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Clay Shirky to deliver keynote at Tech4Africa in August

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Clay Shirky – one of the world’s leading thinkers and writers on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies – will be the keynote speaker at the inaugural Tech4Africa Conference in August this year. Shirky’s participation in the event underlines its status as the top African conference about the Web and other emerging technologies.

The event, organised by Technovated, will bring international experience and perspective to the African continent and provide a rare opportunity to learn first hand from local and international speakers about the role that emerging and Web technologies have to play in African business and development.

Shirky is one of the world’s most sought-after speakers on topics related to the Web, social media and the Internet. He has spoken at events such as TED Global, SXSW, the Web 2.0 expo in New York and San Francisco, SES San Jose, the Adobe Learning Summit, New York Tech Meetup and the Aspen Ideas Festival.

He currently divides his time between teaching, consulting and writing. He teaches New Media as an associate teacher at New York University’s (NYU) graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP).

His consulting practice focuses on the rise of decentralised technologies such as peer-to-peer, web services and wireless networks that provide alternatives to the wired client/server infrastructure that characterises the Web. Shirky consults for clients such as Nokia, the Library of Congress and the BBC.

He has written and been interviewed extensively about the Internet and his columns and writings have appeared in Business 2.0, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review and Wired. Shirky is also the author of Here Comes Everybody, which explores the effects of open networks, collaboration and user created and disseminated content on organisations and industries. He is especially well known for using the phrase “the Internet runs on love” and for his advocacy of crowdsourcing and collaborative efforts online.

Says Gareth Knight, MD of Technovated: “We’re excited to have drawn a speaker of Clay Shirky’s calibre to this event. By attracting such a strong line-up of African and international speakers to this conference, we hope to inspire a generation of Africans to go and do extraordinary things with the Web and other emerging technologies.

It is an excellent learning opportunity for any person or organisation with an interest in the African Web – whether as an end-user of the technology, as a technologist working with the technology, or as an entrepreneur or investor active in the African market.”

Shirky joins a stellar line-up of international speakers – including leaders from organisations such as Twitter, Mozilla, WordPress and Yahoo! – and African technologists from companies such as PesaPal, Ushahidi, Obami and many more.

The event runs from 12-13 August 2010 at The Forum in Bryanston. Workshops will be held on 10-11 August. The event is targeted at business professionals and technologists from businesses of all sizes, from entrepreneurs and start-up owners through to professionals working at large organisations.

Registration for the event is open and there are 300 early bird tickets available.

For further information or to register, visit http://tech4africa.com, email [email protected] or call +44 (0) 207 788 1023.

About Clay Shirky
Shirky’s writings can be found online at:
http://www.shirky.com/

His blog about his book, Here Comes Everybody, can be found at:
http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/

His talk at the Web 2.0 Expo can be found on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyoNHIl-QLQ

His talk on TED Global can be found on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_iN_QubRs0

About Technovated
Technovated is a leading Web 2.0 provider in South Africa and London. Technovated enables content management, delivers e-commerce stores and search engine marketing, provides social media management and stimulates growth for foreign markets through authentic user engagement. http://www.technovated.com/

About Gareth Knight
Gareth is a digital maven and open source evangelist. Educated as a zoologist, he is a veteran of two dot com crashes in London, one web 2.0 acquisition, and runs Technovated.

Previously, Gareth served in London as Director of Product Management for MyHeritage.com, a global family genealogy company based in Tel Aviv.

Before joining MyHeritage, Gareth landed seed funding from London’s top early stage investors to co-found Kindo.com, a global family social network with an international team spread around the world. He then led the Product team in London to roll out a localised version of Kindo in 17 languages within 6 months, as well as an aggressive search engine campaign, both of which resulted in users from circa 220 countries and an enviable growth rate.

Kindo was voted one of the top 3 most promising Internet companies in the UK for 2008, and was later acquired by MyHeritage in August that year.

