Mark Gevisser's keynote speech at Internetix 2009 in Cape Town, in tandem with a chat I had with him at breakfast, leads me to a significant reframing of the Zuma PRESIDENCY. I've been a pessimist about South Africa's hopes under Zuma. Given the bloke's shady past.
But the presidency is not the man. The man may be flawed. But his presidency has much more at stake than he has.
These are the key points I took away from Mark's insights:
o Zuma's 'dishonest' past almost forces an honest presidency. He has to be seen to be spick and span.
o He comes from a security background. He's a spook. He has several cellphones on him at all times. Each hooked up to a different 'cell' of his intelligence network. Subsequently, he has a very attuned ear. Knows what's happening.
o He's taking aggressive action against corruption. He's being SEEN to be walking the talk. Gevisser reckons he's potshotting at soft targets for the moment. Easing off on loyalists. But that'll probably change.
o The ANC 'formation myth' crystalises around the inviolability of the South African constitution. Messing with the constitution messes with the formation myth. And messing with the formation myth leads to party instability. Gevisser reckons that the formation myth is our biggest insurance policy against constitution meddling.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Internetix Mark Gevisser #internetix
Friday, July 10, 2009
Roy Blumenthal -- Edmonton Stories #yeg #iclei
This story appears on the EdmontonStories.ca site. Please click through so you can see the video of me making a complete picture from start to finish.
The story comes from an interview conducted by Elize Smit, a once-upon-a-time South African, now a fully-fledged Edmontonian.
She condensed it down from my verbose ramblings over an hour or two.
She also operated the video camera to capture the footage of me making a pic of one of the ICLEI delegates from start to finish. You'll need to click through to see the video.
Chris thought my visual facilitation might be a fit for the city of Edmonton. He's the IT branch manager and chief information officer of the city of Edmonton. So the deal was if I could make my way from South Africa to Canada, they'd put me up and have me do visual facilitation here in Edmonton.
Of course I wanted to know how Chris knew about me. First time I got to that was in the car from the airport. He told me, "Well, you did a SlideShare presentation on the web about a session hosted by the Disney Institute, and a friend of mine sent me that SlideShare. I ended up printing out every slide and surreptitiously, every now and again, putting up a copy of one of the pages, just to jolt the office around a little bit and generate some interest." As soon as he saw the SlideShare he started thinking about how he could use my skills. He couldn't bring me out just for a City of Edmonton event – he has to be responsible with spending taxpayer money and all – so he waited for an opportunity where there could be a synergy. ICLEI came up. He started negotiating with them, and I’m here!
One of the things happening in the City's IT department is that they're moving towards each individual designing their future. So it’s not about reacting to stuff anymore. It's about taking charge and saying, "This is what I want out of my daily life. These are my interests. This is what I want to do." And the IT Department's making it real. It's not lip service. It's real stuff. To demonstrate that, Chris got me into a Q & A session where the audience got to ask the department directors questions. There were 300 people, all of them working in the department. And Chris and his directors were being really open and honest about who they are, what their plans are, what’s going on in the department, and what the forward planning is. Open and transparent.
I said to Chris, before the session started, that I'm sure this is probably going to be quite a confidential session so if he'd like, I wouldn't put any of the pictures up on Flickr. And he said, "No, we're about transparency and openness. Whatever you create in this session, you can put on Flickr. And we're going to share it with all the staff. We want to be held accountable for what goes on in our department." So the entire session’s on Flickr. People were blown away, because everyone was being totally open and honest, and because it was so interactive. I was drawing on screen, the directors were doing their thing, the audience was asking questions. It was great.
The video below was shot during the ICLEI World Congress 2009 at the Shaw Conference Centre. Watch Roy draw one of the ICLEI delegates visiting Edmonton.
Story Created: Jul. 10, 2009
Written by Edmontonstories.ca staff
Saturday, June 27, 2009
RIP: A Remix Manifesto (with a pic of Greg Gillis, aka, 'Girl Talk')
One of the movies on the Air Canada flight from Edmonton to London was Brett Gaylor's RIP: A REMIX MANIFESTO. (Download a remixable copy of RIP 2.0 here: http://www.opensourcecinema.org/project/rip2.0.)
The documentary is a wonderfully immersive introduction to the Creative Commons movement. Well worth seeing.
One of the artists featured in the movie is a remix musician called 'GirlTalk'. (Here's an interview with Greg Gillis, the dude behind the nom de plume: http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/7522-girl-talk/.)
I LOVE what he does. And I HAVE TO get stuff he's done. Buttkickage of the highest order.
