Cubans’ ability to communicate with one another and the world remained well below the norm for the Caribbean and Latin America in 2009, according to a government report released this week. Despite the legalization of mobile phones in 2008 there were just 1.8 million phone lines in the country, or 15.5 lines for every 100 inhabitants, which was the lowest in the region, according to the United Nations International Telecommunications Union.
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I’m a big fan of Craig NewMark, the guy who created the game changing classifieds site, craigslist. He started it as an informal group email sent by Newmark in 1995 which grew into what is now an internet standard, a template that is used for more than 700 local sites in over 70 countries, with over 20 billion – yes, billion – pageviews per month. So I think he knows what he’s talking about when he gives 7 tips on how to use the Internet to change the world, your country, your neighbourhood…
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GEORGETOWN, Guyana- Guyana is set to soon see increased bandwidth capacity as a new fiber optic cable is being landed here from Suriname and is expected to increase the internet speed by some 3,000 times says Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) Joseph Singh.
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I’ve timeshifted and I’m spoilt for choice. And the fact is, there are ten of thousands of us in Jamaica, millions in the Caribbean and tens of millions around the world who are also in this place. The place where having choice is standard and your life just doesn’t facilitate a lengthy sit down on someone else’s sayso.
Seriously, when was the last time you sat and watch a TV show…outside of TrueBlood, Bill Maher, maybe Ugly Betty and possibly the video music awards shows. And if you missed an episode for some reason, I am 98% sure you can name two websites ( eztv.it and eztv.org yeah I said it!) where you can either watch it or download it for free or a very small fee and at your own damn convenience. And dare I mention the iPhone and Apple TV users. Then of course when HULU.com gets its American head out of its American ass, then we in the Caribbean plus others around the world will be able to jump in and watch our favourite America programming.
And I’m going to ask you again, when was the last time you sat and watch the news, it’s typically slightly depressing yes but are you like me who tends to get the news pushed to you on Facebook or twitter or by text message. In fact there are times the news breaks right there on Facebook or Twitter while mainstream TV, radio and oh my newspapers play catchup.
But ok,ok so EVERYONE doesn’t have high speed internet and a computer, but alot of people do and here in Jamaica and the Caribbean – if Digicel, Flow, Claro, LIME and a few smart computer resellers have their way- alot more of us will be watching our favourite shows, when we want, how often we want online without the bother of ads or worrying over whether Jamaican Cable operators will bring back HBO or Cinemax. In fact, they can keep em. Just continue to give me highspeed Internet at a decent price and I’ll make Cable TV totally irrelevant in my life. In fact. Not to self: I am so proud of you Ingrid, it’s been 4 months without boring cable on your gorgeous flat screen TV.
So have you time shifted or are you still the old school couch potato, a slave to a Cable TV schedule?
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Many consumers believe that if businesses with which they are unfamiliar do not have a presence on the Internet, it smacks of illegitimacy or lack of class. For many, as soon as they hear of something new, the first thing to do is “google” it. Successful and growing businesses should try to ensure that when a person “googles” their name, as advertised on radio, television, print media or a directory, the search engine will actually direct the user to the legitimate business. This does not always happen, however.
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Sandor Panton, the search engine expert, affiliate marketer and entrepreneur behind top5jamaica.com tweeted a powerful question yesterday. RT@top5jamaica said “When will Jamaican companies, event organizers etc. understand that ‘media’ these days doesn’t only mean Gleaner, Observer, TVJ, RJR etc.” In short when will they finally recognise that media now includes the Internet and that the Internet is not some abstract concept that will dwindle into being irrelevant the longer they ignore or the more they downplay its value to a client.
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I saw this and had to share it. And if you’ve been reading this blog enough you know I think very, very highly of Seth, in fact I am writing this from my desk which has all of the five books I’ve ought and read by Seth Godin. But check this post. It’s rich!! He says- Make money: not by building an internet company, but by using the net as a tool to create value and get paid. Use the internet as a tool, not as an end. Do it when you are part of a big organization or do it as a soloist. The dramatic leverage of the net more than overcomes the downs of the current economy.
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