is all my source. Just don’t look at it or use it, okay?” That would kill a good geek. While it allows for chat it would be used as chat. Simple. It is the nature of us human beings.

The crutch is that while we use it that way, I have to agree with what Tyler said: FriendFeed needs to figure out a new algorithm for Twitter. 100% right. If Friendfeed offered me the functionality to exclude Twitter from my friends’ feeds, the problem for me will be solved. Without doubt. I also disagree that it is not their problem. They should be aware that the problem exists, so they should find the solution to make it work. People are much less likely to stop chatting on Twitter than leaving Friendfeed. Thats for sure!

As for Pownce, it would be much more difficult persuading everyone following me on Twitter to convert to Pownce. We are where our social network is. I hate Facebook, yet I use it now and again as a lot of my friends are there. No matter how badly I want to go to Orkut, getting them all on there would be a fulltime job, that is more that likely to fail as they’d have to convince all their friends, etc, etc…

Filed in: Social Web by: Stii

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How Twitter spoils stuff…

Firstly, this morning Twitter REALLY spoiled bandwidthblog.com’s scoop. Thats another story altogether. My main gripe is that it is spoiling the kick-ass Friendfeed feeds. Sure, I’m pretty much tuned in on Twitter, so by the time it gets to Friendfeed its old news, but have a look at this and tell me if this makes sense AT ALL:

I’m sorry, but this just makes zero sense. It makes some A-listers look like complete nut cases talking in an elitist language of their own… Even clicking through to a user’s Twitter profile you still end up more confused that cat vomit in a tumble dryer.

I’d love to appeal to all Friendfeed users: Please remove your Twitter accounts from your feed if you are using anything but the web to update Twitter. Pretty please, with sugar on top!

If you don’t know what Twitter is at all, see this:

Thank you, Justin!

Filed in: Web 2.0 by: Stii

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When did we become such pussies?

Disclaimer: Pussies as in cute, furry kittens!

One thing you will always get within Social Media (or any kind of social establishment) is differing opinions. This is a good thing. It allows for (somewhat) healthy debates. Sometimes these debates breaks out in fights. That is also not necessarily a bad thing. Friends do fight. Hell, my wife and I fight like cat vs. dog sometimes! It does not mean we hate each other! We simply differ in opinion and we sort it out over an undisclosed period of time using various tactics. (Of which the “silent treatment” tactic is B’s favorite! ) Nevertheless, it is not a sign of sickness, rather it is a healthy sign.

With the SA Blog Awards, every year without fail, you get “arguments” with a somewhat unhealthy element. You get these pussies (as in cats, remember) that spray bullets in the sky with the attitude “if the shoe fits…”. Not very helpful. It is exactly that “if the shoe fits” mentality that gets us nowhere, since no-one wants to put on that shoe if it was not specifically meant for them, so NOTHING is resolved at the end of the day.

I’m talking about this post of Jarred Cinman on Thought Leader. The post is laced with innuendos of certain “entrepreneurs” who are working out of their bedrooms in their parents’ house [sic] which is a shoe I can fit on dozens of people. Even on my own foot to some extent. The thing is, I do not particularly think Mr. Cinman aimed at anybody specific (though, he must have been thinking about some folks specifically at the time of writing it), although if you look at some of the comments on Muti, people’s perception is different:

people [are] sick of all the egomaniacal crap that goes on from certain ‘players’ in the industry.” and
“Once again timbloem - ‘players’ Stop beating about the bush and actually name them. ” and
“I’m waiting for a blog post on who these “players” / “in-crowd” / “big heads” are. Everyone quotes the above sayings, but no one ever names them. Why? Scared? ” and
“I propose the following formula: Count the number of times the blogger has “web2.0″, “entrepreneur”, “seo expert”, “new media strategist” in their banner and add it to the number of photos they have of themselves on their blog, add another point for any “vote for my blog” icons and subtract the total from 10. This is the “South African Blogger Expertness Score”.