On the plane, I hit the pause button on a good shot of him. Whipped open the trusty li'l black Moleskine. And slammed some lines down with my Bic Intensity gel-ink pen.
So the black and white version is what I ended the flight with.
And the colour version is a high res scan brought into Photoshop CS3. The only thing I've done is draw various outlines, and use the colour adjustment tool to get some lovely smooth, flat colours going.
That's made possible specifically because of the fact that I scan at high res, in full colour, with low contrast. This means that the paper texture is part of the black and white picture, even though it can't be seen.
This picture is released under a Creative Commons 'Attribution Share-Alike' license. So remix at will.
Originated in black ink in an A6 unlined Moleskine. Scanned. Then tweaked for colour in Photoshop CS3 on my Rectron-sponsored Asus R1E tablet pc.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Roy Blumenthal Making the Amy Goodman Visual Facilitation Pic
Earlier this afternoon I caught the live streaming vidcast of the OPEN VIDEO CONFERENCE held in New York.
I liked what I was encountering. So I did a visual facilitation of some of the keynotes. You can see the pics I made in my Open Video Conference set on Flickr.
Amy Goodman spoke about Democracy Now, a free-tv station that seeks to put views across that aren't curtailed by corporate influence.
I made a pic of Amy Goodman's session.
I though it might be neat to show some of my process in speeded-up form.
So I zapped into www.artrage.com, started recording, and then hit 'Control Y' to redo everything right to the end state.
I brought the resulting AVI file into Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, where I sped it up substantially.
Once I had something that looked reasonable, I found some music. The track I settled on is sourced from the legally free jamendo.com. The track is called 'Minimoonstra', from the album THE FIRST PSYCHEDELIC TRIP VOL 2, by the band Speedsound. The entire album is released for free use under a Creative Commons 'Attribution' license.
I converted the MP3 to a WAV file in Audacity. Brought that into Premiere. And did some minor editing to sync up the emphasis points of the vid with movement in the music.
This is the result. A short, condensed journey into how I do visual facilitation.
This video was made on my Rectron-sponsored Asus R1E tablet pc. I originated the pic in ArtRage 2.5. And did all video editing in Premiere Pro CS3. All streaming and uploading was courtesy of the free broadband internet connection in my hotel room in Union Bank Inn, Edmonton, Canada.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Crawford Schools -- DreamFlight Competition -- an animated overview
My girlfriend, Jennifer, is a teacher at Crawford Prep, Sandton. She's also on the Ministry of Creativity, a national body aimed at spreading creativity in the classroom over all of the Crawford schools.
She recently asked me if it would be okay to help her out with a little video explaining the competition to her colleagues. We decided to approach it as a creative multimedia project.
She got photos and video footage of previous winners. I then made caricatures of them on ArtRage 2.5 on my tablet pc. I took my video camera to her classroom to get some moving footage for the vid. We asked the various winners for voice recordings of their accomplishments. We recorded these on my cellphone voicemail. And then tried to make the quality acceptable. I think we achieved that mostly. But some of Sean's talk is a bit lost in the electronic muddle.
I then took the voices and caricatures into CrazyTalk 6 (I'm using the closed beta version at the moment), and powered them to life.
This video is the result.
Sadly, non-Crawford people can't enter the competition. So this is here just so you can see the kinds of stuff they've up to.
Thanks once again to Antony Raijekov for his awesome Creative Commons licensed music. The track you hear is a slightly modified version of 'Fidder (2004)', from the 2007 album JAZZ U. It's licensed as CC 'Attribution, Non-Commercial'. Go grab it for yourself at Jamendo -- http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/3777
Three of the photos that appear briefly in the vid are from Flickr, also released under Creative Commons licenses. They are: 'Dream' by Ravichri (CC By-Attr-ND), 'Innovate' by Uncleweed (CC Attr-Share-Alike), and 'Yourself' by Ami Harikoshi (CC Attr). All other pictures are fair-use to illustrate the public topics they deal with.
All of the illustrations and animations are mine. As is the DreamFlight logo. I designed it using Creative Commons licensed illustrations that I modified.
Enjoy!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Roy Makes a Picture -- A Video of How Roy Works
Roy Makes a Picture -- A Video of How Roy Works
Originally uploaded by royblumenthal
As part of the pitch material, I documented the making of the picture.
I used the free and open source FREEZ SCREEN CAPTURE to record everything happening on my machine.
I set up my Sony VX1000 behind me on a tripod to catch the over-the-shoulder footage.
And I slammed it all into Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, and sped up all of the footage.
All of the painting is done in ArtRage 2.5 on my Rectron-sponsored Asus R1E tablet pc.
