Bullard on Jackdaws, Helen Mirren, Google and Getting Shot (INTERVIEW 7)

NVDL: Did anything happen [between yourself and Helen Mirren]?
Bullard: Not between me…I think quite a lot happened between MacBeth and Lady MacBeth. And some of the older members of the cast.
RP: So you had no interest?
Bullard: No I used to nod at her, and she used to ignore me. Because apparitions are there to be not seen and not heard.
[Laughter]
RP: So we know you write for the Sunday Times, but what do you like to read?
Bullard: I read the Sunday Times obviously. I read Weekender. I read the Mail & Guardian – not every week. Business Day every day, Star, The Times obviously…
NVDL: What is your favorite column?
Bullard: Tom Eton. I enjoy Tom very much at the Mail & Guardian. I enjoyed Robert Kirby – the late Robert Kirby – when he was around. I enjoy Justice, Svela Manku, I always reckon the Financial Times weekend edition is a damn good read…
I do enjoy the ‘How To Spend Its’, things like that, on impossibly expensive trousers and jackets and holidays and things like that.

NVDL: What do you think of the British papers?
Bullard: I think the quality British papers still have an awful lot to read. I mean, if you go to London you buy Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, there’s a lot of analysis, a lot of stuff to wade through. Probably too much. Even the Saturday papers are coming out with magazines now. I think the problem is time allocation and information overload. You now have to have the skills to flick through, look at the headlines, and say: “Of no interest.”
RP: Mmmm.
Bullard: But you know I don’t read the Economist cover to cover but I always like to see the Economist. I like to read the Financial Mail, there’s some good articles there, I like Barney’s editorials. And I like Justice’s Restaurant reviews and I like to bring myself up to speed on some of the business stories. Some I don’t feel are hugely fascinating but that’s the thing: pick and choose.

NVDL: That’s why I think you’re a good commentator: because you’ve got to know at least a little about a lot; you’ve got to know about a whole broad range of things.
Bullard: You’ve got to be a bit of a jackdaw I think. You’ve got to be able to settle down and pick something out there and pick something out there.
RP:Mmm.
Bullard: And believe it or not, even though I did enjoy him a lot, I exposed Darl Bristow Baubage writings (for plagiarism). I think he was very talented; I just think he was unfortunately…arrogant. I think when you’ve been caught plagiarizing three or was it maybe four major author’s writings, I think you should concede defeat. But he was a very good writer. I like Oliver Roberts on the Sunday Times; I think Oliver writes very well. I think he’s got a very good talent there. And I enjoy Andrew Donaldson.
NVDL: He reminds me a bit of the way you write. It’s different but there’s something similar.
Bullard: He’s got a nice sort of stumbling edge there.

RP: What’s your favorite website?
Bullard: My favorite website is Google. Which leads me on to wherever I want to go. But I’m sure I’ve been on Google more than anything else. Yeah. Otherwise my most expensive website is Amazon.uk. They tend to come quicker from the UK. Once you’ve got your shopping trolley out and you’re drifting through DVDs and books and CDs; it’s quite easy to find the prices tempting.

RP: But can’t you find things here cheaply?
Bullard: No I want CD versions of records I was collecting long before you were even born.
RP: Oh.
Bullard: When we still had vinyl.
RP: Okay.
Bullard: Do you know what vinyl is? No don’t answer that.
[Laughter]
Bullard: Vinyl’s making a big comeback I’m pleased to say.

RP: What do you like best about SA?
Bullard: South Africa? People. The scenery is damn good but the people are great. The people are the best reason to stay. I mean after I got shot I had so many fantastic emails from everyone, right across. I mean it wasn’t whites, blacks, coloreds,indians, it was a whole lot of really generous spirited people…who really wrote messages that literally brought me to tears. You know I’m quite emotional even talking about it. I’ve got it all in a folder; I’ve kept them all and they were probably a major cause of me being back at work 3 days after I was shot. Shot on the Wednesday and I was back in on the Monday. Not for long but I thought I would just show my face. And in fact I remember my colleagues were on the balcony and they couldn’t believe I was getting out of the car and hobbling up the steps, and there was like a spontaneous applause.

