hitting the wire*

Paid R1.4b... now what you gonna do with it?

I see in ITWeb today that MTN have announced that they are buying Verizon.  More industry consolidation.  We have yet to see any real signs of Vodacom's decision to build rather than acquire and ISP in order to address the lack of a data focused Service Provision arm (yeah, sure they'll be quick to tell you they offer 3G/HSDPA, but there is more to IP than basic connectivity).  MTN, who have "had" MTNNS for years, have not really (imho) made the most of the hay while the sun was shining happily on them.  They've functioned more or less as cousins who tolerate each other's presence in deference to a common lineage rather than as close family collaborating to mutual benefit.

So, what will MTN do with Verizon, a solid operation which has been hamstrung by bureaucracy forced on them by a large multinational parent?  Will they end up another distant cousin, or will we see some innovative converged services appearing?  Time will tell.

Big shoes to fill.

Duncan McLeod's article in Financial Mail reminded me of something was aware of but had forgotten (easy to do when you're not quite so active in regulatory issues any more!): two of ICASA's councillors end  their tenure at the end of June.  And not just any two, but in my humble opinion two who have overshadowed the rest in engaging with the sector and making strides to move the industry forwarded.  Albeit more slowly than mst of us would have liked, but forward nevertheless.  Tracy Cohen and Zolisa Masiza.  Hamba Kahle.

Now this guy had vision!

This gem comes via Bretton Vine that electronic bloodhound of eclectic digital media trivia!
Dave

The Web Time Forgot (login required)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/17mund.html
By ALEX WRIGHT

MONS, Belgium — On a fog-drizzled Monday afternoon, this fading 
medieval city feels like a forgotten place. Apart from the 
obligatory Gothic cathedral, there is not much to see here except 
for a tiny storefront museum called the Mundaneum, tucked down a 
narrow street in the northeast corner of town. It feels like a 
fittingly secluded home  for the legacy of one of technology’s 
lost pioneers: Paul Otlet.View this photo


In 1934, Otlet sketched out plans for a global network of 
computers (or “electric telescopes,” as he called them) that would 
allow people to search and browse through millions of interlinked 
documents, images, audio and video files. He described how people 
would use the devices to send messages to one another, share files 
and even congregate in online social networks. He called the whole
thing a “réseau,” which might be translated as “network” 
— or arguably, “web.”

Historians typically trace the origins of the World Wide Web 
through a lineage of Anglo-American inventors like Vannevar Bush, 
Doug Engelbart and Ted Nelson. But more than half a century before 
Tim Berners-Lee released the first Web browser in 1991, Otlet 
(pronounced ot-LAY) described a networked world where “anyone in 
his armchair would be able to contemplate the whole of creation.”

Although Otlet’s proto-Web relied on a patchwork of analog  
technologies like index cards and telegraph machines, it 
nonetheless anticipated the hyperlinked structure of today’s Web. 
“This was a Steampunk version of hypertext,” said Kevin Kelly, 
former editor of  Wired, who is writing a book about the future 
of technology.
[...]