[Missing Link won the pitch. As a result, I did a wonderful day of visual facilitation at the Coca-Cola Conference in Sun City.]
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Redi Direko vs Floyd Shivambo -- The Animated Summary by Roy Blumenthal 320 x 240
Redi Direko vs Floyd Shivambo -- The Animated Summary by Roy Blumenthal 320 x 240
Originally uploaded by royblumenthal
Shivambo phoned the station, outraged at being taken out of context, and demanding the right to reply, to explain what he meant.
Listen to the podcast for the full version of his incompetent idiocy. Or watch this animated summary to get a sense of what listeners and Direko had to go through. Here's the podcast link: is.gd/zKir.
I made the caricatures using ArtRage 2.5. I used Audacity to edit the audio down to an acceptable length of time. The animation was made using a closed beta version of CrazyTalk 6 (I was asked by the developers to be one of the beta testers of the software).
The music used in the end credit is by Antony Raijekov. It's released under a Creative Commons 'Attribution, Share-Alike' license.
The computer I'm working on is sponsored by Rectron South Africa. It's an Asus R1E tablet pc.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Re: Fw: REF METOC64270/1
I really am getting loads of these emails. From people hopping mad.
They seem to think that I work at Virgin, cos they address them to me
as 'your company blah blah blah'.
I really don't mind being a 'smooth the ruffled feathers' kinda dude.
But heck... Something's not lekker.
And I'm hearing these rumours from people who know a thing or two.
I don't wanna tell you how to run things. But I *do* wanna mention
that it's probably best to either squash the rumours by taking them on
directly, or be open to whatever truth component there is, and take
public responsibility for whatever's going down.
From my side of things, I'd really prefer it if Virgin Mobile stays in
business. And I really hope you can find a way of getting your
processes sorted. I *love* being s Virgin Mobile customer.
I have to say that even though I had a 'bad experience' with Virgin
Mobile, it was *nothing* compared to the crap service I subjected
myself to for a decade or more with AutoPage Cellular.
Having said that, you've got two challenges that must be dealt with:
1. These rumours are loud and clear and 'authoritative'. People on
Twitter are claiming that Virgin Mobile is pulling out of South
Africa, that Cell C is taking over the company, that VM is bankrupt.
2. One stupid blog post (mine) is getting a steady stream of EXTREME
disgruntlement from people being treated horribly by Virgin. This has
to be the tip of the iceberg. People who write to me must be a tiny
fraction of those who are being messed around.
Thanks for taking action on this woman's kid's party present, Steve.
It's really cool of you. And thanks for communicating it to me.
All the best.
Regards,
Roy
On 5/15/09, Steve Bailey <Steve.Bailey@virginmobile.co.za> wrote:
>
>
>
> Dear Roy,
>
> Thanks for the alert, I will deliver the phone to the customer today, in
> time for her daughter's birthday. We have taken the liberty of
> enclosing a birthday card from all of us at Virgin to.
>
> Regards
>
> Steve
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: schmucknews@gmail.com [mailto:schmucknews@gmail.com] On Behalf Of
> Roy Blumenthal
> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 11:39 AM
> To: Karonie Ramsamy; Steve Bailey; post@posterous.com; go@blogger.com
> Subject: Re: Fw: REF METOC64270/1
>
> That is PATHETIC of Virgin Mobile! Yeoooooow!
>
> I've cced Steve Bailey into this email. Hopefully he can sort
> something out. He's the CEO of Virgin Mobile. (Or was, the last time
> we communicated.)
>
> Steve...
>
> I'm getting way too many emails of this nature. Virgin HAS TO pull its
> socks up.
>
> I've been hearing strong rumours on Twitter that you guys are packing
> it in. But until you've packed it in, your doors are still open for
> business. It's best if you actually DO business.
>
> This is not great, Steve.
>
> Please respond to this message. I'm also posting it on my blog.
>
> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:19 AM, Karonie Ramsamy
> <karonie@serendipitytours.co.za> wrote:
>> No The Customer Service Manager said she acnnot do anything and she
> will
>> cancel my contract and if the phone arrives tomorrow I must send it
> back
>> with the courier company
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roy Blumenthal"
>> <royblumenthal@gmail.com>
>> To: "Karonie Ramsamy" <karonie@serendipitytours.co.za>
>> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 11:05 AM
>> Subject: Re: Fw: REF METOC64270/1
>>
>>
>> Oh man! What a runaround! You must have been so disappointed! Yikes,
>> Karonie! I can see how horrible this must have been for you. Did you
>> eventually GET the phone? Virgin really should get their act
>> together!!!
