Category Archives: Personal

2009 resolutions round up

January 6, 2010 – 2:13 pm

The road ahead

Who sticks to their new year’s resolutions anyway? I know I don’t. But after reviewing the goals I set out to achieve in 2009 - Surprisingly, I didn’t do to badly. Here are the goals, those ’striked’ out were obviously completed -

  1. Build a better Blueworld and Zoopedup with strong mobile plays
  2. Get back into Golf
  3. Video blog my thoughts on Tech
  4. Expand the Blog network and monetize better
  5. Spend less time online and more time outside
  6. Build an Adobe Air application
  7. Try new restaurants every other week with Jade
  8. Get to gym a few times a week
  9. Invest and save my money (I spend like crazy)
  10. Write more articles online and get them published
  11. Spend more time with my folks
  12. Buy a Macbook Pro and join the ‘other’ side
  13. Setup a daily work schedule and stick to it
  14. Attend more internet related events and conferences
  15. Travel overseas
By Charl Norman | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

Resolutions for 2009

January 6, 2009 – 1:24 pm

I hardly ever stick to my new years resolutions but what the heck - let’s give it a try.

Here’s 15 vague guidelines I wish to follow in 2009 -

  1. Build a better Blueworld and Zoopedup with strong mobile plays
  2. Get back into Golf
  3. Video blog my thoughts on Tech
  4. Expand the Blog network and monetize better
  5. Spend less time online and more time outside
  6. Build an Adobe Air application
  7. Try new restaurants every other week with Jade
  8. Get to gym a few times a week
  9. Invest and save my money (I spend like crazy)
  10. Write more articles online and get them published
  11. Spend more time with my folks
  12. Buy a Macbook Pro and join the ‘other’ side
  13. Setup a daily work schedule and stick to it
  14. Attend more internet related events and conferences
  15. Travel overseas
By Charl Norman | Tagged | Comments (15)

Speak Up! SA blog survey

October 28, 2008 – 8:04 pm

What is intended to be the most comprehensive survey of South Africa’s blogger community has been launched today by 24.com, in association with blog aggregators Afrigator.com and Amatomu.com and online DVD rental company PushPlay.co.za. The goal is to demonstrate the diversity and sophistication of South Africa’s portion of the global blogosphere.

“South Africa is the continent’s largest blogging community, yet very little is known about the individuals who blog and what inspires them to share their thoughts, observations and experiences with the world,” says Matthew Buckland, GM of online publishing and social media at 24.com.

“Although African bloggers make up less than one percent of the global blogosphere, we have a vibrant local online community, with some exciting growth in the number of those contributing and reading blogs.”

For those who complete the survey, Speak Up!, at http://blogs.24.com/blogsurvey/start.htm, three lucky participants will stand the chance to have their blog profiled on the 24.com network, as well as be eligible for one of three prizes offered by PushPlay. All South African-based bloggers are welcome to participate.

“Bloggers are a broad range of people from different walks of life and a wide spectrum of opinions, interests and experiences. With this survey, we hope to get a good snapshot of how bloggers make the ‘net work for them,” adds Buckland.

The highly collaborative survey was developed with input from luminaries across the local blogosphere, including Arthur Goldstuck, Vincent Maher, Nic Haralambos, Mike Stopforth, Charl Norman (I got a mention!!), Justin Hartman, Rob Stokes and Tertia Albertyn.

The deadline to complete the survey is 23.59pm on 7 November 2008.

Source: Bizcommunity.com

Photo: Bandwidth Blog 24.com office photos

By Charl Norman | Comments (0)

Model Millions

October 20, 2008 – 4:19 pm

Model Millions is a new reality show coming out of Cape Town, SA - the concept is similar to the very popular American reality production ‘America’s Next Top Model’ by Tara Banks. The show is hosted by Kerry Mcgregor and her sister Tracey. Thousands of models (including anyone who wants to be a model) came through castings around the country until they narrowed it down to 30 girls who was then flown down to Cape Town for the show. All the girls are in a mystery house in (or around) Cape Town. The show is on episode two with 18 girls already being eliminated.

The reason for my post is that my girlfriend, Jade Allen, is in the Model Millions show and kicking ass!! She has made it past the first few elimination rounds and is my favourite to go all the way (I might be biased). She is also the face of Blueworld under the nick J-Princess. The show is on SABC 3 on Wednesdays 8:30 - be sure to check it out and root for Jade!

Besides the Mcgregor sisters the other judges are local comedian and actor Cokey Falkow and a rotational judge seat which has been shared by model agency owners and professional photographers so far.

