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A business biography that follows the life of Alan Knott-Craig as a
serial entrepreneur in the telecoms and tech spaces, tracking his wins
and losses, and the lessons along the way for both business and life.
Known in Stellenbosch business circles as the ‘Weapon of Mass Financial
Destruction’ after a major flop at Mxit, he was able to rebuild his own
confidence and that of his peers by becoming a shrewd, highly
innovative and successful businessman, true to his own principles and
convictions.
‘Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you.’
It’s been almost 150 years since Alexander Graham Bell said these
immortal words on the first ever phone call, to his assistant in the
next room. Between 10 March 1876 and now, the world has changed beyond
recognition. And telecommunications, which has played a fundamental
role in this change, has itself evolved into an industry that was the
sole preserve of science fiction.
When the world’s first modern mobile telephone network was launched in
1979, there were just over 300 million telephones. Today, there are
more than eight billion, most of which are mobile. Most people in most
countries can now contact each other in a matter of seconds. Soon we’ll
all be connected, to each other, and to complex computer networks that
provide us with instant information, but also observe and record our
actions. No other phenomenon touches so many of us, so directly, each
and every day of our lives.
This book describes how this transformation came about. It considers
the technologies that underpin telecommunications – microcircuits,
fibre-optics and satellites – and touches on financial aspects of the
industry: privatisations, mergers and takeovers that have helped shape
the $2-trillion telecom market. But for the most part, it’s a story
about us and our need to communicate.
In these crisscrossing threads are woven the fabric of a community,
a society, an economy, a nation. And beyond that, the world itself.
But the technology isn't the dream. The dream is what you can do
with it.' Three revolutions changed the face of South Africa, the
economic powerhouse of the African continent, in 1994. The first
was democracy, as millions of newly-enfranchised citizens went to
the polls to elect a new government. The second was the internet,
bringing information, learning and entertainment into millions of
homes. But the real signal of change in the air was the arrival of
an electronic device that would put undreamed-of power into the
hands of the people. The cellular phone. In a country where less
than four per cent of the population had access to a landline
phone, mobile telephony opened the gateway to new ways and new
worlds of communication. Today, more than 90 per cent of South
Africans own at least one mobile phone, and they're not just using
them to talk to each other. Mobiles have become tools of education,
entrepreneurship, trade, empowerment, activism, media and
upliftment. With the advent of the mobile internet, mobiles have
also become the hubs of the most powerful force in modern
communication. The social network, bringing people together in an
interchange of ideas, opinions, chatter and commerce that is
changing the way we understand and define communities. This is the
story of the biggest and fastest-growing social network in Africa.
A network that took shape in the townships of the Western Cape and
has grown to be part of the lives of more than 50 million users in
120 countries, sending more than 23 billion messages a month. This
is the story of Mxit. A cultural force, a community of millions,
with its own economy, its own infrastructure, its own language and
its own traditions. This is the story of Mobinomics, the new
economy of mobile, and how it is connecting people and changing
lives. Read it and learn. Read it and understand. Read it and be
moved by the power of mobile.
South Africans remember when electricity load shedding brought the
country to a standstill in 2008. There was a rush on generators and
property in Perth, Australia. An email from Alan Knott-Craig
reminding South Africans of the upsides to living in South Africa
went viral and elicited responses from thousands of South Africans
- Don't Panic! was a book that captured a moment in SA history.
Fast forward to 2014, and load shedding is forgotten (mostly), the
country hosted the soccer world cup and survived the global
recession, but now the panic feeling is settling in again. The
currency is crashing, politics dominate headlines, service delivery
protests are everywhere. Read the advice of Alan Knott-Craig, Alec
Hogg, Max du Preez, Siya Mnyanda, Brand Pretorius and a host of
others (well-known people, ordinary South Africans and
international citizens drawn to South Africa) who tell us: Really,
Don't Panic!
‘Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you.’
It’s been almost 150 years since Alexander Graham Bell said these
immortal words on the first ever phone call, to his assistant in the
next room. Between 10 March 1876 and now, the world has changed beyond
recognition. And telecommunications, which has played a fundamental
role in this change, has itself evolved into an industry that was the
sole preserve of science fiction.
When the world’s first modern mobile telephone network was launched in
1979, there were just over 300 million telephones. Today, there are
more than eight billion, most of which are mobile. Most people in most
countries can now contact each other in a matter of seconds. Soon we’ll
all be connected, to each other, and to complex computer networks that
provide us with instant information, but also observe and record our
actions. No other phenomenon touches so many of us, so directly, each
and every day of our lives.
This book describes how this transformation came about. It considers
the technologies that underpin telecommunications – microcircuits,
fibre-optics and satellites – and touches on financial aspects of the
industry: privatisations, mergers and takeovers that have helped shape
the $2-trillion telecom market. But for the most part, it’s a story
about us and our need to communicate.
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