Press Contacts

Ian Rodney
Account Manager
Emerging Media Communications
(011) 792 4706
[email protected]

Gareth Knight
Managing Director
Technovated
[email protected]

Front End Developer job in London, at Kublax

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Location: London, UK

Description:
Do you believe in user-focused, web standard design and development, driven by simplicity?
Kublax is a financial services SaaS start-up based in London, looking for a motivated UI person to help deliver a compelling product for a venture-backed project.

This is an opportunity to play a significant role in a forthcoming site relaunch, using page layouts, storyboards, site grids and interface demos to create a compelling site experience. You’ll be working with the product manager and visual designer to create a user experience with a high wow-factor, so your background should include a blend of creative and technical competencies.

Your technical proficiency and real-world experience should show in your portfolio. You should also have 3+ years experience developing frontend interfaces, be able to create mockups, and be a great communicator.

In return, you’ll have the opportunity to work on a visible web product with a talented team in London.

Responsibilites:
• Interface design
• Helping to finesse storyboards, page layouts, site grids and interface demos, prototyping.
• Knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of modern front-end technologies & approaches (XHTML/CSS, ActionScript, JavaScript, AJAX, DHTML, etc.) and the curiosity to tinker and play.

Required experience:
• 3+ years experience in front-end web development
• Experience translating comps and wireframes into flexible and usable code templates
• Strong working knowledge developing cross platform/browser compatibility (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.) for dynamic web applications
• Hand coded (X)HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Please provide evidence of progressive techniques, separation of markup, presentation and behaviour layers in your front-end code including use of unobtrusive JavaScript
• Experience in developing web applications with rich client interfaces using AJAX, drag and drop, and other DOM Scripting techniques
• Familiarity with JavaScript frameworks and animation libraries like Prototype, Scriptaculous and JQuery
• Knowledge of SEO best practices
• Experience with SVN and Java
• Excellent verbal, writing, visualization, and presentation skills

Desirable:
• Experience of Google Web Toolkit

To Apply:
E-mail your cover letter and resume to sridhar AT kublax DOT com
Subject header must have UI WEB DEVELOPER-LNDN.

Absolutely no recruiters or offshore development teams please.

Shameless plug – please vote for my panels at SxSW Interactive 2010 ;-)

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If you’ve got a few mins, would appreciate your vote for my panel submission for SxSW next year ;-)

Starting and Selling Startups – Lessons From the Coalface

This session looks at finding that ‘right idea’ and following it through the phases of building a company, building the product and selling it on. It covers people, technology, finance, working with investors, scaling-up, general do’s and don’ts, what to look out for in an acquisition partner and more…
Questions Answered:
1. Why values and working with integrity is so important
2. Why talk is cheap and execution is everything
3. Why hiring right is so important and what you should do to motivate, grow and develop your team
4. Why you can’t succeed on your own
5. Why a frugal approach to technology, premises and other operational elements makes sense
6. How you distinguish between attitude , aptitude and talent; which you need and how you go about acquiring staff with the right mix of each
7. When equity is important, and when it’s not
8. How to tell serious investors from ‘chancers’ and how (in general) one should work with investors
9. The pros and cons of an acquisition – when to take it and when to run for the hills
10. How not to get sucked into the black-hole of scaling-up

Starting and Selling Startups - Lessons From the Coalface

Lessons From the Long Trenches: Bootstrapping 301

Bootstrapping can be a painful, problem-ridden process, laden with hundreds of potential mistakes the eager entrepreneur can make. From strategy, to finding funding and managing resources, this session shares hard-earned insights into what some of those obstacles are, what tools startups need and why it’s definitely worth it.
Questions Answered:
1. Why is bootstrapping one of the best ways to start a company?
2. Why are integrity and values so important?
3. How do I leverage what capital I have, even if it’s not much?
4. What kind of people should I hire?
5. What skills do I need in order to bootstrap successfully?
6. Why I should “Always Be Closing”?
7. Why starting up is just a state of mind, and not a state of being.
8. How do I leverage debt and credit smartly?
9. Why do I need to be good at networking?
10. Why do I need systems and processes?

