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  The rise of a new generation of influencers – a computer generated generation Virtual influencers are not the result of the current COVID-19 climate; they were trending long before that. However that being said, while humans are quite literally locked up in lockdown, the same limitations cannot be placed on influencers that are computer generated. Imma and Seraphine are two such influencers, but how do they qualify as influencers if they are not human? Imma is Japan’s first virtual model and was created by the company AWW. Like any influencer, Imma’s social media following across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Weibo, Zepeto and Douyin is impressive and substantial. Imma’s online presence is not limited to social media however, as she’s been featured on [...]

A careful Christmas as the world waits on a vaccine Christmas or the festive season this year is going to look very different across the globe with many families separated by COVID-19 prevention measures such as country-specific lockdowns, travel restrictions and strict social distancing policies and policing in place. This comes as major blow for many people who were hoping to be able to spend the holidays with their loved ones. However, with the resurgences of infections across the world, essential limitations have been applied and local or international travel between countries that are deemed hot spots is no longer viable. This is applicable in South Africa too. With COVID-19 showing no signs of slowing down at this stage, preventative measures are no [...]

Faking it - how to tell if news is real or fake Fake news is everywhere, and that’s truly a bit scary. But what does that even mean and with today’s information overload – how on earth can we tell the real from the fake? With most of us being inundated with varying forms of news and information from a variety of sources continuously, it can be really hard to discern the real from the fake, and sometimes even harder to resist the temptation to unknowingly share that fake information. Social media makes this particularly easy, and certainly increases the likelihood of us being exposed to fake news as it provides a much quicker and easier channel with which to distribute it.  We [...]

Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect! 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence (GBV) is an international campaign instituted by the United Nations which promotes activities that drive activism and awareness around gender based violence from the 25th of November to the 10th of December every year. Each year a specific theme is assigned to the 16 day period. This year the global theme is "Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!” The annual 16 Days of Activism campaign was first started by activists at the 1991 inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute and has subsequently been organised annually by the Women’s Global Leadership Centre. As part of the 16 Days of Activism campaign, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Campaign ‘UNiTE’ which aims [...]

The long and the short of COVID-19 Covid-19 appears to be the gift that keeps on giving – as the origin of a global pandemic that’s fast approaching its one year anniversary in December; there is still so much we have yet to come to grips with when it comes to the virus. While we are now well-aware of most of the common symptoms and after-effects of the virus as they have been widely documented, published and circulated as part of the on-going global efforts to curb the spread of the virus through preventative practices and social distancing, there is still a lot that we don’t know about the virus and what the long-term ramifications or effects are on those that have been [...]

Africa’s becoming home of the tech-hub Africa has become a tech-hub magnet in the past decade with an emerging and innovative tech market beginning to play a particularly prominent role in the entrepreneurial space too. In 2019 alone, the number of tech hubs across Africa increased by nearly 50% to approximately 640 tech-hubs, therefore cementing themselves as significant sources of business incubation and resource creation. In 2019 Nigeria dominated the tech-hub space, followed closely by South Africa – both are some of the largest economical contributors on the continent. With this as an indicator, Africa has been tapped as the “fastest growing continent for developers globally”, something that software giant  Microsoft has picked up on and is set to invest substantially in African [...]