Jade on the cover of Style magazine

By Charl Norman | Tagged | Comments (1)

27 Dinner Jozi talk

July 22, 2008 – 2:10 pm

I will be doing my “building and managing social networks” talk featuring Blueworld at the 27Dinner on Monday the 28th of July. This will be my second Jozi 27 dinner appearance. Last time we had a blast with the Afrigator launch announcement. You can view the guest list and rsvp here. From the official 27 Dinner site -

Speakers
Social media entrepreneur and publisher Charl Norman will be presenting his “building and managing social networks” talk - this is one not to be missed! Charl has built up a formidable portfolio of profitable web properties including www.blueworld.co.za, www.zoopedup.com, www.bandwidthblog.com and www.carblog.co.za and was recently nominated in the Top ICT Young Entrepreneur Award category for the annual Forgeahead 2008 African ICT Achievers Awards.

By Charl Norman | Tagged | Comments (4)

Gadget guy interview

July 22, 2008 – 2:02 pm

Fresh after my Tech Leader interview I did a gadget insert for Mandy de Waal for the newly launched MoneyWeb Life section called Gadget guy - you can read it here

Name: Charl Norman

Age: 23

An entrepreneur and Web Native, Charl Norman is just out of twenty and has already done his first deal, having sold a stake in his start up BlueWorld to Nasper’s 24.com. A web entrepreneur behind some of the top local social networks in South Africa, Charl also owns a network of successful blogs, writes for tech and auto publications, lectures at UCT Grad School and does the occasional public speaking event. Does he ever sleep and how does he manage to get all this done? MONEYWEBlife gives you the inside scoop to his life.

My working day:

I normally get into the office just before eight in the morning. I have a habit of rather working till late instead of coming in really early. I work a lot more productively at night with no distractions and no cell phones ringing every few minutes. I typically start my day by opening Google Reader to catch up on my feeds, open Twhirl (for Twitter) to see any new developments in our local community (Muti is also good for this) and log onto my GMail account to start the battle against my over flowing inbox. The rest of my day is typically - in between meetings at 24.com, writing blogs and monitoring the various projects BWCOM are involved in. My day to day responsibilities at BWCOM include project management, search and social media marketing, product development and dealing with staff issues.

My gadgets:

My best gadget at the moment is my 16GB iPhone, which I imported from the states. Each day I discover new functionality, tricks and applications to use with my iPhone which enhances my experience of it. The iPhone definitely lives up to all the hype - I have a 16gb media player in my pocket at all times which I use to watch the latest series or sitcoms during flights and I can blog and tweet on the go through WIFI in a decent sized browser window. I don’t have to visit a toned down version of any web app by having to go to their mobi site.

By Charl Norman | Tagged | Comments (1)

ICT Young Entrepreneur of Africa

June 19, 2008 – 4:22 pm

WOW! It’s been a crazy few weeks. Beginning of this month we moved into new offices on Long Street, then we had our BWCOM quarterly report back to Media24 and they are over the moon with us and finally yesterday - I received the most exciting news!

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 renown Vinny Lingham.

ForgeAhead, our Partners and Stakeholders, congratulates you for being nominated for the 2008 African ICT Achievers Awards. ForgeAhead is celebrating the 10th Anniversary for the African ICT Achievers Awards programme…

.. You have been nominated in the following category: Top ICT Young Entrepreneur in Africa.

Got a few interviews coming up later this year to determine the final list of nominees and then to Jozi for the ceremony. Hold thumbs!

By Charl Norman | Also posted in Press | Comments (8)

Friend Feed

May 31, 2008 – 10:56 pm

friendfeed

Really enjoying Friend Feed and the services they allow you to aggregate - subscribe to my friend feed

I’m aggregating my shared items on google reader, my tweets, delicious bookmarks, youtube favourites, diggs and a few others.

By Charl Norman | Also posted in Web 2.0 | Tagged | Comments (0)

iPhone 16gb

May 29, 2008 – 12:33 pm

Just took collection of my 16gb iPhone. “Why not wait for 3G iPhone!?!?” - I hear you ask - Well, it’s gonna be crazy expensive and I got a great deal with the 16gb.

Hard work pays off and I’ve been spoiling myself lately with new toys.

Here’s the iPhone on my desk

iphone

iPhone 3G Applications

By Charl Norman | Comments (7)

The new ride - Astra OPC 2L Turbo

May 28, 2008 – 1:40 pm

If you follow me on twitter you might know about this already -Â I got myself a new set of wheels - Astra OPC Turbo . Stock standard the car pushes out 182 KWs and 365 NM of torque. 18′ wheels and full body kit also standard.. She’s a dream to drive each day!!

Check out my cyber garage profile on Zoopedup - I got the plate to match ZOOPDUP-WP

Here’s some pics

opc

opc

opc
opc

By Charl Norman | Comments (6)

MIH Tech Conference in the valley

Photos from my trip to Silicon Valley for the MIH Tech conference.
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MK.tv’s WOELAG interview

I appeared on channel MK TV's new hip hop and car show WOELAG. They interviewed me on our automotive social network Zoopedup.
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ICT Young Entrepreneur of Africa

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.
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