Lessons From the Long Trenches: Bootstrapping 301

If you do, thanks millions.
If you’re gonna be there, please ping me / comment so we can make a plan to hook up then.
And, checkout the other interactive panels too!

Checkout TechCrunch Europe Guide to Bootstrapping

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Check it out, some good ones:
_The TechCrunch Europe Guide to Bootstrapping – Your Advice

This week TechCrunch Europe interrogated your hive mind on the subject of bootstrapping your startup. Most startups bootstrap for at least part of their lifetime and how it’s done can determine whether you make it as far as exogenous funding. We also asked founders what you should spend money on even when your resources are limited.

In the next two weeks we will look at getting funding and dealing with investors. Please send any tips on these subjects via email or Twitter.

SEO job in Johannesburg, South Africa: SEO Analyst at FNB

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Go get it… Or please forward if you think relevant:

Position Advertised: SEO Analyst
Segment: Corporate Banking
Business Unit: FNB Online – PCM
Grade: Grade Cs
Role: SEO Analyst
Remuneration: Salary depended on experience and qualifications

Overview of Role

The SEO Analyst is a position designed to support the efforts of the search engine optimisation team. This person is responsible for assisting with the production, implementation, and development of our search engine optimisation services. We’re looking for a motivated, creative, and analytic thinker to join FNB Online, in Fairland, Randburg. As a Search Engine Optimisation Analyst, the person’s primary goal will be to increase natural search engine traffic from key search engines for our FNB Internal Stakeholders. The person will also assist with the implementation of a SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and Web Analytics strategy.

Key Responsibilities:

* Audit content published for search engine optimization compliance
* Create detailed search engine optimization recommendations for assigned sites
* Track and report search engine referrals, keyword rankings and other SEO/SEM traffic metrics for assigned sites to stakeholders
* Implement strategies for attaining high rankings for relevant, high-volume search terms
* Be an expert in your space by staying on top of current SEO/SEM news, search engine feature changes, and algorithm shifts.
* Research, create and assist with a long-term SEO/SEM strategy for the channel that complies with best practice standards and will drive sustainable traffic.
* On-page optimisation, including detailed site assessment and comprehensive recommendations.
* Off-page optimisation, including development and acquisition.
* Website structure, page structure and internal linking structure.
* Advice on implementation and page code.
* Page copy and keyword optimisation.
* Monitoring and reporting.
* Keyword research.
* Competitor and back-link analysis.
* Work autonomously to identify areas of opportunity and improvement.
* Follow company policies and procedures.
* Complete any ad hoc report, or duty as required by the business needs.
* Demonstrate an active interest in advancing the success of our clients.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

- An SEO/SEM qualification (Required)
- Understanding and Experience in Web Analytics (Required – at least 1 year)
- A tertiary qualification with a marketing background (Advantage)
- Understanding and Experience in the Web 2.0 environment (Required – at least 1 year)
- MS Office Word and Excel Advanced user (Required)
- Report writing Skills (Required)

Personal Qualities

* Able to work with a diverse and distributed team.
* An adept and proactive communicator able to build relationships at all levels, able to deal with others with tact and good judgment. Responsible, inclusive and approachable.
* Drive and desire to contribute to the success of the company’s strategy and goals
* The ability to multi-task and plan effectively, especially regarding the introduction of new work to suit existing schedules is a must, as is effective self-management.
* A proactive and pre-emptive problem-solving approach, requiring a diligent mind and an eye for detail in all aspects of business.
* Intelligent and perceptive. A creative and original thinker with the ability to generate innovative solutions and suggestions to meet a wide range of business challenges.
* Positive and enthusiastic, displaying a genuine passion for meeting new challenges. Inquiring and analytical.