And brands are trying to listen in. They're trying very hard indeed. This is called Online Reputation Management or ORM.

The ORM industry has developed sophisticated tools that trawl websites to gauge if that post you wrote about that brand was generally positive, or negative.

And the dirty little secret, is that the computer systems are about 40% accurate.

I have a brother who is a lot younger than me, and he's a musician. And he came back from Europe recently. And I was telling him some exciting family news and he kept saying: Yeah. That's sick.

And that was a positive comment. Similar with my 20-something year old cousin who used to say Naaasty sometimes. Now, is that good or bad? Hard to tell unless you're talking to the person. So you'd forgive the computers if they get it wrong, say, 60% of the time.

So Brandseye has launched a solution which crowdsources the solution. That means it pays a small amount of money to lots of people to go online and rate each comment the system finds. If two people agree that Nasty is generally a favourable comment, then it's logged into the system as such. If two different raters don't agree, then the system throws more people at the problem.

The launch was at Moyo's in Johannesburg.

First I spoke to Tim Shiers, the MD of Brandseye, and then we cut to Antonio Petra from Native who provided the sceptic's view of the solution. He threw a whole lot of objections at the system, so I spent the rest of the night, basically asking different people the questions that Antonio had asked. We hear from Rob Stokes, Arthur Goldstuck, Simon Dingle and from the seemingly ubiquitous Walter Pike.

I asked Tim Shiers, MD of Brandseye what the launch was about:

If you've got a computer or a phone and you browse the web, then you're probably using the new version of a language called HTML 5.0.

The W3C Consortium is a kind of club of companies who get together to work out what the standards should be in the industry. The most important of these is a thing called HTML, which is what all websites use. So if you've used Safari or Firefox or Internet Explorer or Chrome or any of the web browsers, you've used HTML.

The latest version is a thing called HTML 5.0. All browsers and web sites are expected to be upgraded to HTML 5 by 2014. It seems to be a good standard because lots of companies are using it.

If you want to know more about it, you can spent around €225 for an eight-week training course. Here's Dr Marie Claire Forge, head of training at the W3C.

Her accent is hard to understand — she says the next course is on 12 March 2012, but you can find out more at W3Campus dot com.

If you're interested in HTML 5.0, you can join one of their new specialist communities online — it sounds like a family of forums based around the WWW Consortium's standards. To find out more about one of the most important standards out there, Angus spoke to the W3C's Alan Bird. He asked how HTML 5.0 is going.

The technology is one thing, but it pointless having a technological marvel that is difficult to use. Nokia learned that lesson when the iPhone launched. Nokia's smartphones could do more things than the iPhone but the iPhone was just a pleasure to use. 

Angus spoke to Javier Broch from Human Factors International. They've been doing usability training and consulting for about 30 years now. Angus asked Broch about Human Factor's special training course that teaches people how to make mobile apps that are a pleasure to use.

One study that marketers often quote is that people will check facebook first thing in the morning from their mobile phones, before they've said hello to their partner or even before they've gone for their morning wee.

But what if instead of people on your friends list, you had your fridge? Or your thermostat? Or your light switch?

Mark Murphy runs an Innovation Lab at Ericsson, and being a hard-core geek himself, this is his idea of fun. Ericsson was demonstrating a social house at Mobile World Congress and Angus asked him how the house would work.

I wonder how advertisers would feel if they were advertising to thermostats on Facebook instead of actual people? Angus spoke to Joey Mucha from InMobi. InMobi is one of the advertising networks you see on your phone when you play Angry Birds or get a so-called Free app from the Android market place.

For digital marketers, it's a great place to be — lurking on your cellphone screen. At the moment, the ad is a couple of adverts that insult your stomach muscles. But soon there will be video and music or what they call "Rich Media" adverts, thanks to a system called Sprout. Now you'll be able to choose jeans while you're playing Angry Birds.The click rates of this kind of advertising is up to 30 times more. Joey Mucha explains a bit more. 

So to sum up: your mobile is now running applications written in HTML 5.0, which is a standard on all phones making the apps cheaper to produce. They are lovely to use, because people have been to Human Factors International for training on User Experience. Your phone is connected to your lights at home, so when you leave the premises, the lights turn themselves off. And the advertising on the phone is much more engaging, making you want to buy stuff. Now all you need to do is pay!

Enter our final guest, Jeff Fonesca from NXP Semiconductor. They make little transponders which companies can put in phones to communicate with the SpeedPoint machines. Now you don't have to carry your credit card — you just bump your phone against the machine. It's called Near Field Communication, or NFC, and is being spearheaded by companies like Ford and Google. You'll hear Fonseca talk about RFID — it stands for Radio Frequency Identification. It's the same technology in the new e-tags for the Gauteng toll roads, or the Gautrain Gold card or even the access control system in many corporates. Except instead of a carrying an access card with the chip in it, the chip is part of your phone. 

But there are also inspiring stories around Facebook. We spoke to Bic about their Facebook campaign -- they are giving away a pen to a child in need for every "Like" on their page.

Tim Shier from Brandseye gives his perspective. 

In late 2011, Shier came on the show and said that the issue of Malema's disciplinary hearing was damaging our country's reputation online — many many more people were talking about Malema than the State of the Nation address.

Well, there's good news. President Zuma has a facebook page and buzz around the State of the nation has grown between six and NINE times.

Shier says most people online are complaining about their local issues — why don't I have a tarred road, or electricity, or why haven't they fixed the potholes.

He says the online buzz is not a sophisticated political debate.And he also says that Government is moving incredibly slowly into this whole online space — but maybe that's a good thing.We spoke to Karen Brand from EQHR about how the digital marketing space is invading HR. She says companies are getting to grips with the increased immediacy of the online medium.

She also points out how it's more important than ever to make sure your company has a communications policy in place for when employees take their grievances on to facebook.And we spoke to Native's Jarred Cinman to get a Digital MArketing company's take on the coming merger between HR and digital marketing. He doesn't seem worried about it at all.

WT in Johannesburg doesn't have a Facebook page -- and we asked why not.

If you're a Citizen Journalist, should you have a code of ethics?

What are ethics anyway? We spoke to ethicist and political analyst Eusebius McKaizer (@eusebius) about politics, twitter and ethics.

What is an HR Software company doing with a presence on over 250+ social websites? Surely Facebook is more about Business-to-Consumer brands, not business-to-business brands. Accsys CEO Teryl Schroenn doesn't agree.

In 1973, Digital Equipment Corporation launched a graphics terminal called a GT40. And to demonstrate how cool it was, they commissioned a game called Moonlander. One of the versions had a hidden feature. If you landed at the right spot, a McDonalds restaurant appeared. The astronaut would get out of the spacecraft and order a Big Mac to go. If you landed *on* the McDonalds, a message would appear: you clod! You've destroyed the only McDonalds on the Moon.

This story is from Ilya Vedrashko's thesis about advertising and games which you can find at http://www.gamesbrandsplay.com.

Microsoft launched its Windows 7 phone with the help of a game made by a South African company called Luma. We speak to Paul Meyer about it and some other games the company has made for clients such as Nokia and Mini.

We spoke to Wayne Levine from NXT Digital about the game for Standard Bank which promotes their insurance products.

A very prominent recent story is a website called 22/7. It links up to your on-line banking so you can see graphs of where your money is going. It's been called the "gamification of banking." We spoke to Rob Sussman from Integrate about it. He is going public for the first time here — on the Digital Edge —  about his company's facebook payment platform. It's codename is Zunguz — The word Mzungu is Swahili for the zulu word Mlungu or the sotho word Legoa. 

Aside from its strange name the concept is pretty amazing. It's a way of sending money to your facebook friends — without using a bank account. And it's a South African invention. This is probably the beginning of the end of banking as we know it. So it's not a game exactly, but it's a way of making finance much more social.

And we caught up with Styli Charalambous from iMaverick about their upcoming version 2.0 of Africa's first iPad magazine.

Stay with us.

I caught up with Doppio Zero's head of operations, Ivan Walsh, about the chain's Facebook strategy; We spoke to Prakash Patel about the Ster Kinekor app and the skills shortage in South Africa.

Candice Winterboer from Get Smarter is part of the solution — she's written a 10 week Internet Marketing course.

And finally we spoke to Wayne Levine about NXT Digital's platform which helps companies spend their marketing money more wisely.

So has Digital put Print out of business? Surprisingly, we found that it hasn't. We spoke to two companies that were supposed to be out of business by now.

Felix Erken is the MD of JunkMail. He says that his print revenue has grown in 17 out of last 19 years, and he sees no reason for the print side of his business to die.

He's seen many companies who believed that digital would put them out of business for good. And they were right. But he believes that he's the one who decides if the print side of the business will grow.

We also speak to Ben Williams, who runs Exclusives.co.za . This is the on-line shopping site which is part of Exclusive Books. In the age of electronic e-readers, and iPads, and Kindles, why do bookstores even exist. And will they continue to exist?

Williams says the book is going nowhere. During our chat we spoke about how books have evolved over the millenia. Two thousand years ago, books were actually scrolls. The printed book that we're so familiar with is actually called a Codex. It was invented by the Romans about 1,900 years ago. By about 600 AD, the codex, or printed book, had completely replaced scrolls. That change in technology took about 500 years.

And now we're seeing the beginning of the end of the codex. Ben Williams says books will always be with us. We will soon stop calling them e-books and simply call them books because that's what they are. 

But he thinks books in "codex" form — a collection of pages stitched together and bound inside a cover — will still be sold in enough volumes to keep Exclusive Books going for years to come.

Apparently teenage kids are reading more books than teenagers used to read in the past and they're reading more books than the adults in their lives. Real printed books. Or codices, as we should start calling them.

So keep listening…

My friend Bruce's 14-year-old daughter just got a Blackberry because she aced her Maths exams. But Blackberry is in trouble. The company that makes Blackberry, RIM, has posted a 6% drop in both turnover and profit in the third quarter. Net income is down 70% year on year.

You may have heard of the Blackberry tablet, called the Playbook. They sold 150,000 of the things since its launch in April, which sounds like a lot until you realise Apple sold 11,1 million iPads in just one quarter. That comma one in 11,1 million iPads is about the number of Blackberry Playbooks ever sold. Maybe it's because you can't really read books on a Blackberry.

Facebook has rolled out its interactive timeline format. Do you love it or hate it? Tweet us at digitedge. Mercedes Benz loves it — it has created a special Facebook app which allows you personalise your Facebook profile with an infographic about your Facebook life. Apparently you can personalise the appearance of a Smart Car if you buy one. The UK agency they used was Digital Annexe.

You've got a cellphone, right? There are more cellphones in the world than people, and there are more cellphones in South Africa than people. Finally, big brands are waking up so that you can start shopping using nothing more… than your cellphone.

I was invited to the Mobile Web Africa show in Johannesburg recently by a company called Vidamo. I chatted to their Creative Director Adam Holtrop during a break and he told me why cellphone shopping — or what he calls mobile commerce — is so difficult.

There are people trying to solve the problem. Some of those are at Facebook. If you want to talk to Facebook in South Africa you need to talk to this man: Michael Krynauw. They say  he's the only guy in South Africa who's allowed to talk directly to Facebook itself. So we spoke to him about how Facebook is helping you use your cellphone to shop.

You heard Michael Krynauw talk about Daily Deals, right? A daily deal company signs up lots of customers. It sends them one special deal of the day — usually a half-price deal or better. That's why he says it "removes all the choice". You get a daily special in your inbox, and all you have decide: do you want it, or not? Most shops offer you lots of choice, but this way of shopping is different. You've got two choices: yes, or no. There is a catch: a minimum number of people have to buy the deal. So if you like the offer, you need to persuade 50 or 100 people to buy it with you. That's why these sites are also called Group Buying sites.

In the last month, two of the largest Daily Deals sites have closed down: Dealify and Zappon. We had Saul from Zappon on the show back in September. Zappon was part of Avusa media which publishes The Times daily newspaper. So it sent its users an email every day, but it also advertised the deal of the day in the newspaper every day — and it still couldn't make the business work. 

There are two sides to the business. You need lots of users so that you can get enough people to buy the deal; and you also need lots of merchants — the restaurants and spas and other companies that offer the daily deals.

So we spoke to Dan Palay from WiCount. WiCount.co.za was the first daily deals company in South Africa. It was started by Aaron Toys, and he called it WiCount because he said he wanted the I in We to Count. So he spelled it W I count.co.za.

This week I found myself as the MC of conference called Innovation in HR, hosted by Knowlege Resources. Chantel Moon, the head of HR from ad agency McCann was also there. As it happens, she's a facebook friend of mine because we worked together back in 2005 or 6. She told me about how Social Media is changing the face of HR.