So why not simply say it? What are people afraid of? At least it would give the “players” the opportunity to defend themselves! Surely that is only fair? To label a bunch of people as these so called “players”, but no-one knows who these elusive “players” are is kind of stupid?! Its like saying “the illumenati is a bunch of wankers”. No one will take that serious!

People have a lot to say about Richard Catto’s troll tactics, but at least he has the balls to say “Stii is a doos” (”doos” as in the Afrikaans version of a “box”… tsk tsk tsk…)

Clearly there are a bunch of people who dislike another bunch of people for undisclosed reasons. How can they begin to know why if they’re not even sure who? In the end, all that will happen is that people will start to ignore these “innuendos” and stay out of the “debate”. As noted so many times, we’re a fairly young movement in Africa. We tend to still take this shit seriously. This too will change as it gets bigger.

Now I can hear it already: “So what you are saying is that whenever I talk of a certain group of people I now have to mention who I’m talking of?” Sheesh, don’t be silly! I cannot tell you what to do! Gmf…

What I will say is this: If you do not have something good to say about someone, don’t say it. If you do say it, say it so that person can at least defend himself/herself. Have some balls, FFS!!

Peace! Out!

Filed in: Blogging by: Stii

14 comments

Happy PI day! π rocks!

Its that magical constant number’s special day today again.

From the official π day’s site http://www.piday.org/:

With the use of computers, Pi has been calculated to over 1 trillion digits past the decimal. Pi is an irrational number meaning it will continue infinitely without repeating. The symbol for pi was first used in 1706 by William Jones, but was popular after it was adopted by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737.

Amazing, isn’t it?!

I’m a bit late, but I’m ordering me a cool π shirt for next year!

Filed in: General and sometimes Rants by: Stii

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Stormhoek gets NO love from Origin Wines

Apart from getting a really raw deal from Stormhoek’s UK partners, Orbital, they are faced with even more obstacles. Since Orbital has gone under, it was sold to/taken over by Origin Wines. Their previous website (now, unfortunately also owned by Origin) are now used to spread a bunch of lies:

When we started Stormhoek back in 2003, we sat in our office in London and thought, “Why can’t we make great 5 pound South African Sauvignon Blanc? Why not beat the New Zealanders at their own game? Better, Cheaper and Faster!”
…
Ultimately we went ahead, brought some tech, contracted out our production, designed a label, marketed and launched Stormhoek. People loved the wine!
…
There are some very successful brands in ZA that some nothing more than a label, with everything else being outsourced, but we felt that we needed a place to call home. So, we bought an interest in a little vineyard called Siyabonga, near Wellington. After years of effort, Siyabonga had not been able to sell its wine very successfully, and with Stormhoek’s growing business, it was a perfect place to buy what we could call a home. So it was a good fit for both parties.

Read more here! (For the TRUE Stormhoek story, read here)

Luckily one person did notice that and left a comment, which would be interesting to see how long the comment remains there:

What has happened? I think I cannot say it better than Rob Stokes from Quirk:

The assets of the sunken Orbital were recently bought by Origin, and of course with this purchase came all of Stormhoek’s brand equity in what I would guess to be their biggest market.

In essence what they are now doing is cutting Graham and the team at Stormhoek SA (the people who really care about the brand) out of the UK profit loop. Sure their business will (hopefully!) go to another South African farm, but I’ll bet my favourite Google hat that vast majority of the profits will stay in the UK. As a proud South African, that doesn’t sit well with me.

Read more here!

From what I understand is that Stormhoek will continue to make the good stuff here (a.k.a. the real Stormhoek) and export to basically everywhere, accept the UK. In the UK, Origin is going to continue to bottle and sell Stormhoek, but not with real Stormhoek, which means nothing! I think this Jason guy misses the point about Stormhoek. See, Stormhoek is not just a good brand. The real Stormhoek is a massive success story. It is also a fantastic story! You can put the best bloody Bordeaux wine in a Stormhoek bottle, it is not Stormhoek, as the story is lost. However, all of this will be another great chapter with excellent lessons to be learned in the real Stormhoek’s story! As Rob said in a comment over at Quirk:

My point is that I don’t think the two can be fairly separated. The wine is the brand and vice versa.