>>
>> Thanks for writing to me. Would you mind submitting this as a message
>> on my blog? That's the blog post you would have found my details on.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Regards
>> Roy
>>
>> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Karonie Ramsamy
>> <karonie@serendipitytours.co.za> wrote:
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Karonie Ramsamy
>>> To: notthathappy@virginmobile.co.za
>>> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:43 AM
>>> Subject: Fw: REF METOC64270/1
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Karonie Ramsamy
>>> To: maweni@virginmobile.co.za
>>> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:38 AM
>>> Subject: REF METOC64270/1
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi
>>> My name is Karonie Ramsamy, I am so disappointed with the bad service
> I
>>> received from your company, I was hounded for a week with your
> special
>>> Sony
>>> Ericson w350i phone and eventually I got another call from Dean i
> decided
>>> to
>>> take the phone on 7 May , I Called Dean he was not in so another
> person
>>> assisted me and promised I would get the phone before Thursday 14May
> as
>>> this
>>> was my daughters 13 birthday present which is tomorrow 15May . I
> called
>>> daily and I spoke to Precious and Notlonga on Tuesday and Wednesday
> and I
>>> was told I would definatley get the phone before Friday as it is
> already a
>>> week from the order date. I called again this morning as i received a
>>> message from the courier company and was advised I will not get the
> phone
>>> today I called your office again and spoke to the manager of customer
>>> service who was absolutely of NO Help. I cannot believe the calibre
> of
>>> staff
>>> that you have . I am so disappointed with your company , She could
> not
>>> assist at all and did not offer any alternatives. You have not put me
> in a
>>> position wereby I was relying on this for a birthday present for
> tomorrow
>>> and now I do not have the phone especially after your company hounded
> me
>>> for this phone with false promises.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Kind Regards
>>>
>>> Karonie Ramsamy
>>> Tours Manager
>>> Serendipity Tours
>>> T : 031 3015230 / 0861 STOURS(0861-786 877)
>>> F : 086 679 42 62
>>> E : karonie@serendipitytours.co.za
>>> W : www.stours.net
>>> A : 9th Floor, Mercury House, 320 Smith St, Durban, 4000
>
> ------------------------------------------------
> ROY BLUMENTHAL
> Visual Facilitator, Illustrator, Writer, Director
>
> Professional member of the Professional Speakers Association of
> Southern Africa: http://snipurl.com/psasa-profile
>
> Mobile: +27 74 104 6386
> Fax: 086 512 2580 (South African calls only)
>
> Email: royblumenthal@gmail.com
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/royblumenthal
> Blog: http://schmucknews.blogspot.com
>
> Visual Facilitation: http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation
> Illustrations: http://snipurl.com/SchmuckGallery
> ------------------------------------------------
> I use an Asus R1E tablet pc, sponsored by Rectron South Africa
>
> Steve Bailey
> |rocketseedSenderPhone@
> Fax: 011676 5448
> Cell: n/a
> Email: Steve.Bailey@virginmobile.co.za
> Website: www.virginmobile.co.za
>
>
>
>
>
> ©Virgin Mobile South Africa (Proprietary) Limited
> Directors: C.R. Berry (British), J. Hedberg (American), N.R. Kunene, F.
> Mambrini (Italian), G.D. McCallum (British), R.W. Samuelson (British)
>
> Disclaimer: 1) Confidentiality: This email, sent from
> Steve.Bailey@virginmobile.co.za to royblumenthal@gmail.com on Fri May 15
> 08:48:03 2009
> , is confidential and may contain privileged or copyright information. You
> may not present this message to another party without consent from the
> sender If you are not royblumenthal@gmail.com please notify
> Steve.Bailey@virginmobile.co.za and delete this email, and you are notified
> that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on
> the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. 2) Liability: This
> email is not a binding agreement and does not conclude an agreement without
> the express confirmation by the sender's superior or a director of the
> Company. 3) Viruses: The Company does not certify that this email is free of
> viruses or defects. 4) Requested: The Company does not consent to its
> employees sending un-asked for emails which contravene the law. In the event
> that you feel this email is such, please notify the Company in order for the
> appropriate corrective action to be taken. 5) Advice: Any views or opinions
> presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not
> necessarily represent those of the company. Any actions taken on the basis
> of this email are at the reader's own risk. 6) Other: The sender of this
> email is expressly required not make any defamatory statements. Any such
> communication is contrary to company policy and outside the scope of the
> employment of the individual concerned. The company will not accept any
> liability in respect of such communication, and the employee responsible
> will be personally liable for any damages or other liability arising.
