I had the enormous privilege last week of stepping in to lecture at UCT, in Dave Duarte’s place (which is VERY daunting I must tell you! He has people sitting in the aisles). The sheer size of the class is staggering, some fiercely bright Commerce students sparkling between those that aren’t there for anything other than obligation, this course being part of the core curriculum. There’s a saying that when 1 teaches, 2 learn, and never more so than this experience for me.
I tend to hang out, real.world & virtually with pioneers who operate actively in the participation economy and I had some assumptions crashed mercilessly. For example: when I asked one of the classes who uploads videos to share on Youtube, NOT ONE hand went up 8-*
I was floored!
With the ease with which we can shoot video on mobile phones?! I was speaking to a born.digital crowd for goodness sake. Or maybe not. Thanks to Telkom bottlenecking our bandwidth and charging like an enraged bull for communications, we don’t have the freedom to connect and share that we could. This has stunted our growth horribly, and leaving South Africa trailing behind, holding onto some tatty old has.been echo from the 80’s/90’s of economic empowerment of the elite.
Isolation creates mutants (think Galapagos) which may be good in part, in that we have to be more resourceful & creative about making a plan. Or we could lose our brightest minds who choose the path of least resistance, and head for a culture where greed of the few doesn’t impede the productivity and potential of a whole nation. Developing nations are the ones who can benefit MOST from the emergence of freely shared tools, global distribution, online commerce and opensource everything. What will it take to get the vampires from draining the life from this country?
Someone needs to point out how ubuntu is counter.intuitively one of the most progressive, enlightened and profitable economic models humans have experimented with. Like the resurgence of yoga, many global thought leaders (even Clinton LOL!) are vaunting the sexiness of this ancient African philosophy: where doing good & doing good business aren’t mutually exclusive.
It isn’t a communist delusion, but healthily democratic, and shares the best aspects of the ‘net – transparency, collective problem-solving, opensource sharing and co.creating culture serve the individual as well as the whole. Realising and amplifying the possibilities that tech.enabled innovation coupled with the natural ubuntu-like culture it engenders may be our last hope, not just in SA, but as a species.
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April 21st, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Max – Thank you for a thoughtprovoking post, as ever. I think that Ubuntu is bloody sexy in our homeland. It’s really just a matter of where you are, who you are with and what you are doing.
I think that without naming it what it is people are slowly (or quickly) realising that the “do unto others” motto applies because if you don’t your screwed!!
April 21st, 2008 at 4:16 pm
thanks Nic – you’re gracious as ever!
Both social media uptake & ubuntu need to have their uptake accelerated here, we desperately need more empowered Africans to rumble and shake from the grassroots and know that the strength of the interconnected network is always stronger than towering tyrants.
Terrorist cells around the world have that well figured. You don’t need to be well-funded to be an unquenchable threat even to the world’s most sophisticated war machine. With social tech we scare multinational corporations into behaving more responsibly.
When we give a damn about something (like Zim) we aren’t as impotent as we used to be to change it, even if it’s supporting those who need to know they aren’t alone in opposing crushing cruelty. I reminded the class about that saying from Edmund Burke “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
The tools are there, and mostly free, we just need the vision & courage to use them.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:39 pm
“Someone needs to point out how ubuntu is counter.intuitively one of the most progressive, enlightened and profitable economic models humans have experimented with.” – brilliant!
One day people will wake up and see, but we will first have to learn to let go and give freely of that which we hold precious – our own knowledge and ‘intellectual capital’.
Great post Max.
My thoughts on when knowledge becomes a commodity -> http://tinyurl.com/32r8zt
April 21st, 2008 at 4:39 pm
lol, when I read the header I though you were referring to the Ubuntu Operating System
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
likewise stevenmcd
as nice as this article is, i feel that south africa has lost all concept of ubuntu. whilst this article does try raise the hopes of the people, i find it to be in contrast to reality.
just my opinion though.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Darren: Superb article Darren, I’ll reference it as a point for debate, I agree for the most part, and in some ways would love to gently challenge your finely constructed point.
StevenMcD: LOL, well in some part it is
Hugh Jacobs: Wasn’t necessarily out to raise hopes, in fact if you read carefully or even just the title. The gap is that ubuntu may have been birthed here but shunned & practiced only by very few, like “unsophisticated” rural co.ops and the pioneering tech communities
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 am
I find that UBUNTU is a concept deserted by the people who created it, and embraced with great (and often naive)enthusiasm by foreigners on our soil, who want to help, and get no buy-in. I’ve also recently seen it used as a comapny slogan, and when I tried to interact with said company, was met with anything but a co-operative and communal attitude, which really disappointed me. We should try and convey that this is a precious, indigenous concept not to be exploited.
Excellent article, wish I could write like you !!!
April 27th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Gonzobabe: I agree but like anything in the commons, marketing dept.s will hook into concepts that have sexy appeal and very rarely is the ideal transfused into company culture.
YAY! thank you so much for the compliment! wish I had more time to write MORE