Well, of course, it's not only facebook, but also Google Plus. If you ever wanted to know what Google Plus is about, here it is, in two minutes of song…

I see Nandos has pulled their TV ad called Last Dictator from Zimbabwean TV because some people found it in poor taste. You can still watch it on our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/thedigitaledge.

That's what people do on Social media. They complain. I spoke to Yoav Tchelet from ad agency JWT told us a story about a guy waiting for a hire car. The line wasn't moving very fast, so he got onto twitter and complained. I wondered: Is Twitter turning into the new call centre number?

In this week’s show we talk to Tim Shier from a company called Brandseye about how the Julius Malema story affected the reputation of our country, South Africa;

We also talk to Keenan Hardruth. They have created a case study about a movement called Slutwalk — which is women all over the world dressing sexily and protesting against violence against women.

And we spoke to Sam Hewison. She lived in London for seven years, and recently returned to Port Elizabeth. The agency she works for is called Boomtown, and they won three gold awards and the overall Nkosi award at the Direct Marketing awards ceremony the Assegais recently. I suppose I should say Bayethe Nkosi!

You're listening to Mike Tompkins — over 16 million views on YouTube.

(See all the links and videos at http://www.facebook.com/thedigitaledge)

It's a very nice cover of a Katy Perry song but what's remarkable is that there are no instruments here at all. Only Mike Tompkins voice and noises he made with his mouth. Isn't that astonishing?

Our amazing viral success story this week has got to be the new Nandos ad — it got over 100,000 views in 24 hours, and then it was picked up by BoingBoing and The Huffington Post in the US. You can see it on facebook.com/thedigitaledge.

There are some cool iPhone apps. One is called Mappiness, developed by some research students in England. They want to find out how your environment affects your happiness. You download the app and post how happy you are and you can see a happiness map of people around you — even down to street level in some cases.

Then there's one called Scenetap. You download the app and take photos of the bar you're in. The app uses facial recognition technology to work out the ratio between guys and girls in the room. So if you're going to the bar to find a friend of the opposite sex, you know which bar to go to first. Thanks to pimpyourbrain.de for both of these tips.

This week: Warren Moss from Demographica (a direct marketing company and winner of a silver Assegai) explains the POPI bill.
Luke McKend, the MD of Google SA on the SA Internet.And Brad Jansen, who takes us through Flightdeck -- a powerful Online Reputation Management system.
Microsoft's HowzitMSN has launched m.howzitmsn.com

You may have noticed that we started the show by saying Welcome to the Digital Edge instead of welcome to the Digital Edge Podcast. That's because from next week's show, the show of 3 December, we will be carried on ninety point six FM Stereo - the Vaal's hit station. So if you're around Lekwa on a Wednesday afternoon just after the four o'clock news, join 40 to 50 thousand people and tune in to 90 point six FM Stereo to listen to us on the air.

From next week, our show will be exactly 20 minutes long, and the digital marketing news will move to later in the show. 

The assegai awards are the awards for the Direct Marketing industry. The word Assegai of course means a spear. I always thought it was a Zulu word but actually it comes to English from the Berber language of north Africa via Arabic, Spanish and French.

The big winners on the night were Boomtown Strategic Brand Agency.

(We have an interview with Boomtown in next week's show).

They won three golds and the overall Inkosi award. Their flash mob at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and their campaign for Agrekko Always On based in Dubai, attracted the judge's attention.

The NMMU Flash mob has been called the best flash mob ever staged in South Africa. It got 115,000 views on Google and was used as a case study for Google's national conference. Links to the content on http://www.facebook.com/thedigitaledge

The agency Native, which sponsors this show, won two awards. We're speaking to Warren Moss later in the show, and his company Demographica won a silver as well.

The Praekelt Foundation has been named the first South African winner of the Social Impact Category of the 2011 Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership, held in Los Angeles.

The foundation, which “builds open source, scalable mobile technologies and solutions to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in poverty” was honoured for its YoungAfricaLive project.

Howzit MSN, one of South Africa’s two largest Web portals, has launched a light mobile version of its website to address the growing population of Internet users who access the Web through their mobile devices. M.howzitmsn.com

USSD, of course, are those strings of numbers and stars and hashes that you send to your cellphone company to recharge your airtime. Many marketers are using USSD for quite sophisticated campaigns now.

We spoke to another specialist judge, Theresa Clarke. She was a Managing Director of Goldman Sachs and left in February 2010 to follow her long-held dream of launching africa.com.

We spoke to the head of Aqua Online, Brent Shahim who was also a judge at the Bookmarks. He said he was disappointed with the quality of the work. He said some of the work was underpinned by a great creative idea, but it's as if those ideas didn't get the digital execution they deserved. 

On the other hand, the digital ads that were very well executed, weren't underpinned by a really solid concept or idea. This criticism was borne out by the awards themselves. Over 450 entries in 53 categories, but: only 8 golds and 35 silvers.

If we're talking about the Bookmarks, we need to talk to Nikki Cockcroft. The Bookmarks is her brainchild, after all. She's reasonably happy with how it's coming along.

Tech 4 Africa innovation winner Gustav Praekelt has launched Ummeli, a social network for the young, poor and jobless to help them find work. Over 3,000 people signed up on the site's first day. The site is called Ummeli, which is an Nguni word meaning listener, or mediator.

GroupOn launched its IPO at $20 a share and raised $700m. It's a far cry from the $6bn that Google offered it, but 700 million is still enough to make it the web's second biggest IPO after Google.

According to RJI Online, Nearly half the publishers of small dailies contacted in a recent University of Missouri survey have begun charging for online content. They used a circulation of 25,000 as a cut off. 46% of newspapers with fewer than 25,000 circulation, charge for some online content and a quarter of newspapers with circulation above 25,000 charge for content.

The research was a random sample of all 1309 dailies in the US. Response rate was 78%

Marketing profs dot com says that 85% of web users now require internet sites in their own language, and non-English SEO is starting to take off in anglophone markets. Most web searches are now conducted in languages other than English.

The website names two case studies. JRS Consulting, a marketing and management consulting firm rolled out a French version of their site, optimised it, and now 15% of its revenue comes from France.

Airline price-comparison website Skyscanner localised its website and its russian site went from 30,000 clicks a month to over a million a month in a year and a half. 70% of revenue now comes from traffic outside the US.

Fabergé, the luxury jeweller, is to launch its first-ever advertising campaign to mark “a new era of contemporary creativity” for the brand.

The print campaign will launch in December in the UK,  France, Germany, Switzerland and the US.

The brand is now owned by mining investment company Pallinghurst Resources. It was formerly owned by Unilever.

The second quarterly digital intelligence briefing from Econsultancy and Adobe is out.

It shows that marketers are using digital marketing apps to make them more efficient. 93% of marketers use some sort of web-based app. Analytics are the most popular, followed by paid-search bid-management. 

The low-hanging fruit turned out to be converstion and optimisation tools. Only a quarter of marketers use those tools, but the marketers who do, report a significant impact on their bottom line.

Finweek has launched its 2011 bank charges report. It shows how banks are piling on charges to make up for lost interest revenue.

It now costs twice as much to bank with Absa and Standard bank as it did seven years ago. Standard Bank is the most expensive bank. And Call centre and branch staff remain broadly incapable of accurately interpreting official literature. Why are we covering this? Because, co-incidentally, the Finweek survey came out a day before Saturday, November 5^th, also known in the US as Move Your Money day or Bank Transfer day.

Fed up with high bank charges, US consumers are moving away from banks in droves to credit unions and community banks. Credit Unions in the US have reported over 600,000 additional customers since September.

This "banxodus" was started on facebook by one guy. Apparently 22,000 Bank of America customers have already moved their money away from banks, with tens of thousands more pledging to do the same.

Google has updated its algorithm to make its searches more real time. If you search for sporting or other time-based events, you will now get results that could be only minutes old.

Google says the move could affect as many as a third of all searches.

Grey Grey South Africa, has announced the recent addition of WesBank to its client portfolio after a three-way agency pitch. Other clients include BAT, Mazda, Nampak, GSK, P&G and Heineken International.

The Bookmarks released their list of finalists. Websites include Flight of the Fish Eagle and Foschini websites; Specialist content providers include Visi dot coza, bandwidth blog, big brother amplified and tastemag.co.za.

See the full list on our Facebook page, facebook.com/thedigitaledge

The Gustav Praekelt Foundation won the Tech 4 Africa's innovation award 2011. TxtAlert is a mobile techology platform designed to improve adherence to Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART). The system alerts ART patients about their next visits to the clinic. It also allows a patient to send a "please call me" message, free of charge, when they want to re-schedule their next clinic appointment. It is an open source project.

Wesley Lynch of Realm Digital has launched Snapplify, a service that allows you to upload your PDF and out pops your perfect iPad app.

Mix Telematics, the Stellenbosch-based international telematics company announced a product called Waze. We spoke to Shawn Graaff @shawngraaff.

Google is to shut down Google Buzz. It was launched in May 2010 and allowed you to see all your social networks in one place. As one commentator put it — it was a bit like building a bathroom with glass walls. 

Other Google projects that are being canned include 

Code Search, Jaiku, iGoogle and the univeristy research programme for google search.

Nokia launched its Lumia phone in Europe. It is Nokia's first Windows smartphone, and it runs Windows Mobile 7.5.

Nokia's decision to support the Windows platform has been controversial. The word Lumia, apparently means Prositute in Spanish.

Apple has launched its iPhone 4GS which includes a sophisticated voice-recogition system called Siri. It has its own fair share of naming trouble for its new service.

According to CNET blogger Chris Matyshick,  Siri is the Japanese word for Buttocks.

We spoke to Lizelle de Bruin from Word Wise; also Vincent Hofmann who says blogs are giving brands unbelievable market intelligence. And brands just ignore it.

Now we're looking forward to Tech4Africa, 27/28 October 2011 -- http://www.tech4africa.com

In this week's news:

Tech4Africa has released their list of finalists for their 2011 Innovation Award.

Many of them are solutions to connect suppliers and customers. iDrive, for instance, connects learner drivers and driving instructors. Sentigol simplifies the process of applying for tenders. And there's a service that tells you how to get from A to B using public transport. 

There are Payment solutions such as Powertime which allows you to buy electricity using your mobile. Or PayU which is a solution for Internet Cafés. There's an education solution and two finalists are using technology to fight HIV and Aids. See the full list at Tech4Africa.com

Apple launched their iPhone 4S and iOS 5 this week. It sold over a million iPhone 4Ss in the first 24 hours. The company reported its most profitable quarter ever to end September. Apple has successfully barred Samsung from selling tablets in Germany because Apple claims that Samsung has basically just copied the iPad.

Samsung has gone on the offensive in ten countries and asked for a court injunction to ban the sale of iPhones from Australia to France according to the Canadian Globe and Mail.

Nokia had a better-than-expected quarter, and will launch its first Windows phone in November. Smartphone sales are up nearly 60% year on year. Gartner says 468m will be sold this year.

Microsoft reported a 7% increase in turnover on the back of sales of its Xbox and Kinect platforms. 

Bigger news than the iPhone announcement was the death of Muammar Gadaffi which is busy breaking twitter records. Tim Shier of Brandseye says at 11 tweets per second, Gadaffi's death got more traffic in one hour than iPhone gets in a month.

Google this week tweaked its search algorithm to update the definition of a "new visit."  This is important because companies base their site analytics on statistics such as number of new visitors. The change will now allow website owners to better track where users come from.

Digital spend now accounts for nearly 11% of marketing spend, according to a recent survey, commissioned by the South African DMMA. The survey shows growth in spend of between 60 and 85% across search advertising, social networks and paid search. Gartner is predicting that by 2015 — in three and a half years — companies will make half their on-line sales from social media sites and apps.

Google+ officially now has over 40m users and has moved out of the Early Adopter stage according to the company. The platform has also caved to user pressure and is allowing pseudonyms. 40m users is a lot, but it's only 5% of the total number of faebook users. Facebook has an estimated 800m users.

Traditional media is hitting back: The Guardian's newspaper's iPad app got 145,000 downloads in a single week. The BBC's Radioplayer has a new version that allows visual advertising on internet radio stations. Radio stations in the UK are standardising on Abolute Radio's Radioplayer as a platform, and then competing on content. 

Blackberry users around the world were treated to three days without their beloved Blackberry Messenger last week. Desipte last week's BlackBerry outage, 70% of users say they would stick with the brand, according to figures from Tpoll's online consumer panel. 