>
>
>
--
------------------------------------------------
ROY BLUMENTHAL
Visual Facilitator, Illustrator, Writer, Director
Professional member of the Professional Speakers Association of
Southern Africa: http://snipurl.com/psasa-profile
Mobile: +27 74 104 6386
Fax: 086 512 2580 (South African calls only)
Email: royblumenthal@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/royblumenthal
Blog: http://schmucknews.blogspot.com
Visual Facilitation: http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation
Illustrations: http://snipurl.com/SchmuckGallery
------------------------------------------------
I use an Asus R1E tablet pc, sponsored by Rectron South Africa
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Re: Fw: REF METOC64270/1
I've cced Steve Bailey into this email. Hopefully he can sort
something out. He's the CEO of Virgin Mobile. (Or was, the last time
we communicated.)
Steve...
I'm getting way too many emails of this nature. Virgin HAS TO pull its socks up.
I've been hearing strong rumours on Twitter that you guys are packing
it in. But until you've packed it in, your doors are still open for
business. It's best if you actually DO business.
This is not great, Steve.
Please respond to this message. I'm also posting it on my blog.
On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:19 AM, Karonie Ramsamy
<karonie@serendipitytours.co.za> wrote:
> No The Customer Service Manager said she acnnot do anything and she will
> cancel my contract and if the phone arrives tomorrow I must send it back
> with the courier company
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roy Blumenthal"
> <royblumenthal@gmail.com>
> To: "Karonie Ramsamy" <karonie@serendipitytours.co.za>
> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 11:05 AM
> Subject: Re: Fw: REF METOC64270/1
>
>
> Oh man! What a runaround! You must have been so disappointed! Yikes,
> Karonie! I can see how horrible this must have been for you. Did you
> eventually GET the phone? Virgin really should get their act
> together!!!
>
> Thanks for writing to me. Would you mind submitting this as a message
> on my blog? That's the blog post you would have found my details on.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Regards
> Roy
>
> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Karonie Ramsamy
> <karonie@serendipitytours.co.za> wrote:
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Karonie Ramsamy
>> To: notthathappy@virginmobile.co.za
>> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:43 AM
>> Subject: Fw: REF METOC64270/1
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Karonie Ramsamy
>> To: maweni@virginmobile.co.za
>> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:38 AM
>> Subject: REF METOC64270/1
>>
>>
>> Hi
>> My name is Karonie Ramsamy, I am so disappointed with the bad service I
>> received from your company, I was hounded for a week with your special
>> Sony
>> Ericson w350i phone and eventually I got another call from Dean i decided
>> to
>> take the phone on 7 May , I Called Dean he was not in so another person
>> assisted me and promised I would get the phone before Thursday 14May as
>> this
>> was my daughters 13 birthday present which is tomorrow 15May . I called
>> daily and I spoke to Precious and Notlonga on Tuesday and Wednesday and I
>> was told I would definatley get the phone before Friday as it is already a
>> week from the order date. I called again this morning as i received a
>> message from the courier company and was advised I will not get the phone
>> today I called your office again and spoke to the manager of customer
>> service who was absolutely of NO Help. I cannot believe the calibre of
>> staff
>> that you have . I am so disappointed with your company , She could not
>> assist at all and did not offer any alternatives. You have not put me in a
>> position wereby I was relying on this for a birthday present for tomorrow
>> and now I do not have the phone especially after your company hounded me
>> for this phone with false promises.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Kind Regards
>>
>> Karonie Ramsamy
>> Tours Manager
>> Serendipity Tours
>> T : 031 3015230 / 0861 STOURS(0861-786 877)
>> F : 086 679 42 62
>> E : karonie@serendipitytours.co.za
>> W : www.stours.net
>> A : 9th Floor, Mercury House, 320 Smith St, Durban, 4000
------------------------------------------------
ROY BLUMENTHAL
Visual Facilitator, Illustrator, Writer, Director
Professional member of the Professional Speakers Association of
Southern Africa: http://snipurl.com/psasa-profile
Mobile: +27 74 104 6386
Fax: 086 512 2580 (South African calls only)
Email: royblumenthal@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/royblumenthal
Blog: http://schmucknews.blogspot.com
Visual Facilitation: http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation
Illustrations: http://snipurl.com/SchmuckGallery
------------------------------------------------
I use an Asus R1E tablet pc, sponsored by Rectron South Africa
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009
My mind is blown. This redefines the word 'unbelievable'.
Danny MacAskill -- thank you for sharing your art with the world.
