Author: Contributor
By Rishal Hurbans, Solutions Architect at Entelect | Founder at Prolific Idea I hit a bird with my car the other day. I felt terrible. I don’t know why I felt that way. Some people might not be at all affected by the death of a bird. Why is that? What makes us respond the way we do in certain situations? What makes us think and act the way we do? The short answer is: No one knows for sure. No one understands exactly how the human brain works or what quantifies intelligence. Humans think they’re intelligent because they’re the…
By Jackie Writing Technology has boomed into a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, providing jobs and better access to tools like education. In Africa about 3 people in 1,000 have access to a computer, versus about 1 in 40 people on average worldwide. The numbers are looking to go up in Africa, as innovators in the region are beginning to find ways to build their own computers, and use e-waste to bring the continent into the digital age. E-Waste and Donations Despite having little or no access to modern technology, Africa certainly has quite a bit of the e-waste from developed countries lying around. It…
by Ben Dickson I think it’s totally up to me whether I decide to open an email or not. But apparently, others are not of the same opinion. That’s why they use mail tracking applications, a breed of software that will let the sender of an email know when you read their message. I find it invasive, even more offending than link trackers (most mail trackers track links as well). And as it happens, most—but not all—of the tracked emails I receive are of little value. That’s why I block mail trackers and let their users think their emails were…
By Brett Parker, MD at SAP Africa By now, I am convinced that you have heard of M-Pesa, the popular and often-cited mobile banking system that has become Africa’s innovation calling card. But do you know about the Ushahidi crowdsourcing app, also from M-Pesa’s birthplace, Kenya? Built to digitally map demographic events, it is used across the world. Today Ushahidi, which means ‘evidence’ in Swahili, is a technology company with presence in more than 20 countries. The list of African innovations, born from the need to solve specific challenges, is very impressive. For a number of years, Africa’s rise made…
By Staff Writer Today Google announced its support for a Digital Journalism initiative that will see 6 000 African journalists trained in data journalism skills by the end of February 2018. Google News Lab and the World Bank are working with Code For Africa to empower journalists in Africa by giving them the necessary support to better understand the Web and how to use the tools available to them online. The Code For Africa Digital Journalism initiative will take place over the next 9 months (to February 2018) and see 6 000 journalists trained in 12 major African cities -…
By Staff Writer First National Bank (FNB) has launched a new brand repositioning campaign with the bold message of help and how help is one of the most powerful forces known to man. The new campaign reinforces FNB’s purpose of helpfulness, cementing our position as a leader and innovator in banking and financial services. It promotes the ownership of the concept of “help”, by depicting people who are empowered to realise their dreams and take control of their lives by “helping themselves”. This campaign encapsulates where our brand is heading. “At FNB, we want to ensure that we resonate with our…
By Randy Battat, PreVeil Most business-to-business communication involves sensitive information – stuff that the parties really don’t want others to know about. Whether it’s contracts, customer communications, supplier information, dialog with consultants and contractors, or other things, there’s a lot of sensitive information that travels via plain old email. These emails really should be protected, i.e. encrypted. But the vast majority of B2B communication remains unencrypted, despite wide availability of very good technology and tools. Why? The answer is that good encryption is too hard to use – there’s too much friction involved in encrypting an email versus sending a…
By Dave Glass, founder and MD of Electrum Every month, South African retailers receive billions of Rands in payments from their customers. Behind the scenes, payments technology plays a critical role at retailers, ensuring a fast and smooth shopping experience for consumers like you. It’s a crucial part of our financial backbone, that most of us take little notice of, even though we interact with it daily at stores, online and on our mobile phones. Here are top retail payments insights: Get ready for new payment methods Tech savvy consumers are demanding quicker, more convenient and more engaging ways to…
By Cameron Beveridge, Director: Cloud, SAP Africa The future of business is in the cloud. That is the message from global analysts as the latest IT sales figures show a marked shift away from hardware. The shift to cloud services and other Digital Business solutions has slashed Gartner’s global IT spending growth forecasts by half: a cut of $67bn for this year alone, with data centre growth predicted at a modest 0.3% in 2017. This is not necessarily bad news, depending on where you are with your digital transformation journey. The same Gartner report expects growth in enterprise software spending…
By Staff Writer The BMW Group has unveiled its vision of zero-emission urban mobility on two wheels: the BMW Motorrad Concept Link at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2017. The electric scooter is inspired by the BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100, the design study unites digital connectivity with the demands of urban mobility on two wheels. The new and emphatically function-driven architecture provides a high level of riding pleasure due to the E-drive. The BMW Motorrad Concept Link is ideally suited to meet the requirements of modern urban mobility with fast acceleration and easy handling. Inspired by the BMW Motorrad…