Finally: what did the one Blackberry user say to the other Blackberry user? Nothing at all.

And: why did the Blackberry user cross the road? To use the public phone on the other side.

You can check out the whole PowerPoint deck on http://www.facebook.com/TheDigitalEdge

And then we had Bob Garfield, who says he's not a media whore -- but he's extremely promiscuouous.

We're all doomed, he said. Unless we find... well, you'll have to listen to it yourself. Follow @bobosphere on Twitter.

Now we're looking forward to Tech4Africa, 27/28 October 2011 -- http://www.tech4africa.com

Three rounds of extreme presenting

We've raised the stakes and made the event a Contest of Content, a battle of ideas -- in a thrilling fight for the hearts and minds of the advertising industry.

It's all in good fun -- no blood will be spilled. But you've never seen ideas presented like this before. Drama, humour, world-changing ideas -- it's all there this Friday, 14 October 2011.

Get a sneak preview in this week's show as we interview Alastair King of King James, Ivan Moroke of TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris and Native's Jason Xenopolous.

No boring PowerPoint.

We've drawn inspiration from the world of Improv Comedy, formal debating teams and even the World Championship of Public Speaking to run this event. It's part thought-leadership, part industry debate and 100% entertaining.

Native and 140BBDO win Loerie for Visi "Covet" app.

We spoke to Johann Schwella from 140 BBDO in Cape Town about the Visi "Covet" iPhone app.

Tracy Hirst wins "Marketing Innovator" award.

Ten years in the Financial Services industry as a marketer. She moves jobs, and her marketing peers give her an award. She talks about the courage marketers need to make great marketing work.

How to win a Gold for Print -- using YouTube

 We spoke to Johann Schwella from 140 BBDO in Cape Town about the idea that won the agency a gold in Print -- using a YouTube video. The video is on The Digital Edge's facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/TheDigitalEdge

How to advertise a mobile offering: use Cinema

We also spoke to the DraftFCB team behind both the Tsonga radio gold and the Vodacom TV on Demand live cinema activation.

Hello Computer! Hello Gold!

Hello Computer's in-store browser also won big at the Loeries. It's the Wii-meets-Amazon.com in-store at a Musica near you.

Pieter Streicher wanted to talk about POPI. You remember him from episode 112 -- he was talking about the CPA. I chatted to him and couldn't understand a word he said.So I spoke to a lawyer friend of mine and between him and Streicher, I learned some surprising and useful marketing things.

I also spoke to Adam Galgut, who's a trademark attorney about the new TLDs being released.

Listen to the whole show -- it's great radio!

Welcome to the Digital Edge Podcast, the official voice of the digital marketing space. I’m your host Erich Viedge

In this week’s show. We speak to the Riverstone Films — they're the production house behind the latest Vodacom Rugby ad — the one where they filmed people singing Shosholoza. We went behind the scenes with Annel Malan, the editor of Channel 24, which is SA's largest entertainment and celebrity gossip website. And we spoke to Diane charton of Acceleration media about what she calls re-marketing.

Google has acquired Zagat the restaurant review company. According to Computer world, Google is now in a position to radically change the daily deals market.

It will also help with local and location based marketing.

Penetration levels of microblogging and social networking continue to grow worldwide, driven by increased adoption in emerging countries; but as the Web has evolved Internet users have moved toward consuming and transmitting content rather than producing it themselves, according to Wave 5 of the GlobalWebIndex by Trendstream.

Between 2009 and 2011, the number of people worldwide who publish a blog declined 4%, while the number of people writing an online news article increased slightly, up 6%. By contrast, the numbers of people using microblogs and social networks surged, up 62% and 40%, respectively, over the same period.

Much of the increased adoption of social networks worldwide has been driven by widespread use of mobile devices, according to the report which you can read at marketing profs dot com. 

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2011/5891/microblogging-social-networking-still-growing-worldwide#ixzz1XVtYxsyV

For nearly a month, every time someone checks in at a Walgreens on Foursquare or Facebook Places the retailer will donate a flu shot to an uninsured, underinsured, or financially in-need person. The initiative will run nationwide and in Puerto Rico from Sunday through Oct. 8, Adam Kmiec, the brand's social media director, told ClickZ News.

Over a thousand people are taking Groupon to court because they say Groupon hasn't paid them overtime, according to ClickZ news.

The interwebs were all-aflutter with 9/11 anniversary coverage this week.

According to businessinsider.com, yahoo has "no interest in merging with AOL." 

Twitter has employed PR company Edelman. The site recently cracked 100m users, but about half of its users just lurk on the site and don't tweet. Edelman's job is to change all that by educating people about the value of twitter. 

According to emarketer.com, if you're older than 50, you will click on a facebook ad. If you're younger, you're more likely to click Like, instead. So don't try getting people to "Like" an anti-ageing cream, I suppose.

It's been six month since since the DMMA appointed a company called Effective Measure to provide information about on-line behaviour in South Africa. 

I spoke to the measurement sub-committee's Ryan Harris about the DMMA's plans to give advertisers even more information about our online habits.

Are tablets becoming something you'd like to advertise on? Momberg has some answers. We speak to Nikki Cockroft of the DMMA ahead of the Bookmark awards. 

We ran a full exposé of Groupon in episode 131. Now, just one episode later, marketing week.co.uk reports that Groupon's website traffic has declined by nearly 50% in recent months. In the same week Facebook has pulled its Facebook Deals from South Africa, and Google actually advertised a Google Offer on its google.com home page to internet visitors with a New York IP address. The company sold nearly 14,000 $25 tickets to the Natural History Museum for $5 apiece. So the jury is still out on social buying.

A new study by The Horn Group and Kelton Research says that QR uptake has increased by 4,500 THOUSAND percent from early 2010 to early 2011, and still only about a third of customers know what it is. Only one in 9 people have every scanned one, and two-thirds of QR codes were scanned by an iPhone.

Here's an interesting statistic. Only 3% of in-house marketing executives say that agencies most often lead the charge for marketing innovation in their companies. Most in-house marketers want their agencies to lead innovation. Agencies don't do it, though. More on this research is availalable at marketing profs.com .

In case you're still sceptical about Facebook, research shows 78% of people visiting and interacting with a brand's facebook page are likely to continue the relationship by visiting its website or considering it for purchase.

Starcom MediaVest's strategic development director says the deeper the interaction with social media, the greater the likelihood of moving the consumer from enquiry to brand preference. The company surveyed 6000 facebook, youtube and twitter users in June 2011 and got the respondents to do something with branded content. And that's what drove buying behaviour. The winner was Twitter. 93% of people following a brand on twitter.

The Internet Advertising Bureau of Canada says online revenues for 2010 is now in #2 spot behind TV, just like it is in the US. Online Advertising spend is also growing faster than other forms of advertising.

In account news, Native has won the Cape Town Waterfront account. We're planning to get an interview with the waterfront's Chantell Kidd to talk about it.

The Digital Edge Live has released its final line-up. The event is happening from 2pm to 6pm on 14 October in Cape Town.

In the Traditional Agency corner we've got Graham Warsop from the Jupiter Drawing Room, Ivan Moroke of TBWA Hunt Lascaris. In the Digital agency corner we've got Gavin Rooke, MD of Trigger/Isobar, Brent Shahim, MD of Aqua Online and Pete Case, founder of Gloo, Rob Stokes, CEO of Quirk. Native's CEO Jason Xenopolous and interaction designer Farai Madzima.

And of course, the headline act is Bob Garfield, You can follow Garfield @bobosphere on Twitter.

Group / Socai buying sites. The fine print

Are there things that Group Buying sites forget to tell marketers about? You betcha! Listen to this week's episode to understand some of the fine print. Some of it is exceedingly nasty.

Also an interview with James Box, who co-authored Undercover User Experience with Cennydd Bowles.

Listen to this interview in which he tells us the surprising story of how a misunderstanding led him to write his breakthrough book.

Catch Garfield and his co-host Brook Gladstone On the Media every week. http://www.onthemedia.org . Fantastic radio -- one million weekly listeners!

Pitch consulting -- who are they good for?

If you're a client, should you consider a pitch consultant to help you choose an agency? And if you're an agency, what are the pitfalls or benefits of dealing with a pitch consultancy?

How to sell printer cartridges

Here's a challenge for you: your client sells printer cartridges. How do you improve their share of wallet? We speak to an agency who decided that the best way of doing that is to turn the call centre agents into "trusted business advisors." Tune in and hear how they did it.

Next week: Group / Social buying. What you should know about the industry.

Nobody understands the youth. Except maybe Euro RSCG who are doing their best to understand it. They have released their Milennials report, shared here by Gerhard Sagat.

How much of your marketing spend actually got spent? You saw the money leave your bank account, but, did you get what you paid for? Johanna McDowell launches Media Auditing Services as part of IAS's offerings. 

Next week we explore if Pitch Consultants are good for the industry.

Jonathan Gosier is speaking at the Tech 4 Africa conference on 27/28 October. Listen to what he thinks of African innovation.

The legendary Bob Garfield is a writer and columnist for Advertising Age in the US, as well as co-host of On the Media from WNYC — with over a million listeners. His book The Chaos Scenario has won awards — and got the attention of the advertising and media industries. Garfield is uniquely placed to help shepherd us into the second decade of the 21st Century. Listen to the second part of his interview in next week's show.

And Liza-Jane Webb talks to us about the Freshpak campaign. A hugely successful social media campaign around Rooibos tea!

We spoke to Nic Haralambous about the coming flood of cheap smartphones into South Africa, high data rates and what it means for marketers.

Veteran South African internet entrepreneur Eric Edelstein spoke to us about his latest venture called Evly. There are 182 crowdsourcing-type sites in the world, and Edelstein says Evly fills a gap in the market.

The latest social networking site is called Yowzit. It collects ratings and reviews, and feeds the intelligence back to advertisers.

He wants to turn every copy shop in the country into a book publisher: you buy the rights to reproduce the book, and sell the photostatted book to the person who wants to buy it. No inventory, no hassle.

Plus, tablets are changing digital marketing and also publishing. We spoke to Wesley Lynch, CEO of Realm Digital about how tablet are changing the face of marketing. They're the people who put Exclusive Books on the web, so they know a bit about it. They do projects in the UK and South Africa.

And we review the Windows Phone 7, codenamed Mango.

Windows 8 is due in 2012, and word on the interwebs is that Windows 8 will kill Windows phone 7 stone dead. Our full (text) review is after the jump.

Windows Phone 7 is a long way from being an iPhone killer. Or even a Nokia Killer

By Erich Viedge

We were privileged enough to play with a Windows 7 Phone that Microsoft gave us to play with.

I played with it for about two weeks and then I gave it to our producer Fiona Douglas to use for a couple of weeks.

And it was a very frustrating experience.

The phone came with a beautiful user manual -- in Italian. The PR company was far-sighted enough to give me a user manual in English, which in time-honoured tradition, I glanced through and ignored completely.

I have a Mac but not an iPhone or iPad

My last Smartphone was a pre-iPhone Windows phone 6 which was such a complete dog that I swore I would never use a Windows phone again. To be fair, it may have been because the phone hardware was under-powered for the software, but when it took over 60 seconds to launch the camera (I timed it once), i knew it was not for me.

So this was the first touchscreen phone I've used extensively and the first "new generation" Smartphone.

What I've learned from this "Smart" phone experience.

1. I like keeping Facebook and my email address book and my phonebook separate. The phone contacts are people I have phone numbers for and want to phone. My email address book on my computer has some of the same people on it, but it's mostly people I want to email. I have 300 phone contacts but over 1200 email contacts. I don't want 1200+ contacts on my phone.

And anyway, there's no way of getting my phone contacts onto the phone. Bluetooth doesn't work. No known technology allowed me to do it. It doesn't even sync with Outlook for Windows. It's great on Exchange servers, apparently.

2. A good phone user interface is a very hard thing to design.

a) The Windows phone takes practice to have to answer, believe it or not. My Nokia? Press the green button. The Windows phone? First slide, then press a small button in a particular place. Don't miss it or you miss the call. That's silly.

b) To call somebody on the Nokia I press the down arrow, the first letter of that person's name and the list comes up. I then scroll to the right contact and press the green button.

On the Windows phone, there's no scroll bar. So you press the "People" tile and the people pop up. Then you have to swipe down and down and down (no scroll bar) until you find the person you want to talk to. Then you click on the person's name. Then you have to choose: do you want to phone this person or email or SMS them? then you can choose "phone" and you can call them. Clunky!

c) SMSing is a complete nightmare on the touchscreen. A ten-button phone + predictive text is fast. You can do it with one hand. Not so the Windows phone. You have to type agonisinly slowly. And if you want to send messages in Afrikaans or Zulu or Pedi or German or French or Spanish, it's incredibly difficult. There's predictive text in English German and French, but if you want to send a message in Afrikaans, it's actually not really possible. So both Fiona and I stopped sending text messages.

