Episode 33: The White Boys Club
Listen (25 min, 44 seconds)In a country still challenged by racial divide great strides have been made to integrate both black and white employees into the workplace. The Digital space however, seems to be struggling more than most to arrive in the New South Africa. At the recent Geek Retreat, out of the forty guests less than 5% were non-white. The same can be said for the monthly 27 Dinner or any random article covering the “Web 2.0” trendsetters. The Digital Loeries judging panel had one black judge out of 15 and only 2 women.
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.
Guests:
Trevor Ncube:
Trevor Ncube is the owner of M&G Media in South Africa, which publishes the Mail & Guardian newspaper and the M&G Online, among others. He is also the publisher of the Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard in Zimbabwe.
Ramon Thomas:
Ramon Thomas is a researcher with an uncanny knack for spotting global trends and translating them into meaningful insights in South Africa. His pioneering research into the online dating industry and MXit has positioned him as an expert on online behaviour.
Quincy Ntuli:
A choice quote from Quincy is: "I really love the web. Who doesn’t anyway". Quincy's passion for the net is difficult to rival. He describes himself as a web guy, thinker, dreamer, 'bridge builder'
Clint Bryce:
Clint runs SpacePatrolCar, an independent design agency that create and measure conversations between brands and people. They enjoy direct access to the 24.com infrastructure, resources, services, people and publishing channels.
Links:
Mail and Guardian: http://mg.co.za/
Quincy Ntuli: http://www.ilovetheweb.co.za/
Ramon Thomas: http://ramonthomas.com/
SpacePatrolCar: http://www.spacepatrolcar.com/
Grid Worldwide: http://www.gridworldwide.com/
Capetown Daily Photo: http://www.capetowndailyphoto.com/
Jarred Cinman: http://jarredcinman.com/
Saul Kropman: http://saulk.co.za/
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