20Fourlabs and BWCOM decided to enter the Nokia ‘Calling all Innovators’ Africa application competition a few weeks ago – more on that here.  We received great news two days ago that we won 1st prize and $85 000 in cash! Mega congrats to everyone in Labs and BWCOM!!

Here is my business partner Bradley accepting the cheque with Werner (developer/designer from Blueworld who conceptualized the original idea) and Ronald (mobile expert from 20FourLabs). Pic by Gaby

The cheque landed on my desk yesterday

About Afridoctor

“Afridoctor is Africa’s first personal mobile health clinic, turning your device into a powerful first aid information kit, a doctor-location service, and an emergency distress notifier. Its revolutionary “SnapDiagnosis” system allows users to submit photos of their ailments and remotely receive advice from a panel of professionals. Afridoctor’s mapping feature enables users to find doctors, clinics and all health industry related services within their proximity. The emergency feature notifies next of kin of their distress and location. Features include symptom checkers, first-aid information, health calculators and quizzes. Afridoctor helps make healthcare affordable and accessible to the people of Africa.”

You can download it from the Nokia OVI app store here and follow Afridoctor on Twitter.

Runner ups in the competition -

The runners-up are: Roach Game – South Africa by Breakdesign (in second place), Sasol e.Birds by Coolideas (3), MrSNAKE by Simon Botes (4) and Thumbtribe widget by Thumbtribe (5), LiveMobile by LiveMobile (6), Countdown 2010 by Christian Reeve (7), Surfing Safari by Aqua Online (8), Turn Left at the Barrel by Turn Left at the Giraffe (9) and Mall-Buddy by Paul Hinrichsen (10).

The ideal candidate should be experienced in:

* Solid Object Oriented programming skills with C#

* Develop Web Applications as well as write and consume Web Services

* Solid conceptual understanding and experience in XML, HTML, DHTML, CSS, JavaScript (incl JQuery)

* SQL Server 2005 database administration and stored procedures – Linq2Sql/PLINQO is a must

* Experience with MVC will be advantageous.

* Must be a team player and work well under pressure

* Good written and verbal communication skills

Please forward your CV to charl@bwcom.co.za with examples of your work and references

Remuneration: Depending on experience but we pay well

A new innovation unit has launched within 24.com called 20FourLabs. My company Blueworld Communities will be working together with Matt Buckland (lab master) and his team to build audiences and technologies for 24.com.

20FourLabs is a start-up research and development division within 24.com focusing efforts on rapid, agile web development and innovation.

Our aim is to hire people who think big and think fast and to give them the resources with which to create innovative products within the mobile and social media spheres.

We are looking for rockstar php/.net coders to join Labs – if you feel like moving to a high profile division within the biggest media company in Africa – Naspers – or if you know of anyone please get in touch with us.

These are my favourites from the party gallery

Uno de Waal (left) & Sarietha Engelbrecht (Youth Strategy: Media24)

Sessa (left) and Matt Buckland

Elan Lohmann (GM social networks MIH Africa) and Bradley Voges (One of the BWCOM founders)

More pics after the jump

My lady, Jade Allen, and her friends

David Perel (Obox/ From The Couch)

The Bagley and his wife

Niekie Deetlefs (Lead engineer BWCOM) and Annel Malan (Speakerbox editor)

Thank you to everyone who showed up – we had a great time

Generic banners

Blueworld body painted models at the J&B Met

Meanwhile I’m still in the race for the coolest guy on the internet serp contest

Today we interview one of South Africa’s most respected social network gurus.

He owns & runs multiple social networks and recently one of those sites got acquired by one of the biggest companies in the world.

His name is Charl Norman, and today he is on the Couch.

Hey Everyone,

From everyone at Blueworld Communities we would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy XMAS and your business a successful new year.

Blueworld experienced a great 2008 and we look forward to continuing this success in 2009. Some of the highlights we experienced this year included being acquired by Naspers in a landmark SA internet deal, launching the new look Blueworld, using our platform to launch 24.com’s Speakerbox project, launching the new look for Zoopedup, soaring past the one million page views mark and launching Blueworld mobile.

In 2008 the Blueworld community posted 6441 blogs, uploaded 101 033 photos, created 1034 groups, shared 1854 videos and sent 558 939 sms’s from our free sms platform which accumulated to 1.5 terabytes of monthly bandwidth and a storage total of 95 gigs. Blueworld photographers took 187.460 photos covering in excess of 2.600 events.

As I write this Blueworld is ranked 47th on the OPA (SA website rankings) for local visitors and 7th on the OPA time spent on site chart with our sister niche social network, Zoopedup, 2nd on the OPA for time spent on site.

We look forward to continue our growth in the new year and look forward to working with you.

Please be safe if you travel these holidays and look out for the Blueworld photographers!

Visit the staff blog

Charl N and the rest of the team

Co-Founder, Chief Operations Officer
BWCOM pty ltd
charl@bwcom.co.za

Read Blueworld press from 2008 here

Also with the new layout we will introduce a content delivery network (CDN) to serve Blueworld’s media. This will further ensure less load on our front end farm and quicker loading times. Click below for larger versions -

The new homepage which now includes Blueworld Bands

The new user profiles which now includes user activity

Keep an eye out on the Blueworld staff blog for launch details

We are proud to announce the launch of Speakerbox.co.za a collaboration between BlueWorld Communities and 24.com. Speakerbox is a cocktail of content contributed by the 24.com editorial team and user generated content contributed by the artists and fans that join the social network on www.blueworld.co.za/bands.

Bands can create their own profile, upload music, share photos and videos of their gigs, publish their upcoming gigs and interact with fans. You can see a good example of a band profile here – Black Market Riots.

My Chev Lumina SS ‘rental’

Heavy Chef @ 24.com

Blueworld staff party – farewall to Foxinni

More photos here