If I was a network operator, this is one phone I don't want on the network. Email is easy to receive but hard to send. Phoning is difficult, SMSing is difficult. It's a money-saving device for people because it's hard to use, but robs networks of revenue.

My kids love the phone.

My five year old loved the phone. My two-year-old loved the phone. She watched endless episodes of Peppa Pig on it. But the way you hold the phone means you're constantly launching Bing -- Microsoft's search network.

It's incredibly frustrating. I spent a lot of time pressing "Back" to get back to what I was doing before.

I missed the apps

There were no apps in the market place that I found at all useful. Or to phrase it another way, I liked the Engadget app, but it crashed the phone. The Twitter app is pretty good but the typing is very hard. I literally couldn't find anything that was a "must have" for the phone.

And I couldn't find out how to install MS Messenger. I thought at least I could Gchat or iChat or IM some people. No go.

The phone sold me an iPad...

Using the phone for two weeks made me realise what I'm missing in my life: a thing I can let my kids watch Peppa Pig on; that I can surf the internet on and send the occasional e-mail with. That I can comfortably use for Twitter. What I need is an iPad.

The thing is not a phone. It's a computer with a phone app and a screen that's too small. The iPad is a computer without the phone app, and a screen that's the right size.

...But Fiona doesn't want to give it back.

Fiona's on Windows Phone 6, also on a Samsung. She's prepared to overlook Windows 7's shortcomings. She says she doesn't want to give it back.

Listen to the review in next weeks show.

We've got a four-part Do It Yourself guide to creating digital buzz.

Rob van Rooyen talks about crowdfunding -- and shares some successes and cringe-worthy failures; Acer's marketing manager talks about tablets.

AJ Ray talks about flash buying on his site http://www.salewine.co.za

Ryan McFadyen from Have You Heard

Jonathan Allan-Barratt from Universal McCann reports back on the Wave 5 research on brands and social media — turns out South Africa in in the top 10 countries world-wide.

Plus why Allan-Barratt is skeptical about "customer engagement".

John Ginsberg from Ensight says CRM needs to gather more than telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. Your customers are on twitter, they’re on gaming platforms. It’s time for marketers to broaden their horizons, he says.

The Jupiter Drawing Room has implemented an internal social network called Firestring. We talk to Jupiter Creative Director Brad Riley (himself just back from Cannes) and Firestring’s Mark Johnson about it.

Download the full Wave 5 Research report here:http://tinyurl.com/2vjng6o

Gavin Symanowitz launched Feedback Rocket in June 2011 and uncovered a way to monetise that most social of currencies: reputation.

And Mongezi Mtati gives us our Top 5 -- how to create and manage online conversations.

Candice Richards interviews iMaverick's Philip de Wet;d 

We talk to an ad agency about Augmented Reality -- is this what digital marketers have been waiting for?

Hello Computer tells us about what gaming can teach retailers -- and it's a lot!

Russel Stromin is Head Honcho (it says so on his card) of Strike Media, SA's longest-running mobile marketing firm.

He says "Proximity marketing" with bluetooth just doesn't work; USSD, on the other hand, works a treat. He shares conversion statistics with The Digital Edge Podcast.

We speak to Hello Computer about their campaign of the month. Find it at http://Hellotruth.co.za.

Ryan Bacher tells us about how Discounting is not a Business Model. Groupon -- is anybody listening? And if you're an online retailer, what's your marketing strategy?

There's a "vox pop" this week -- a kind of mini-documentary where we ask a whole bunch of people (the "pop" in "vox pop") the same question and they answer: the question was: What do you think of Microsoft's acquisition of Skype?

We interview Tanja Lategan about "Dash of Lime" – Primedia's new aggregator launched in mid May. It's a social media-based response to a business problem.

Justin Drennan of wantitall.co.za tells us why there are two words for his company's online strategy: "Google Adwords".

Tessa Marsh from Cathy Findley PR interviews Erich Viedge this week. It's been six episodes of The Digital Edge since he took over and Marsh wanted to know how it's going.

Our Interview this week is with Brett Levy of Provantage Interactive, who talks about NFC (Near Field Communication) LBS (Location Based Services) and USSD (who knows) and how digital marketing is about to get way way cooler.

So the DA and the ANC are turning to social media (as well as traditional media) to engage the voters.We talk to Jackson Mthembu and Gareth van Onselen about Twitter and Facebook.

Both parties are doing interesting things. The DA couldn't help but take pot-shots at the ANC's strategy, and the ANC really won this reporter over with their enthusiasm, warmth, and, dare I say it, authenticity.

We also speak to Johanna McDowell -- she's just back from the UK where she attended a full day's briefing on All Things Digital from RG/A. It's all about Mobile and Location Based Services. Apparently.

Have a listen -- it's good stuff.

Thanks to Alex Wunschel the "podpimp" for the lead. You can catch him at http://www.tellerrand.de (it's in German, though).

Absa has awarded its R50m account to Base2 -- well done guys! Ben Wagner comments on what this means for the digital markeing industry.

Email marketing is widespread. Is it effective?We hear from a large insurance brand about their digital marketing strategy, including email marketing, and get some tips from Prefix Technologies head Josh Adler.

In our ongoing bid to feature tightly niched websites, we spoke to founder of Afrikaans website Woes.co.za. It's a highly engaged audience, over 60% women and the average age is 37.

But why read when you can listen? Download now!

The research was conducted by PWC. Online spend is now second only to TV. The figures are as follows: TV spend was around 29 billion dollars. Internet was 26 billion and Newspapers nearly 23 billion dollars.

The Integrated Marketing Communications Conference (IMCC) will present the "hottest global media trends and the latest in multimedia marketing innovation" on 6 and 7 June 2011. The Digital Edge podcast is covering that event.

Markex, of course, from 7 to 9 June 2011 at the Sandton Convention Centre. Specialised Exhibitions is organising that — you can get hold of Fran Lurie.

In our main feature:

Erich Viedge attended the Toastmasters International (Southern Africa) conference where Neil Higgs and Brian Walsh both spoke.

For 70 years, American marketers in particular have approached marketing as if they were trainers. So says Neil Higgs who says research now shows (surprise) that people don't make rational decisions based on product performance.

What is perhaps more interesting is what marketers should be doing about it. Marcel Ospina from I for Instinct says their point of departure is wrong. The LSM model just doesn't work on-line -- and she has the data to prove it.

To hear more from Higgs and Ospina, tune in to this week's show.

The Social Media Prism awards

PRISA, the PR Institute of South Africa launched their Social Media PRISM category last year on the prompting of Ingrid Lotze.

She was promptly made a judge for the category and is pleasantly surprised at how well PR companies serve their clients on-line. PR is driving consumer behaviour change -- and more importantly -- sales. Tune in to hear more.

Website of the week

Brian Walsh gives us his 2-minute pitch for his website http://www.entrepreneur.co.za

The CPA Act and how it will affect on-line marketers

Digital and traditional agencies are now going to have to pay to make sure that when they send messages to clients, the clients actually want to receive those messages.

And if the agencies decide to ignore the law, they will be fined, and may even be prosecuted in criminal court.

If you're in the direct marketing business, then by 2012 it's going to be more expensive to do business and a lot more inconvenient.

But if you're a consumer, maybe, just maybe, we really can look forward to a spam free future.

Are digital agencies about to enter the mainstream in South Africa?

Spend in the online arena is sitting at around 2% of the total budget. The Digital Media and Marketing Association thinks it should be much bigger.

So do online publishers.

The problem? In episode 107, Josh Adler from the DMMA said the problem is that the people who make the decisions, decide to spend money on TV, Radio, print and other traditional media instead of digital, 98% of the time.

And he thinks it's because the TV, Radio, Print and other traditional media can tell media planners exactly what audiences they are buying. 

So the DMMA decided to change that. They wanted to see if they could quantify the on-line and mobile audiences in the same way for media planners and buyers.

And they found somebody who said, Yes it was possible, and Yes they could help. The Digital Edge Podcast went to the DMMA breakfast on 12 April 2011 to see how the story unfolded.

We've also got our Twit of the week and news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey of August Sun Projects.

First up it's Nathier Kasu from Mweb to discuss the companies latest push into the gaming sphere by providing new servers and infrastructure for online gamers. We discuss the need for these services and how to market to gamers.

Then Jonathan Page from Snaply tells us about the innovative new startup aiming to revolutionise the world of online stores. Previously you needed a degree in arcane terms to understand what an e-commerce platform entailed however Snaply aims to change all that.

First up we speak to Graeme Lipschitz about the new Google rating systems that lowers irrelevant content and how it affects the Internet as a whole.

Then we speak to Stephan Zimelka and Matt Ross about returning to South Africa and their reasons for this return. We find out what differences South Africa holds to Europe and when we can expect the divide to narrow.

Finally we speak to the Native Johannesburg team about their move and new building and how the staff feel about the move and new people.

First up, previous Head of Measurement at the Digital Media and Marketing Association, Josh Adler talks to us about the new country online measurement company: Effective Measure. We speak to Josh about why the change occurred, what it means for members and how the change-over works.

Then we take a special trip down to Cape Town for some highlights of the Design Indaba. We speak to a graphics designer in Jonno Cohen, Creative Director of Native Andy Ellis and finally researcher Heidi Wiesspeiner to give us their views on the Indaba and their favourite speakers.

Our coverage of Mobile World Congress follows Angus Robinson through the amazing new mobile devices released including countless Android phones and a near un-ending stream of tablet devices.

Then we speak to Lee Hartman of "To-do list with a difference" service Toodu to find out about this interesting new startup.

Finally we re-join Angus to discuss the keynote speakers at the Congress and the trends in mobile for 2011 and beyond.

First up, Justin Spratt talks about taking over as CEO of Quirk E-Marketing and what it's like to replace Rob Stokes. 

Then, Tim Shier talks to us about the new Brandseye version 2 and then on a social media angle we speak to Ryan Silberman of Popimedia on the topic of Facebook Sponsored Stories.

Finally, Patrick and Barry Kayton discuss Cognician and the other fascinating projects they're currently involved in.

We also get the low down on the latest tablets with gadget expert, Steven Ambrose. First up we speak to Colin Daniels, ex head of research and Josh Adler, ex head of measurement about the past year on the DMMA and what they’ve achieved.

We then speak to Steven Ambrose about the upcoming tablets to consider as well as how these devices will forever change the way we view computing.

Finally we jump back into the discussion on the DMMA by speaking with new head of measurement Tim Shier and chairperson, Nikki Cockcroft.

First up, Brent Shahim of Aqua Online talks about his companies joining with fellow WPP group members Wunderman, a direct agency. 

Then, Sean Riley of Ad-Dynamo discusses the large amount of investment the company has recently enjoyed and what it means for the business.

Finally, Adrian Hewlett of Habari showcases the companies latest offering of Linkedin adverts as well as chats on the topic of monetising social networks.

Our first guest is Wayne Gosling of Twangoo and now Groupon about the company’s buyout by the massive Internet giant. We speak what the deal means, competition and the future of group buying.

Then journalist Paul Furber talks to us about the Google vs Microsoft fight about WebM vs H.264 web video codecs and what it really means for users.

Finally, Bronwyn Johnson gives us details on the latest platform from the MIH stable: Kalahari Ads.net. The new service allows users to post their items for sale but differs from other classified services in that it provides human moderation over scams. Bronwyn tells us all about it.

Follow us as we track the events of the weekend through interviews and commentary between Jarred, Saul and Kerry-Anne.

This also being our 100th episode we bring you a snippet of our small celebration at last weekend's Geekretreat held in Stanford Valley.

Listen as we talk Media, Social Media, Mobile, Digital Agencies and Telecoms.

This week we feature Brett St Clair talking mobile, Hilton Tarrant talking Telecoms and finally Louise Marsland on the media in 2010. 

Today we start with the first two categories where we feature Native CEO Jason Xenopoulos on the topic of digital agencies and then Vincent Hofmann, GM of Cerebra on the topic of social media.

Join us next week for the next three and in early 2011 we'll bring you their predictions for the year.

First up, Justin Hartman of newly formed agency Social Code talks to us about the agency. He gives details of who they're aiming to take on, the type of work they're doing and what this means for Hartman's other business: Afrigator.

Then, Blake Chandlee joins us all the way from the U.S. to talk about the newest updates on Facebook. We discuss places, deals and mail and how it improves the platform.