Another blind turn of events is that this Jason guy told the real Stormhoek guys that they have to seize the use of all those brilliant little cartoons we grew used to by Hugh MacLeod. That is very sad. From the nasty article on the old Stormhoek blog, it seems like they will also retain the services of Hugh, so it seems that is also lost to the real Stormhoek. Very sad… BUT, is there maybe an opportunity lurking for some aspiring blogger in SA to take over that role?! Would be kinda tough to beat the brilliant Hugh at his own game though!

There is an upside to all this, of course! Stormhoek will now be more available right here in SA! Since they will not be shipping to the UK anymore, they will distribute much more right here. (At least, thats what I hope!) That sure is good news for all real Stormhoek fans!

So if you feel you’d like to help even more, the best you can do is to talk about all of this on your blogs. The truth will prevail!

Filed in: Social Web, South Africa, Web 2.0 by: Stii

9 comments

How Carte Blanche could make it better next time

A damn lot was said this week about the Web2.0 insert of Sunday. Some people were upset that the message was a misrepresentation of what exactly Web2.0 was. In all honesty, I liked it. It was confusing in a way, but it was great seeing my friends on such a big program on telly. Dave & Rafiq, you guys rocked! I think I agree most with what Grant said.

One thing I do think that would have “explained” the Web2.0 theory a bit better would have been the Stormhoek story. It is a great story about how to think out the box and how to apply some pivotal aspects or tools of Web2.0 to promote your product. It would be much more relevant to viewers I think as it is a quite simple to understand story, which is of great value to anyone. Simply put, the Stormhoek story could have generated a lot more curiosity in Web2.0. It is not too late though! If anyone with Carte Blanche connections reads this, suggest it to them. Although, I think the Zoopers are doing a fantastic job already, so maybe CB can simply buy their clips…

If the “buy a vine - save a job” project is successful, it could be quite a significant turn of events in the Web2.0 movement again. Getting your fans and followers to micro-finance your business. Read this excellent article written by Eve Dmochowska on Bizcommunity.

PS: When Belinda saw Rafiq on Carte Blanche she went: “No ways! But thats Rafiq!” and to our eldest son “That uncle on TV stayed here in our house! WOW!” @Rafiq - you’re a celeb now mate!

Filed in: Web 2.0 by: Stii

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Vodacom is giving away MacBooks?!

I hardly could believe my eyes when I saw this. Finally it seems that the Core Group is waking up and starting to make deals. That or Vodacom saw that there is a growing market for MacBooks. The latter seems more believable.

I got SPAMMED in my offline mailbox today with the latest cellphone specials flyer thingy. On the last page they advertised that you could get a MacBook with a 3G MyMeg 500 contract. There are two other laptops you could get with the deal too, but who cares?

Filed in: Apple stuff by: Stii

6 comments

Buy a vine from Stormhoek

The time has come to put your money where your mouths are and help a friend. Stormhoek amongst some has been hit hard by the collapse of their UK wine distributor. Read the full story here. So you can help them by buying a vine in their vineyard for ZAR2000 (approx. US$270) and support the guys that supported us bloggers so generously with free wine at almost every Geeky gathering.

Please, if you can afford it, buy a vine. If not, help spread the word and please Digg it here.

I’m in for sure!

Filed in: Blogging, GeekDinner!, Social Web by: Stii

4 comments

Great Apple Quote

“…we want our applications to run at least as fast as an apple fanboy on the day of the iphone release…”

Got it from: Amateur Hour with Jordan Isip

Filed in: Apple stuff, Funnies by: Stii

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