Charl Norman is a web entrepreneur behind local social networks Blueworld and Zoopedup, he also owns a network of leading blogs including Car Blog and Bandwidth Blog, writes for tech and auto publications such as Leadership mag, guest lectures at UCT/CPUT and does the occasional public speaking event. More >
We have finally got around to branding our photographers that frequent night clubs – this is a great brand building exercise as the photographers are out and about almost each night snapping party goers. FHM fashion awards winning local clothing brand, RocketFuel, created our Blueworld clothing.. “thats hot”
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Sat down with the minds at MXIT yesterday to brainstorm possible colaborations between Blueworld, Zoopedup and MXIT. They are years ahead of their time and is sitting on some seriously cool tech. Hopefully we can find some synergies to explore between our platforms. Below some pics of the MXIT offices.
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We teamed up with Peter from PipersPenthouse to create this viral video featuring two huge viral celebrities – one in South Africa, Vernon Koekemoer, and in Germany, Techno Viking (2mil+ views on Youtube) Blog this!
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24.com are now partners with BWCOM. Mybroadband published the scoop – you can catch it here
This is huge for BWCOM and we look forward to collaborating with 24.
Some quotes from the scoop
24.com CEO Russel Hanley says that the acquisition gives the company access to both Blueworld’s established online community and their social networking technology.
Hanley highlighted the fact that Blueworld Communities’ audience is complimentary to the 24.com audience and they will definitely look at synergies in future. The 24.com CEO further pointed out that the Blueworld Communities technology will enable them to target certain niche social media markets in future.
“We are very excited to be a part of the 24.com family and look forward to leveraging their assets to further expand our social network’s market reach.,†said Charl Norman from Blueworld Communities.
“We also have a very strong youth demographic which compliments 24.com’s older user base. We are very proud of the social media platform we have built and look forward to exploring synergies between our technology and existing 24.com brands to further expand our niche social network strategy.”
I can’t say much but watch this space !
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Last week I listed some of the press we’ve received around the new Blueworld launch – today my Cape Times interview was published and can be found on page 6 of the Techno Times insert.
Here’s the article scanned – ‘Blueworld is SA’s own Facebook’ – not the angle we wanted to go with but you can’t always control these things.
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I’ve been working hard at generating press around the new Blueworld launch. Sustainable traffic is the biggest issue facing local web startups in my opinion. The press we’ve received so far has mainly been on tech related sites and has helped with industry credibility not to drive users.
I was interviewed by the Cape Times yesterday about Blueworld which should be in the Techno Times paper this Tuesday. The interview is focused on the new Blueworld features and our niche social networks strategy. I will try get a digital copy of the piece and post it here..
Thanks to everyone who has published Blueworld news in the past few weeks -
Improved functionality for local youth social network
Blueworld revamp
SA social networking site rolls out updates
SA’s Blueworld unveils new tools
The new Blueworld goes live (Alex Ion/My blog)
Silicon Valley watch out: Blueworld
More Blueworld
The Blueworld staff blog is up with some cool posts like – inside the Blueworld office and our tv coverage on carte blanche and the 20 something show. I have also put up a one pager about our umbrella company, BWCOM, just so there’s some presence on the web.
Pictured below Foxinni (right) and our two developers Vince and Niekie.
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Blueworld was featured on Carte Blanche alongside Rafiq Phillips in a much debated web 2.0 episode. I made a small appearance with Fariq Rafiq at Cafe Neo in the episode. The Carte Blanche footage is from the Blueworld video galleries.
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Blueworld launched some much needed functionality today – the ability to invite your friends through your address book – We added all the normal webmail providers like Gmail and hotmail etc but also included the ability to upload your Outlook or Thunderbird address book from your desktop. Nifty.
Heres a screen
On the 31st Oct we will launch the new version of Blueworld which will (in my opinion) bring us up to par with any international social network startup
Its all under wraps for now but I can show you some cheeky screen shots of one of the new features – being able to switch the entire sites colours
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Myself and a few mates have been busy filming a cooking show we call – Crazy Delicious. We spent the past weekend filming all day and night on a farm outside Cape Town. The first two pilot episodes will be splashed all over Blueworld, Facebook and Youtube. I’ve researched quite a bit about video sharing promotion and the web episodes that have been such a hit on the internet tubes e.g. Prom Queen. After the initial two free web episodes we hope to take the show onto the real tube, Television.
I have created a Facebook group promoting the show and showcasing some of the behind the scenes photos. It’s been a great experience being on set and discovering how much it takes to compile 20 minutes of film.
Here’s the trailer for the show – we still have to change the title music and improve the sound quality so bare with me. I uploaded the video to the Blueworld video area which dropped the quality quite a bit. When the show goes live we will stream it in a much bigger flash video player with improved sound quality.
Trailer:
Some photos: (View All)
Ps – Big up to the Fox once again for the amazing logo.
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Update 03/07/07 -Â Heres the Cape Town auditions footage as promised
We got permission to film video shout outs at the current Idols auditions taking place around the country. This ‘channel’ will form a part of the Blueworld video area for the next coming weeks. With Port Elizabeth already done Blueworld will be visiting the Cape Town auditions today.
Here’s a screen shot of the Blueworld Idols page showcasing the PE Idols shout outs -
The the Idols videos can be rated, commented on and embedded into third party pages.
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Photos from my trip to Silicon Valley for the MIH Tech conference.
I appeared on channel MK TV's new hip hop and car show WOELAG. They interviewed me on our automotive social network Zoopedup.
I have been nominated for ICT Young Entrepreneur of Africa 2008. Now to even be nominated is a great honour for me seeing as last years winner of the award is internationally renowned Vinny Lingham.