Finally we get some international trends from Bookmark judge Chris Colbourn as well as further thoughts from local judge Evan Milton and jury chair: Evan Milton.

First up, Eran Eyal from Evly gives us a rundown of the new service which allows you to create your own crowdsourcing network. Using the wisdom of the crowd you can solve problems at a fraction of the price it would cost to outsource and Evly provides the platform for such a project.

Then we speak to Adrian Hewlett and Jonathan Gluckman from Clicks2Customers to discuss their Bookmark Awards. Gluckman discusses the Agency of the year award and his thoughts on the event and Hewlett, winner of "greatest contribution to digital marketing" talks about the award and his time as Digital Media and Marketing Association Chairman.

Finally, Bronwen Auret from BDFM gives us details and her thoughts on the upcoming iPad only newspaper brought to the device by Rupert Murdoch in conjunction with Steve Jobs. We get the details on pricing, content and more.

We also have our twit of the week but first it's the news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey.

First up we'll bring you a word from Jack Kruger, Judge chair for the agency stream who talks about the judging process as well as what it takes to win an award.

Then we take you live to the glitzy event held at Brio in Adderley Street Cape Town where MC Don Packett dished out the awards to a relatively receptive audience of digerati. We bring you the major awards, the winners and the losers as well as some of the proceedings.

First up, the eponymous deputy editor of The Daily Maverick, Phillip De Wet, talks about the sites first live get together called "The Gathering". We find out how Phillip and Branko managed to get political rivals, banking CEO's and Ivo Vegter with a straw man on stage and what they came up with.

Then Daniel Levy and Gil Sperling of Popimedia talk to us about their new Facebook product, "Medeator". The service makes the management of fan pages on Facebook vastly easier and more efficient with an extra 18 services and sentiment monitoring abilities.

Finally, Craig Nicholson, an ex Microsoft Most Valued Professional for his work in the local Xbox community runs us through some of the new Xbox offerings. First up is Xbox Live and possibly more importantly is the Xbox Kinect, the Xbox's solution to motion gaming. We quiz Craig as to whether this is the future of interacting with computers or rather a gimmick to extend the longevity of the console. 

We also have our Twit of the week and news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey of August Sun Projects.

First up Tim Glanfield from Beehivecity runs us through the numbers of the recently release paywall experiment done by Thetimes.co.uk. We discuss whether Rupert Murdoch has finally achieved a major coup for the news industry or the experiment will fade into obscurity.

Then Reshaad Sha of Cisco talks about the latest broadband survey in which the quality of broadband around the world was measured and for the first time African countries besides South Africa were measured. Listen to see how we fit into the global and African landscape.

Finally Nick Jackson of iClinic runs us through Foursquare and what it is as well as some South African examples. 

We also have Sarah Blake of Quirk giving us some information on educational opportunities as well as the news and twit of the week.

First up is Mxit founder, Herman Heunis who talks to us about this latest development where the company has opened up their API to outside developers. This API allows said developers to create games, educational programs and much all while leveraging the massive Mxit base.

Then we get Heather Ford on the line all the way from Berkeley in the U.S. to discuss the upcoming third Geekretreat. We talk on what to expect from this years event, how it differs from the last two years and finally what the concept means for the South African community.

With news last week that Mweb would no longer pay for local bandwidth between themselves and other ISP's, the proverbial cat was thrown amonst the pigeons. What Mweb is pushing for is local peering where all ISP's meet in a centralised location rather than charging for what are the equivalent of interconnect fees. This episode we speak to Mweb CEO, Derek Hershaw to discuss what motivated this move and also how they hope to lower prices of ADSL and move the South African Internet forward.

We've also got our Twit of the week and news with Antonio Petra.

Join us in this fascinating debate, a rare opportunity to hear all the big players in one place. 

Then we chat to Jeremy Daniels from tech analysis blog Memeburn about the launch of Windows Phone 7 and ask: is there a point, and will anyone care?

Finally, we get a precis of the material covered by Prezence's Tim Bishop at his recent -- and acclaimed -- Mobile Web Africa talk. He helps us to understand how to implement a successful mobile site.

All that plus the latest news roundup and the Twit of the Week make up this exciting new episode of The Digital Edge.

In the latest of digital agency news, Cerebra has made a move to buy Emerging Media, one of South Africa's most well known tech PR companies. We speak to founders of the respective companies, Mike and Craig to find out why they made the move and what it means for the industry.

Then, Mark Regensberg of Extrabold, a hotel management company, talks to us about the new social network they company is rolling out inside their hotels to connect guests together during their brief (and often once off) time inside the hotel. We also speak about the technology challenges that go into a hotel management and how to create a bordello with technology.

Finally, Dan Bailey from Idea Bounty runs us through the "Pepperami" brief and how agencies can use the Idea Bounty platform rather than being worried about the impact on their ability to bill clients for the same ideas.

We've also got our "Twit of the week" and news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey of August Sun Projects.

We're joined by winners Rob Stokes of Quirk, Pete Case of Gloo, Dan Pinch of Atmosphere, Mark Tomlinson of HelloComputer and finally Adam Whitehouse of Stonewall to discuss their winning campaigns. We're also joined by Cambrient's James Happe who tells us about the awards evening and whether he thought the event was well organised and finally our very own Jarred Cinman talks about the judging process he was involved in.

First up is Motribe's Nic Haralambous who tells us what Motribe actually is an how one can build their own mobile social network with a few clicks.

Then Matthew Dawes, organiser of the the Mobile Web Africa conference tells us about the event and who will be speaking there. He also discusses the theme of the conference and who it's relevant to.

Finally, Hein Koen of Flickswitch talks about the companies latest products as well as discusses the movements in the local data market and how this will affect consumers.

For those of you missing Kerry-Anne Gilowey of August Sun Projects, normal programming will continue next week.

First up Chris Rawlinson discusses this years blog awards with us. Chris is one of the organisers of the blog awards and talks on sponsors, the awards event and the general controversy that always tends to follow the SA Blog Awards.

Then, Mark Taylor talks to us about Vodacom's newly launched M-Pesa service provided in conjunction with Nedbank. The service offers to provide banking service via the humble mobile phone without requiring a bank account. Is this any different from any old mobile money service or can we expect something new?

Finally Mia Scholtz from Ogilvy Neo tells us how the traditional agency is going digital and bringing in search experts Altersage to provide these services to current Ogilvy clients.

We speak to founder Ben Wagner of Stonewall as well as Angus Robinson and David James from Brandsh and finally Kevin Lourens and Jacqui Maroun of Cambrient. Rounding that off we have the mastermind behind Native and now group CEO: Jason Xenopoulos.

After hiring some major names such as Justin Spratt and Clint Bryce to the Quirk team, Rob Stokes is clearly looking to make his agency the biggest in the country. We speak to Rob to hear about these new hires and get his thoughts on the company and where it's going as 2010 winds to a close.

Then we speak to gambling lawyer Wayne Lurie about last week's high court ruling against Piggs Peak Casino that makes gambling in South Africa illegal. This long running feud between the Gauteng Gambling Board and Piggs Peak makes for some confusing reading and Wayne explains the details and what this means ofr the average online gamer.

Finally, CEO of Primedia Online felt that she didn't have enough work running iAfrica and Primedia Online so decided that she would take over Primedia's digital agency Prezence. We chat with Nikki about the move and what this means for outgoing CEO Tim Bishop.

First up, Matthew Stone talks to us about the confusingly named concept of Net Neutrality. As Google and Verizon bring potential legislation to the American congress we try understand what this means for the Internet.

Then, Eric Hersman from Ushaidi has an informal chat with us about Ushahidi, the newly launched Crowdmap service as well as African innovation.

Finally, Andy Higgins from Bidorbuy talks about their recent purchase: Payfast. The payment company aggregates various types of payments in order to facilitate online payments. The company has recently been bought out by Bidorbuy and we find out the details.

This special 2-part show brings you some of the best bits of the conference and lots of analysis from Jarred, Saul and Kerry-Anne. We will also be offered some intimate one-on-one interviews with some of the main speakers recorded by Saul over the weekend.

This second part of the recording rounds up day 2 as well brings you the entire Clay Shirky keynote.

If you weren't there, now's your chance to catch up.

This special 2-part show brings you some of the best bits of the conference and lots of analysis from Jarred, Saul and Kerry-Anne. We will also be offered some intimate one-on-one interviews with some of the main speakers recorded by Saul over the weekend.

Among the highlights were the keynote from Clay Shirky and the workshops conducted by John Resig (the creator of jQuery), to name just two.

If you weren't there, now's your chance to catch up.

First up, Victor Borges from On-Demand talks about the newly released offer from the company and Vodacom where you can watch On-Demand TV through your cellphone. From Spongebob Squarepants to Desperate Housewives you can watch your favourite show on the move for a fixed price per month.

Then, Ben Wagner from the Digital Media and Marketing Association talks about the first round of the Creative Circle digital awards. The Creative Circle Awards reward creativity in traditional advertising and now the DMMA has joined forces with the Circle to reward digital. We find out who won.

Finally, Creative Director Clint Bryce from now Quirk joins us to talk about his move to the Quirkstation. What does this mean for Quirk and how does this place the company?

We've also got the Twit of the week and the news with Antonio Petra.

We start the show off speaking to Simon Dingle to try and understand what on earth is going on at the Department of Communications with Minister Simphiwe Nyanda firing his Director General Mamodupi Mohlala with rumours of impropriety from both camps.

Then we speak to Ishfaq and Charlene from Cell C to discover what on earth their new photocode service is and why we should use their offering.

Finally, as Tech4Africa approaches we speak to international brand ninja Alex Hunter to discuss his history of branding Virgin America and what he'll be speaking about at Tech4Africa.

We've also got our Twit of the week and the news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey and Antonio Petra.

First up, Angus Robinson of Brandsh talks to us about the work done by his company in minimising the potential fallout from the Seacom cable repeater issues. After almost three weeks of downtime there were merely a handful of complaints online. We speak to Angus and Seacom's Linda Carter to understand what happened and what they did to create a positive response.

Then, in a follow up to last weeks DMMA panel we take some questions from the audience and get some further insight into the mindset of publishers in South Africa about paid content and paywalls.

Finally, Jade McDade of 365 Digital tells us about VAST 2.0, a new standard for tracking video advertising and what this means for the South African industry.

We've also got our Twit of the week and Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us for the news.

First up, blogger and Cape Town man about town, Seth Rotherham joins us to discuss his latest venture with ex radio DJ Richard Hardiman. The two have created an online radio station, cutting through any legislative red tape and allowing them to say, play and do what they want. We speak to the two to find out the story behind 2Oceansvibe radio.

Then we sit in on the DMMA Paid Content Panel. As publishers locally and internationally ponder how to make some real money off their content we join moderator Mike Stopforth as he guides Geoff Cohen of 24.com, Rhys Johnstone of IOL, Bridget Pringle of iAfrica, Phillip De Wet of The Daily Maverick and finally Bronwen Auret of BDFM in the paid content discussion.

Finally, as the Tech4Africa conference draws closer The Digital Edge, as the official Podcast of the event, we're featuring some of the speakers. This week we speak to Rian Van Der Merwe of Yola and previous Ebay about his user experience panel.

We've also got our Twit of the Week and news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey.

First up we're joined by Moneyweb's Hilton Tarrant and Acceleration Media's Di Charton to discuss the latest statistics on online advertising in South Africa. We speak to the two to see where that money is going, how it is being used and whether banner advertising is a worthwhile investment for online marketing.

With the World Cup finishing last night we nostalgically look back by speaking to Andrew Felbert about the research done by Neilsen's on the World Cup. The company tracked viewership throughout all touchpoints from TV, Web, Mobile and Social Media and we talk to Andrew to discuss the findings.

We'll also have our Twit of the week as well as the news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey.

First up as part of the Digital Edge's involvement with Tech4Africa we'll be hearing from some of the speakers at the conference to find out what they'll be speaking about as well as who they're looking forward to speaking to. We start off these chats with Steve Song.

Then we speak to Daniel Neville of Idea Bounty, the crowdsourcing platform, to hear about their latest bounty for the Financial Times. The FT is looking for ways to increase sales to their paid content and Dan tells us all about it.

Finally, Tamaryn McPherson from Vodacom talks to us about the new Vodacom Colour range, a youth focussed product offering that is taking shape with the help of online campaigns and social media focus.

We're also joined by Antonio Petra for the news and Jarred is back in town.

Yastic is currently pulling apart the traditional auction system with their crazy, SMS auction offering. We start the show off speaking to founder Richard about the service and the story behind it.

