“I think I’m finally getting it. Black people have the opportunity [finally!] to become content producers. We can finally rewrite the negative stereotypes that exist. We can write our own stories. And we’re not doing it.

I do, however, think that the points you and David made do not take into account black people’s apathy. It exists. Not sure why but it does. Perhaps we should ask why black people are not blogging instead. And perhaps we should ask why black people are not attending these events. We should also ask why they use closed blogging platforms such as Bruin-ou.com instead of WP and Blogger.

Heather, I don’t think people from different social circles *will* interact. Or want to interact. Your thoughts on this?”

Sound familiar? Sounds like a time in history when white South Africans would refuse to listen to any criticism because others *just didn’t understand the uniqueness of the South African situation.*

As David says, this is a very specific criticism about the blogging community in South Africa refusing to see dialogue and development as a responsibility.

I think there’s enough people who care enough about this issue to do something about it. If others don’t see it as important, then that’s ok. I just don’t think it’s helpful to cloud the issue by being defensive.

I understand and appreciate your concerns, but I don’t see how they fit in with this post. What I’m advocating for is more interaction, inclusion, and dialogue … not more homogeneity. Those are two very different concepts. Otherwise you are equating heterogeneity with segregation, which is ridiculous.

It is a shame to hear that, rather than giving the tools and training for Soweto’s youth to make their own documentaries, Mobikasi was produced by others. Given the cost of mobile data connections in South Africa, Vodacom will obviously make a nice earning from those who download the videos to their mobile phones, but what does Soweto get? In my book that’s on-behalfism and exploitation, not promotion.

The work we did in Soweto had nothing to do with training, it was about producing media in that social context, promoting the place, the local personalities and brands.

I don’t think I ever stated otherwise. In fact, I mentioned the fact that there are more mobile internet users than desktop. And you’re right, O’Reilly Web conferences are horribly elitist and lack anything resembling diversity. I’ve brought that up many times before.

To call any training program patronising, however, is to try and guess someone’s intentions. Definition: “treat with an apparent kindness that betrays a feeling of superiority.”

Were you patronising us when you taught us how to use The GRID? Obviously not. You were inviting us to participate in a social space and showing us how to do it. Just like you did in Soweto. In my book that’s not patronizing, that’s being a good guy.