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

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

It works brilliantly, has a much better interface and is available for download right here!

Brainstorm magazine - I’m featured with my BWCOM business partner Bradley Voges as well as Adii Rockstar and mobile prodigy Tyler Reed.

Leadership magazine with Rob Sussman CEO of Integr8-IT and Adii Rockstar of WooThemes fame

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.

To be described as a visionary, a marketing genius and a Web 2.0 guru at 24 is quite impressive, but then Charl Norman did start young. He launched his first website while still in high school.
Now, at 24, he heads Blueworld Communities (BWCOM) and has nine years experience in online publishing. BWCOM, which Charl co-founded, was acquired by Media24 in 2008. It owns leading social networks in South Africa such as Zoopedup.com and Blueworld.co.za.
Norman was a runner-up for the ICT Young Entrepreneur of Africa 2008 and nominated for the Top 30 entrepreneurs under 30 in South Africa. He is also a guest lecturer at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. He’s an avid blogger and a public speaker on internet strategy. — Qudsiya Karrim

Check out who else is featured here and here

I attended the Seacom cable launch in Durban with my fellow digirati last week. Some of the key points -

• They had pirate issues when laying the cable
• The cable is 40 days to completion
• 1.28TB/s capacity (our current infrastructure can’t handle these speeds)
• The cable links Africa to Europe and Asia (via the Middle East) - time to move servers to Europe
• The project is fully funded - $600 million (Nedbank and Investec)

Check out the video from the cable station featuring myself, David Perel and Jason Bagley.

The guys from Netprophet have uploaded my talk from the recently successful conference entitled “Market, Manage and Monetise your blog -

The slide show (updated)