Then, Richard Wright of Getclosure talks to us about the service as well what recourses one has when complaining online.

Finally, we speak to Nate Elliot from Forrester Research to discuss the companies research done into social media and the processes they advise their clients to use.

We've also got the news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey and Antonio Petra of Cambrient.

First up Julie Taylor joins us to discuss Streetview South Africa. We talk on topics of privacy, wifi sniffing and Elephants.

Then Nikki Cockcroft joins us to discuss the new changes at iAfrica.com. We talk the end of the portal era, changes to their platform and advertising revenue.

Finally Jonathan Gluckman chats about Clicks2Customers, one of South Africa's most successful Internet companies. Jonathan gives us the history of the company and some overview of what search is.

We kick the show off by chatting with Justin Spratt of Internet Solutions to discuss the companies new mobile VOIP service whereby using your cellphone you can cut out mobile operators thus massively lowering costs.

Then we speak to John Smyth of the Justice Alliance of South Africa (JASA). Comic book geeks are imagining spandex clad heros but the JASA is a legal body that has recently been tasked to draft a bill by the Department of Home Affairs to prevent all pornography on Mobile and the Internet in South Africa. We speak to John to discuss the why and how this is technically possible.

Finally we speak to Wireless G CEO Carel van der Merwe about the companies new inflight wireless offering that the company will be launching within the next few months.

We've also got our Twit of the Week and special guest Rob Stokes joins us with Kerry-Anne Gilowey on the news.

First up we speak to RAMP group head and Netprophet MC Rob Gilmour for his highlights of the conference and then after that we speak to Stefan Magdalinski about his talk at the event.

Then Jason Probert of DSTV Online tells us what DSTV on Demand offers and how you can catch up on the week's shows online.

Finally Christophe Muller of Youtube talks about the newly launched Youtube SA service and what it means for local content providers.

We've also got our Twit of the week and news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey.

To kick off the show, Pete Case joins us to discuss his recent judging of the international Webby awards. These awards look at international creativity and design in digital and quite a few South African's are in the running this year.

Next up Geoff Cohen from 24.com talks to us about the success of the company over the past year and what it takes to build a site with over two million users a month.

Finally, we speak to Mike Wronksi who recently released the report on South African Twitter stats. We quiz him on the details to find out whether Twitter is a medium worth caring about or if it's just an echo chamber of geeky whingers.

We're also joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey on the news and Jarred brings us the Twit of the week.

First up we get South African web legend Jason Xenopoulos from branded entertainment company "2.0" to discuss his latest campaign, Scotland From Home. The campaign follows hapless Scot, Bruce Campbell around Scotland to discover the secret behind whiskey making.

We launch launch straight into a debate on HTML5 vs Flash. Both languages allow for a highly visual and attractive web however in light of Apple's Steve Jobs removing any chance of Flash being used on his devices, companies are rapidly jumping ship to the newer, more streamlined HTML 5 option.

We look at what the situation is, why some feel that HTML 5 is better, get a written response from Adobe and find out whether digital agencies are worried about losing their business and whether they're currently changing Flash designers skill sets to HTML5.

We also have our Twit of the week and Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us on the news.

Large South African brands have pondered the value of building a major marketing presence online for years. For a brand like Pick n Pay, whose primary engagement with customers remains in store, digital has remained in the margins of their marketing thinking.
The last year has forced some major rethinks in boardrooms across the country. With cheap bandwidth in our midst, Internet penetration over 10% across the board, and well higher than that in the upper LSM’s, and the rise of an active mobile user base it has finally dawned on everyone that this is a medium to be taken very seriously.

To start off we speak to the head of E-Tailing at Pick n Pay, Lynsay Webster Rozon to discuss why the company decided to create their new website and why they chose Pick n Pay and Aqua Online to create the site.

Then we speak to Newton Wilshire and Adam Brandt from Aqua Online as well as Zoe Benghis, Hans Liebenberg and Di Wilson from Cambrient to discuss the features of the show and what it takes to put together a site of this size.

We're also joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo on the news and Jarred brings us the "Twit of the week"

First up, U.S. based author and podcaster, Jeffrey Powers joins us to discuss the current change in the Ning business model. For the past two years social network building service Ning has worked on a model of Freemium. In essence they gave away their basic service for free and charged extra for more premium offerings. However in recent weeks things have changed with a new paid for model emerging.

Then in an article for the Daily Maverick, our very own Jarred and online reputation management software Brandseye's MD Tim Shier created a study on the brand value of Malema and how much his mentions were worth in terms of advertising value. Tim explains how the study was put together and Jarred explains the why.

Finally, Tech4Africa founder Gareth Knight joins us to discuss the conference and the kind of speakers he'll be having. Gareth also talks about the person this conference will appeal to and if you're either a technical person or an entrepreneur, this is one to watch out for.

First up it's Matthew Buckland to give us a rundown of his new site, Memeburn. The site focusses on tech startups and news in South Africa and emerging markets. This is Matthew's first foray into self-employment after leaving 24Labs. Matthew also tells us about his other ventures and life as an entpreneur.

Then Karen Dempers, Marketing Manager of the OPA joins us to discuss the fourth quarter 2009 results from the organisation and what it means for the South African Internet. We also look as to why big players such as Media24 are managing to dominate the industry and what it means that sites such as Facebook are not part of the OPA.

Finally, Florian Leppla of the Open Rights Group joins us from the United Kingdom to talk about the Digital Economy Bill. The Bill aims to make Britain a digital nation with digital TV, broadband in every home but also features unrealistic, draconian laws on piracy and the policing of piracy.

We're also joined by Cambrient's Glen Tomlinson for the news and Jarred brings us the Twit of the week at the end of the show.

We've also got our Twit of the week as well as Kerry-Anne Gilowey joining us on the show for the news.

This episiode we can't promise you an unbiased view of the iPad but we can tell you that you will want one.

First up we're joined by journalist, entrepreneur and now publisher Duncan Mcleod to discuss the situation between Google and China. We discuss why there is the rift between the company and the country and also see if issues between multinational corporations and countries is bound to continue.

Then with uncapped ADSL becoming the standard offering by South African ISP's we couldn't help but wonder whether going to a model where and ISP's costs are no longer fixed is a bad trend for the industry that will result in smaller providers closing down. We speak to the head of the Internet Service Providers Association, Ant Brooks to get his thoughts on the matter.

Finally, Pete Case from Gloo gives us a rundown of the state of digital agencies in South Africa. This recording comes from our Digital Edge live in Cape Town show.

Our first guest is FNB CEO Michael Jordaan who discusses the details of Paypal in South Africa with us. Join us as we travel to the executive floor of the FNB building to talk international finance and the effect on the country.

Then we hear from Arthur Goldstuck to discuss his latest research done in conjunction with Cisco. The 2010 Access Report looks at Internet access in South Africa and future trends as well as other industry statistics such as the amount of broadband connections in South Africa. Listen to hear the fascinating details and the exciting future the South African Internet looks forward to.

Finally Bronwen Auret joins us to interview Diane Charton of Acceleration Media to discuss the topic of paid content in the South African context from an advertisers perspective.

Finally we've got a recording of the news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey recorded at our Digital Edge Live show last Friday.

With local online retailer Kalahari.net moving into the e-book arena we spoke to CEO of the company, Gary Hadfield, speaks to use about their offering and the industry of e-books as a whole.

Then Nikki Cockroft, vice chair of the OPA gives us some information on how their changing their membership structure to accomodate more than just publishers.

Finally, Brett Haggard of Hypertext Media joins us live from SxSW in Austin Texas to tell us what the conference is about and what his highlights were.

We'll also speak to Kerry-Anne Gilowey to discuss the news and Jarred brings us an every amusing "Twit of the week".

This week is your chance to get involved in an international charity event that is set to make history as we begin the run off to 2010 World Cup in true South African style. For more information on previous Twestival events, visit http://capetown.twestival.com/ - or email us at capetwestival@uthango.org to find out how you can help.

It's also the last week for you to book tickets to The Digital Edge live in Cape Town this Friday the 26th at the BMW Pavillion. Book now for a great event: http://bit.ly/bJARUs

We're joined on the show by Clive Simpkins, a speaker and presenter to discuss the topic of Influence in South Africa. This segment was produced in conjunction with Mandy De Waal of MandyLives.

Next, with paid content being a major topic of conversation we team up with Bronwen Auret of BDFM to discuss the issue from a South African perspective with General Manager of Digital at Avusa, Elan Lohmann.

Finally with almost eight hundred thousand rand already raised, the Crowdfund is almost reaching its target. The idea comes from Eve Dmochowska, an entrepreneur hoping that the fund will provide angel investment to 50-100 startups.

Finally, don't forget to join us in Cape Town on March the 26th for The Digital Edge Live. Bookings are available here: http://bit.ly/bJARUs

Join us as we discuss new media and the business models behind the future of the Internet. A special thanks to Metro for providing us with the space to record and for a fantastic meal. We highly recommend you get to Metro.

Also don't forget to join us at The Digital Edge Live on the 26th of March in Cape Town. Book now to avoid dissapointment: http://bit.ly/bJARUs

Remember to sign up for The Digital Edge live in Cape Town on the 26th of March: http://www.thedigitaledge.co.za/cambrient2/view/cambrient2/en/page1548

We speak to Richard Sidersky, Head of the Media Buying division of Aqua Online as well as Stijn Smolders from Habari to understand their new Facebook offering and finally Nikki Cocroft of the Online Publishers Association to give us some industry perspective.

This week we're also joined by Hilton Tarrant of Moneyweb live from Barcelona to discuss the Mobile World Congress and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us to discuss the news of the week.

Remember to sign up for The Digital Edge Conference happening on the 26th of March in Cape Town: http://www.thedigitaledge.co.za/cambrient2/view/cambrient2/en/page1548

We speak to Wesley Lynch of Realm Digital, Anton De Wet of Telamenta and Peter Flynn of White Wall Web to see how their business works, what they program in and whether the relationship with creative’s is complicated or not.

We also speak to Kerry-Anne Gilowey to get all the buzz news and Jarred brings us the Twit of the week.

Of course you can setup a Google alert to check certain keywords but this is not instant, nor does it offer any sort of look into the influence and reach of these comments online. It's also important to remember that these tools are useful not only in a crisis but to value positive mentions as well as to help see what aspects of an online campaign might be successful or not. 

This week we speak to Ingrid Rubin from Virtuosa to speak about Saidwot, Tim Shier from Quirk to talk on Brandseye and finally Gordon Geldenhuys from Acceleration Media to talk about Radian6. 

We also speak to Vanessa to hear about Breadline Africa's latest competition to raise funds as well as Kerry-Anne Gilowey to discuss the news of the week.

We also speak to Sean Riley of AD:Dynamo in our Agency of the week section and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us in the iPad news section.

We sent intrepid reporter Jarred Cinman with recording equipment and a fair sense of cynicism to Stanford. What returned was someone almost akin to a religious convert. Jarred, the usually cynical member of Th Digital Edge came back in love with the location, people and concept of The Geek Retreat.

Follow Jarred as he explains his new found fascination with the Geek Retreat as he brings you coverage of the event.

Take a listen as we put our prediction pants on to see what we can expect for 2010 and what you can expect from marketing, technology and culture.

First up, we listen to our quiz show to hear the chaos and madness that was the quiz show. That episode we were joined by Toby Shapshak as the quiz master, Anna Vaulina, Justin Spratt, Craig Rodney and Rich Mulholland. To call them loud and raucous may be the understatement of the year.

Next we delve into the issue of why the online space in South Africa is still so dominated by white males and what can be done to solve this issue. We spoke to the Chairman of the Mail & Guardian, Trevor Ncube to get an understanding of the the issue.

Then, as the fight between pirates and copyright lawyers continues to grow, we took a look down the rabbit hold that is piracy online. We spoke to both Christian Engstrom, leader of the Pirate Party in the European Parliament and Carlo Lavizarri, a copyright lawyer for the recording industry. The debate was heated and that was just between Saul and Jarred.

Continuing the topical and controversial theme, we took a look at the growing issue of privacy online. We spoke to Lillie Coney, a director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in the USA as well as locally, Dominic White, a security expert. Remember your tinfoil hats.

As digital continued to grow in South Africa in 2009 so to did the awards to rewards the work done. We look at The Bookmark Awards where we speak to organisers, judges and winners of awards.

Finally, a short look into a recent topic of Online Dating. We speak to David Burstein of The Dating Lab and Jane Collachio, an online dating expert. 

We're also joined by the extremely patient Kerry-Anne Gilowey and the show ends with a Twit of the week.

