Whats all the Buzz about?

Many of you avid Gmail users such as myself may have recently noticed a new 'Buzz' link on Gmail. Well in all honestly I was a little late at finding out because I'm always logged into Gmail and not until I was forced to log out(Gmail addict!) for a Firefox restart did I see the new link .

Buzz is Google's new entrant into the social media space and unlike Orkut/Google Freind Connect, Buzz gained instant traction (albeit a few privacy hiccups) among its already existing and faithful Gmail community.

I'm not going to go through a feature list or comparison with facebook/twitter here, you can read more about that on mashable. I want to comment on is what this means for us mortals in the real world. Buzz will mean more time on Gmail...obviously Google wants that, but its also means that we now also have to track friends and their status' on Buzz. Aren't we doing enough of that on Facebook and Twitter already? Because of the simplicity and ease of use of Buzz a lot of users will get convinced to start Buzzing on Buzz, which in turn will mean less time you spend on Facebook, Twitter etc or working (whichever you do more of). We do after all only have 16-18 awake hours in a day and everyone is fighting for your time on their service.

Businesses have an even harder challenge since they now cannot ignore Buzz and so they have add it to their social media marketing strategy(if they have one). The vast majority of businesses are no where close to having a social media marketing strategy and a new entrant into this space makes it an even more confusing, expensive and daunting task. One set of businesses however will really benefit, the companies offering social media marketing services for others. They just got more money handed to them.

What are your thoughts on Buzz? How has it impacted your time on social media sites? Please comment.

Cross listed here.

Technology incubators, a slingshot to success!

I visited a Silicon Valley technology incubator(Plug&PlayTechCenter) a few months back and I remember returning from the visit simply awed by the level of energy and entrepreneurial buzz around me. Start ups were given a mere two minutes to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists and angel investors lined up in front of them ready to invest millions of dollars into the next Google or PayPal. I recently read about a new technology incubator (iHub) and technology park(Malili) in Nairobi which got me thinking about the potentially immense value of incubators to developing nations.

For those not familiar with the concept of an incubator. An incubator is a usually an office complex or building that hosts early stage start up companies and provides them with invaluable access to finance (venture capital, debt etc) as well as sales, marketing, HR and legal support. The key idea is that start ups get access to a large network of advisors that they would not normally have. Going through the selection process for an incubator also allows starts ups to fully vet their idea and get a preliminary 'stamp of approval' that their idea is viable. Technology companies are specially suited to incubators because of the remote and collaborative nature of the business. Technology incubators in Silicon Valley have been particularly successful at harnessing their power.

These projects in Nairobi show a great foresight and initiative on the part of the goverment and local technology community since the vast majority of the impact from an incubator is intangible and extremely long term. InfoDev an NGO affiliated with the world bank has done a number of studies (available for free) on technology incubators as a means to promote sustained growth. One of the key findings is that incubators in developing nations must be formed on a sustainable financial as well management model to ensure that the long term value is derived from the investment. It also stresses the importance of corporate partnerships/sponsorships to bring in local stakeholders who would benefit from the incubation. The report also analyzes multiple case studies of incubators in developing nations in South America and the Middle East.

Technology incubators should be on the roadmap for all countries in Africa as an integral part of their plans to ecourage entrepreneurship and boost job creation. With the recent fiber optic connectivity to Eastern Africa a major infrastructure hurdle has been resolved leaving just the initiative to be taken.