We're joined by Avusa's Elan Lohmann, Stuff Magazine's Toby Shapshak, Mobile Marketer Gaby Rosario, Digivox's Andrea Mitchell and finally comedian and marketing expert John Vlismas.

Next year we're joined by the same guests and more for their 2010 predictions so join us next week for a greatest hits episode and on the 11th of January 2010 for the predictions of the year.

We speak to David Burnstein of The Dating Lab to see how online dating works as well as author Jane Coloccia to give her experiences on the subject. We also speak anonymously to two users of online dating to get their perspective and stories.

We're also joined by Anne-Sophie Leens to hear about Apartment Studios and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo joins us for the news.

We speak to developers of online games in the form of local gamers from the "RoseZA" server as well as look internationally to speak to Oscar Garza from Eve Online, the third biggest MMORPG in the world. In order to better understand these games we also speak to players and finally Jerri Mperdempes, someone that makes his living off selling in-game merchandise online.

Finally we also speak to Hein Koen of Flickswitch in our 60-second pitch as well as being joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo in our news segment.

Our first guest on the show is Chris Yelland, a publisher of Electrical Engineering titles to give us an understanding of the situation at Eskom as well as let us in to some of the industry gossip behind the media front. We then speak to branding expert Clive Simpkins to explain why this fiasco is an example of how not to position yourself. Finally, Ingrid Rubin of Online Reputation Management Agency "SaidWot" joins us to talk about the number of mentions of Eskom online and what can be done online to protect your brand in the event of a crisis. Mandy De Waal then summarises the situation and what can be done going forward. As always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey then joins us for the news.

We speak to Ken Eklund, writer of what has been dubbed the first serious ARG, World Without Oil. We also speak to Chris Walsh from agency McKinney to talk about the ARG done for Audi USA known as "The Heist". Jonathan Cherry, a local ARG developer talks about the work done for Woolworths and Marie Lamb from ARGN.com gives us an explanation of what an ARG really is.

In our 60-second pitch we speak to Jonathan Hall of Added-Value, a branding agency. Our Top Ten looks at the ten best quotes from South Park and as always we're joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo in the news.

We speak to Angus Robinson of Brandsh, Louis Janse van Rensburg of World Wide Creative, Gino Cosme of Cosmedia and finally consultant and web strategist Eve Dmochowska to see what is happening with excessive charges as well as whether you really do need an agency.

Our top ten this week is the ten best quotes from T.V. presenter Jeremy Clarkson and our 60-second pitch features Kish Ramdial from immedia to talk about their iPhone app development. As always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us for the countries best audio news.

What information is being harvested from your computer and what is being done with this information? This week on The Digital Edge we speak to privacy experts to find out.

We're joined by Dominic White of Deloitte Security, Lillie Coney of privacy rights group EPIC, Gian Visser of ISP Afrihost and Pria Chetty a technology and innovation lawyer. We also speak to Richard Mulholland of Missing Link in our "60-second pitch section and have a special chat with head of the OPA, Adrian Hewlett. As always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us for a fun filled look at the news.

We speak to two legitimate email marketers in the form of Josh Adler from pMailer and Mia Papanicolaou from Striata. They give us a run through of how best to create an email marketing campaign as well as giving us some advice on what not to do when it comes to database purchases. We also speak to an email database list seller to see how that industry operates.

In our 60-second pitch we speak to Robynn Burls of Encyclomedia, a highly targeted media database service. Our top ten features then ten most amusing spam email subjects’ lines and as always, we’re joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey in our news section.

Destination Marketing Organisations, traditionally part of a government tourism agency, have started a major push online. These sites can give potential visitors the ability to book hotels, tours, rentals and sightseeing all from the comfort of their bedroom.

We speak to Aslam Levy of Cape Town Tourism as well as Karin Duncker of the German Tourism Board. They give us the lowdown of what their territories are doing to promote themselves online.

In our "60-second pitch" we're joined by Marcel Oudejans and our Top Ten this week features the ten best "Sheldonisms" in honour of the character Sheldon Cooper on T.V. show "Big Bang Theory". As always, we're joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo.

We spoke to winners TBWA Hunt Lascaris on their campaign for the Zimbabwean as well as Chris Gotz from Ogilvy, Tony Koenderman and Ben Wagner from Stonewall Digital. The show also features an overview of the digital winners and a debate on whether the Loeries really gets digital.

Remember, if you didn't win at the Loeries in the digital category there's always the Bookmarks coming up. This week is the last week to register so go to www.thebookmarks.co.za now.

We're joined by Jason Probert of DSTV New Media to explain the video on demand services that DSTV offers as well as explain the launch of the new "African Film Club". We're also joined by Dagmar Heijmans of website "Sellaband", a Dutch based website that helps bands raise money to record their albums. We're again joined by last week's guests, European Parliament member Christian Engstrom and International Copyright Lawyer Carlo Lavizzari.

In our "60-second pitch" we speak to Rob Gilmour of RSAWeb and our Top Ten features the ten most popular movies on the Internet Movie Database. As always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us for the news.

Legally speaking, piracy is a crime but is this an apt description for what many call a victimless crime. Is this crime actually victimless and is there a solution to the situation. With the Recording Industry Association of America going after students and single mothers for ludicrous amounts of money that they can never afford, you cannot help but wonder whether the anti-piracy crusade has not gone slightly off the original mandate of promoting copyright.

In the first of a two part series we look at the legalities and the morality behind piracy to see whether the anti-piracy SWAT team will be breaking through your doors if you download the latest episode of Lost or that new Britney Spears album. In this episode we're joined by a member of the European Parliament, the head of the Recording Industry of South Africa and finally an international copyright lawyer to find out whether you're breaking the law or just stepping around a gray area.

In our Agency of the week we speak to Mark from Tribe and as always we're joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo to give us the news

We combinined a live debate with pre-recorded news, video's and a previous Top 10 to inform the FNB team of what's happening in digital. We managed to take that recording and distill it down into twelve fantastic minutes of content. Our first guest is Gisele Wertheim Aymes, the Head of Media at FNB speaking to us about using social media inside a corporate. Then, Steven Ambrose of Internet consultancy World Wide Worx gives us a run down of the numbers of broadband subscribers in the country.

We're also joined by Marianna and Tim of charity Breadline Africa to talk to us about how they're using the Internet to market themselves and how you can get involved. Our Top 10 this week celebrates the soul of the corporate warrior by providing the ten best "David Brentism" ala David Brent of the British version of "The Office". Nausher Rahman, of Grid Worldwide gives us his final tip about online branding and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo joins us for the news.

In our Agency of the week segment we speak to Anton Moulder from digital design agency Urbian. We also speak to Nausher Rahman of Grid Worldwide to get his third tip on online branding and our top ten this week looks at the ten best comments from legendary racing commentator, Murray Walker. As always, regular news contributor Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us in the news

Almost all key people in Digital businesses with the terms "Director", "Head" or "Manager" tend to be on the pale side. To say nothing of the programmers, designers and innovators that is shaping our digital future. In this week's episode of The Digital Edge we take a somewhat controversial look at this sensitive topic. Is this racism, a coincidence, a cultural issue or the continued legacy of our Apartheid past?

In this episode we speak to Mail & Guardian CEO Trevor Ncube, web enthusiast Quincy Ntuli and finally blogger, business coach and controversial article writer, Ramon Thomas. They give their opinions on what is going on in the black social media movement and explain what's going on with the lack of black social media entrepreneurs.

In our Agency of the Week segment we’re joined by Clint Bryce of SpacePatrolCar, a division of 24.com. We’re also joined by Nausher Rahman of Grid Worldwide to give us his second tip on online branding. As always Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo joins us to give the most important and relevant news in the country.

The quiz features a mix of questions spanning from the serious to the sublime to the complex and the show will be hosted by Toby Shapshak, the Editor of Stuff Magazine. Listen to episode 31 of The Digital Edge to hear some of the most challenging and the most amusing questions being answered.

In this episode we spend a little bit of time talking to the people of Cambrient, finding out what goes into being a digital development agency. This week we speak to various different people to understand what their role in the company is and what type of person it takes to work on one of the premier web, mobile and analytic companies in the country.

Also in this episode is the weekly news and we're joined, as always, by Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo.

Our local version of the Cannes Lions Awards, the Loeries, are being awarded at the end of September, a mere two months away. Before the awards though, the judging takes places to weed out the chaff from the wheat. In this episode we speak to three of the judges that spent last Thursday in a darkened room judging the entrants in the digital section. Click play to find the unique way that the entrants were judged as well as what it means to win a Loerie.

We are also joined by Elena Douvos of Tequila in our Agency of the week section and Diane Charlton gives us her final tip on buying online media. Finally we are joined by regular Kerry-Anne Gilowey and Uno De Waal in the news.

This week we speak to Melissa Attree of Geton eMarketing, Pedro van Gaalen of Hello World Agency, Sarah Rice from Sentient Communications, Melody Maker of Cerebra, Craig Rodney of Emerging Media and Gavin Moffat of Puruma Communications join us to explain the six facets of Online PR and how to use those tools and strategies to get people speaking about your brand online.

Our Agency of the week is "Wisdom Games" and we are joined by CEO Raymond De Villiers to give us an explanation of how they make games for companies. In our Top Ten we look at "adverts from the 80's". Finally, Diane Charlton joins us for her third tip on online media buying.

This week we speak to Ray Moore and Leonard Kahn from Supersport, the biggest sport website in the country with a rapidly growing international footprint. We're also joined by Ryan Cooper, head of New Media at Touchline Media, the owners of Kickoff.co.za. Kickoff is the biggest Soccer website in the country with over two million pageviews a month. Finally, Steve Morris from Scoregrid.co.za joins us to talk about Scoregrid, a unique Soccer tracking system that allows you to see where the ball is and which player is kicking that ball live.

Our agency of the week is Atplay, the digital division of Saatchi & Saatchi in Cape Town. We're joined by head Allan Kent to give us the lowdown on the topic. We're also joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey with the news and Diane Charlton from Acceleration Media gives us her second tip for online media buying in our Tips and Tricks section.

Firstly. we're joing by Diaan Mynhardt from the Atheist Nation, an online social network of Atheists online. Second, we speak to Ryan Hogarth of the Church of Scientology to discuss the latest Wikipedia/Scientology saga and how it has affected their church. Third and finally, Andrew Butterworth from the GodFirst Church provides us some insight into how he is promoting his church online to current congregants and attempts to evangelise new followers.

In our Agency of the week segment we're joined by American entrepreneur and web developer, Howard Mann to hear about his business, book and trip to South Africa. Our Top Ten this week looks at the "ten best Afrikaans sayings" and is read by Erich Viedge. Finally, this week we start a new "Tips & Tricks" section with Diane Charlton from Acceleration Media to give us tips on how to buy online media space.

In this episode we take a slightly satirical look at the Geek Retreat to see whether it was all just an excuse to drink or if this group, with their German sedans, fast Internet access and venture capital funds could solve the issues that face the man on the street?

In our agency of the week we speak to Mongezi Mtati of Netweb events to hear about his monthly offline networking events. The top 10 this week looks at the phenomenon of "Tubes" and Rob Stokes joins us to give his final tip on the topic of how to succeed at SEO.

In this episode we speak to agency heads Brent Shahim from Aqua Online, Gavin Rooke from Trigger and Pete Case from Gloo. Each of these agencies have been bought by WPP, Isobar and Kagiso respectively. We take a look at the pitfalls of acquisitions and pick apart the specifics of these deals involving both local and international media conglomerates. We're also joined by industry commentator Sandra Gordon to get her take on the local industry.

In our agency of the week we speak to Keisha Mayhew of Prezence, one of SA’s largest web and new media agencies and a part of Primedia. Our top ten this week are author Lauren Beukes, writer of the book Moxyland's, favourite opening lines from books. Finally Rob Stokes joins us for the third time to give us his tips and tricks on SEO.

Second, Brian Dunning from internationally reknown Podcast Skeptoid joins us. A few years ago, Brian began searching for interesting and unusual phenomena in Internet forums and mailing lists. More than once, he tried to open a discourse offering alternate, more reasonable explanations for the reported phenomena, as diplomatically and respectfully as he could. Thus Skeptoid was born.

Third, in our blogger episode we were joined by Seth Rotheram of the blog 2OceansVibe. Seth talks to us about his lifestyle, blogging and his penchant for the finer things in life. Fourth, head of the Pandora music service, Tim Westergren joins us all the way from the United States to tell us about the streaming service and its impact on the music industry.

Finally, Vinny Lingham of Web 2.0 DIY site design company Yola joins us to talk about Web 2.0 startups

If for some reason you've missed some episodes this is your chance to catch up and hear the best of The Digital Edge

While deceitfully attracting customers might not be the best long term strategy the opportunities to brand online games, webisodes and create what is known as utilitainment are rife. In this episode we look at what it takes to create digital branded content and how your brand can benefit from a foray online. We speak to Mark van Diggelen of Skillpod Media, a company that makes branded games for companies. We're also joined by Lauren Beukes to talk about Alternate Reality Games, Lionel Smith of Trudon to talk about Widgets and Tristan Owen of MEDIAS to talk about Webisodes.

In our Agency of the week we speak to Grant Shippey of Amorphous, a digital communications agency based in Johannesburg. Our top ten this week is the ten top blogs according to Amatomu and Amorphous. Finally, Rob Stokes joins us with his second tip on how to improve your sites SEO ranking. We're also joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey with the news.

Listen as we take a trip down to the Mtunzini landing station for the media launch. We speak to various journalist, bloggers and other digerati that found themselves in the sweltering humidity of Durban in the winter. We also field some questions to SEACOM CEO Brian Herlihy but first we speak to Anthony Brooks from the ISPA to get his take on the SEACOM cable and how it will affect ISP's around the country.

We also speak to Walter Pike of the AAA School of Advertising's Digital Marketing Academy to see how he's training the digital agency staff of the future. Our top ten this week is ten reasons to get broadband read by David Perel and in our tips and tricks section we speak to Rob Stokes of Quirk to get his tip for search engine optimisation. Before all that we're joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo as well as Uno De Waal of 10and5 to bring us all the hipster news.

In a sense what you're about to hear is akin to a model being photographed without their makeup as we release an episode without clever post production and studio conditions. Join us as we take a listen to what it takes to put a Podcast together and look at a week in the life of The Digital Edge.

Imagine yourself watching the latest action movie featuring Brad Pitt. In the scene Pitt is involved in a high speed car chase with three pursuers, a literal life and death scenario. In the next twenty minutes of celluloid Pitt manages to evade his pursuers, rescues the girl and saves the day, all while driving his sleek and sexy BMW. What you’ve just seen is an example of branded entertainment, a new form of advertising that is proving extremely popular as people’s perceptual filters tend to block out traditional forms of advertising.

In this episode we take an in-depth look into the how branded entertainment is infiltrating the world of T.V. We speak to Jason Xenopoulos and Peter Gird from new agency, 2point0 to see what it takes to build a piece of branded entertainment, how much it costs and when it's more appropriate than a 30-second advert. We're also joined by Stanley Edwards from Platypus Productions and Heather Swarts from Zoom Advertising to see whether Branded Entertainment is going to be the death of the 30-second spot.

Our Agency of the week this episode is "HelloWorld", a recently formed agency that focuses on conversation, collaboration and interaction. Our top ten this week are ten of South Africa's most loved brands and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo joins us with the news. In our final segment we get a chorus of compliments from local web celebrities.

Here's to twenty more episodes

In this week’s episode of The Digital Edge we look at the medium that pushed the Internet into the mainstream despite still being something most people will not admit to taking part in. In this episode we speak to Wendy Maltz, a sex therapist from America to get her views on online porn as well as how easy it is for people to get addicted to the medium. We then speak to Silas Howarth, the organiser of the Sexpo to give us a slightly more “pro-porn” opinion. To round off we get the opinion of various people on the street to see what they think about porn. These anonymous contributors talk on varied topics such as the economics behind porn, their distaste for the medium and how often they watch porn.

Also joining us is Joey Da Silva of Cape Town based, web and mobile application developer, Formfunction in our Agency of the week section. Antonio Petra joins us for the last time this week to give us a summary of all we’ve learnt about online measurement. Our top ten this week is ten movie names repurposed for porn movies. As always we’re also joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey with the news where this week we discuss politics.

Despite the numbers and despite the huge amount of celebrities that have flocked to using the service many are still unsure as to what Twitter is really about. Not even having Twitter featured on Oprah seems to have demystified the service and it still remains in the realm of the tech savvy or the socially challenged.

In order to cut through the clutter that surrounds Twitter we decided to look into what the service really can offer. We speak to some local Twitter users (or Tweeple as they like to be called) and get an idea of what they use Twitter for and why it's relevant to them. We'll also speak to some marketers using Twitter to see how they promote their product and what, if any, success they've had.

Our Agency of the Week in this episode is Aqua Online. We speak to MD Brent Shahim to hear more about the busienss of digital. As always we're joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey in our news section and our top 10 this week is "Ten things progammers say when something is not working". Finally, Antonio Petra of Cambrient gives us his third tip for online measurement. This week he tells us about the nefariously titled "A-B Testing".

Our first guest this week is Vincent Maher from Vodacom's "The Grid", a location based social network. Next we have Oliver Krantz from Pocit, a mobile payment service. Finally we round off the show with Stefano Sessa of 24.com as well Colin Daniels of The Times. Stefano tells us about the 24.com iPhone App while Colin talks about The Times mobile site.

We are also joined, as always, by Kerry-Anne Gilowey in our news segment. Our Agency of the week is Mango-Omc and we are joined by Catherine Luckhoff. Finally our Top 10 this week is the "ten most annoying ringtones" available to download. Finally Cambrient's very own Antonio Petra joins us with his tip for online measurement.

Our first guest is a South African now residing in Silicon Valley, Vinny Lingham. Vinny founded the startup Yola (previously Synthasite) around two years ago and recently received 20 million dollars in venture capital to grow the service. We spoke to Vinny to get an international perspective on the local market.

We also speak to Charl Norman of Blueworld communities and Justin Hartman of Afrigator. Blueworld is a unique social network that works both offline and online. Afrigator is a blog aggregator that provides an overview of the burgeoning African blogosphere. Both companies were acquired by Media24 and MIH Africa respectively, and are thus part of the Naspers group. Finally we're joined by Barbara Mallinson of startup Obami, a social network that gets parents and students involved in the happenings of their school.

For our regular feature, agency of the week, we're joined by Donna McCallum of Fairy Godmother Inc. She waves her wand and tells us about her business. Our Top 10 is the ten best South African political gaffes from the campaign trail. We're also joined as always by Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo with the news roundup. Finally the show features Mike Stopforth of Cerebra in his fourth and last "Tips and Tricks" on Social Media.

Our guests this week are Brendan Jack from the Brendan Jackast, Simon Dingle from the ZATechShow, Jayne Morgan of the Mail & Guardian Podcast as well as Glen Verran from the ZAShow. We roundoff our lineup with international Podcaster, Brian Dunning of Skeptoid. He brings us an international slant on the medium. Brian answers our burning question of whether we could one day gain a massive following and quit our days jobs. The answer he provides is quite surprising. Finally we speak to our very own producer, Brandon Rogoff to get an idea of what it takes to put together a Podcast. Brandon is the genius that puts together our Podcast every week and makes us sound like Brad Pitt or George Clooney.

As always, we have a roundup of the news with Kerry-Anne Gilowey of Cape Town Daily Photo. In our Agency of the week we're joined by Justin Spratt of IS Labs and the show ends with Mike Stopforth giving us his second of four "Tips and Tricks" of Social Media.

We speak to Nic Haralambous of SA Rocks, Seth Rotherham of 2Oceansvibe, Exmi from Expensive Mistakes Cheap Thrills, Shaun Oakes of Shaun Oakes.com, PhillyGirl of Glad To Be A Girl which was recently voted the best African blog in the Bloggies, Jason Bagley from the Incredible Connection blog and finally Se7en from Se7en.org. We round up that line up with a summary of the blogosphere by Justin Hartman, head of blog aggregator Afrigator.

We ask what they blog about, why they blog and discuss whether blogging has changed their professional lives. This probing view into the South African blogosphere will help you better understand the mindset of the often misunderstood blogger.

We also speak to Fred Roed of World Wide Creative in our Agency of the Week segment as well as get Mike Stopforth to give us his tips on Social Media. Our top ten this week is read by Dee Chetty, an SA Blog Awards finalist and focuses on ten of his favourite pick up lines. As always we are joined by Kerry-Anne Gilowey for the news roundup.

Whether you think Bloggers are anti-social reprobates or the future of media this episode will help you decide your stance.

Search Engine Optimisation is loosely defined as pushing your website up the search engine so that it comes out as the first result on a specific search term. The Digital Edge felt that this was often used to beat the system and promote dubious or incorrect content. We decided to find out.

We speak to an anonymous SEO expert to hear how he manipulates the Google search system purely for the purpose of selling products and not giving the user the most relevant search results. We also speak to Brendon Scott, a practitioner of "Negative SEO". Brendon uses the Google search algorithm to actually push websites down the search rankings rather than up as with traditional SEO. Brendon gives us some insight as to why you would want this service and a brief overview of how to take advantage of Google.

Finally we get to hear the positive side of SEO from Rob Stokes, founder of Quirk E-Marketing. Rob is joined by Christopher Mills of "SEO GURU WP" and Imod. They give us an explanation of the commercial model surrounding Search Engine Optimisation and show it's usage for promoting good content.

As always there's our regular news roundup and "Agency of the week". Kerry-Anne Gilowey joins us as always for the news and Marlon Parker is featured in the Agency. Marlon is involved with Impact Direct, a drug abuse-counselling centre that uses social media as its tool for counseling. Our Top 10 this week is read by "Phillygirl", recently crowned the Best African Blogger in the International Bloggie Awards.

Whatever your opinion on SEO is, pick a side and come listen to the debate.

We speak to Steyn Speed from the ANC and Anthony Hazell from the DA to hear their side of the story. We also get commentary from aggrieved local blogger Vincent Hofmann but first the GM of Publishing & Social Media at 24.com, Matthew Buckland, gives us an overview of the various campaigns taking place online.

Cape Town Daily Photo owner, Kerry-Anne Gilowey, joins us this week for the first time to help us present the news. We’re also joined by Kevin Lourens of Cambrient in the “Agency of the week segment” and the inimitable Heater Ford tells us about the South African Blog Awards in her segment, The Blogedge. Our Top 10 for the week attempts to give some exposure to a segment of our society that requires as much help as possible: the South African Podcasting industry.

We are joined this week all the way from the US of A by Tim Westergren, the founder of US-based music service Pandora. He talks to us about the change in consumption habits from pre-packaged content to on-demand music using services like his. Pandora’s iPhone app is now the largest downloaded in the world, and the Pandora service gets over 2 million tracks played per day.

We also speak to Jake Larsen, the head of the soon-to-be-launched (April 24th) South African Nokia Music Store. He gives us all the information on the store including what devices it can be used on and gives us a scoop on the pricing. That's right, we are the first place to provide the pricing information.

Finally, local musician Verity tells us about how she managed to turn the recording industry on its head and got her album published by selling it online before it was even created.

Regular feature, The Blogedge is about the Facebook Terms of Service issue, and Stonewall is this week’s “Agency of the week.”

Remember, you heard it first on The Digital Edge

Episode 8 is entirely about the Design Indaba so come hear all about it

For Agency of the week we hear from James Barty of King James. James gives us the low down of how an integrated agency works. King James is an agency that was formed in 1998 and dabbles in traditional and digital marketing as well as eventing and PR.

Heather Ford brings us interesting information from the Blogosphere in her section the Blogedge. This week she speaks about the iHeritage project and sound smart by dropping words like "ephemera".

As always we have the Top 10 (where we speak about the soppiest love lines in movies) and a rounup of all the news.

Welcome to Episode 6 of the best Podcast in the world *

*Scientifically proven in a laboratory

We also hear from Heather Ford in her regular segment, "Blogedge" and other regulars such as the news roundup and the somewhat self indulgent "Top 10" for the week.

Finally we launch a new section this week known as "Agency of the week". This episode we feature Sarah Rice from Sentient Communications talking to us about her traditional PR company's push into online PR

No animals were harmed in the making of Episode 4 of the Digital Edge.

We’re also joined this week by Heather Ford, previously of iCommons. She gives us a weekly roundup of the South African blogosphere and this week delves in the Donn Edwards/QVC smackdown

Episode 3 starts now!

We also give thanks to those who were nice enough to write about our Podcast and introduce some fascinating new segments coming up in the next few weeks. Our Top 10  looks at the worst examples of personal branding in our top ten segment.

Remember, listening to the Digital Edge is not only good for your job but will make you a better person.

Guests on the show are Walter Pike (AAA School & PiKE), and Andy Hadfield, the "Internet Guy" at FNB.

Join Saul and Jarred as they kickoff the show -- essential listening for marketers and digeratis alike.