RP: Where did you get shot?
Bullard: In there, in there and out of my arm and into my leg. One bullet.
RP: Do you know who did it?
Bullard: No. But they were in the house so…I’m not a strong supporter of lie down and let them take everything.

NVDL: That seems to me to be a great approach to being South Africans in 2008. I hope all the good people will take hands this year and not lie down. Let us take back this land that belongs not to the criminals or the crooked politicians, but to the beautiful people of this country. Stand up and raise your voice. Have a wonderful year; you will if you make the right choices not only for yourself, but also for those around you.

Spiking Gecko's (My2Cents)

Ja, it just wasn't right that the likes of 'Spike' and 'Wired Gecko' (AKA 'The Trooper') remain within sniffing distance of this blog. Why? Because they're 1) boring and 2) off track. If you look at the profile picks these guys have up, you start to get confirmation of the sort of people bloggers are. Do these guys ever go outside and get some exercise; EVER see the light of day? Do they EVER set foot on a treadmill, or better, a bicycle? I think no. Spending all day with a brain buzz just ain't healthy bro.

Anja Merret's blog is a worthwhile candidate on this list, if only because she is rubbing shoulders with the big boyz, without media empires trumpeting her blog. But if a tannie is rocking the News and Politics blogosphere, anyone can.

Arthur Goldstuck: Experience Counts

In the next 12 to 24 months, South African businesses that have been struggling for years to make the internet work for them will be celebrating.

For some unknown reason, which many website owners will put down to their own brilliant strategies, insight and foresight, traffic to their web pages will explode. Customer response to web-based offerings will take off. Customers will be telling them what they would like to see on the web sites. Site owners will finally be able to use the phrases "Internet presence" and "Return on investment" in the same sentence.

While it won't apply across the board, this success story is almost inevitable for websites that have been built with the customer in mind, that are easy to navigate, interesting to browse, and in tune with the expectations of users.

The magic bullet that will make all this possible will be something completely intangible. It is called Experience.

From the analysis of findings from research into apparently unrelated aspects of internet usage in South Africa, a clear conclusion has emerged: there is a powerful relationship between length of time an individual has been on the internet, and that individual's willingness to bank online, shop online, engage in social media and specialised social networks, and generally strive for online self-actualisation.

That last one is not an arbitrary example: it is the same term used for the peak of Abraham Maslow's well-known Hierarchy of Needs. It begins with basic physiological needs, like food and shelter, works its way up through social needs like love and belonging, and peaks with self-actualisation.

Slow growth

The Internet Hierarchy of Needs is almost identical. It starts with physical needs, such as getting connected and quality of that connection, works it way up through social needs like communication and networking, and peaks with self-actualisation, such as user-generated content, interaction with web sites, and leisure shopping.

This evolution up the Internet Hierarchy of Needs does not happen overnight. According to a related phenomenon, called the Experience Curve, it takes at least six years for the average individual's internet usage to develop from a physical Internet connection to online self-actualisation.

Take, for example, the number of onternet users online in South Africa in 2001. It was no less than 2,8 million individuals. Many online retailers saw this as a huge potential target market, and invested tens of millions of rand in reaching that target market. The result was that they made losses running into the tens of millions of rand. The total spent in online retail that year was a mere R162m - in an overall retail market of more than R300bn.

The numbers didn't make sense - until the market was segmented according to experience of users. It emerged that only 200 000 South Africans had been online for six years or more. Segmenting this market further into demographics like age, gender, education, location and income, it became clear that the real audience for a specific online retailer was probably no more than 50 000. No wonder they all took a bath!

Fast-forward

Now fast-forward six years. At the end of 2007, 3,85 million South Africans will be online. And those 2,8-million people who had been online at the end of 2001 will all be at the six years-plus level of internet experience.

Even a conservative segmentation of this audience suggests that a major online retailer has a potential audience of close to a million shoppers who were ready and able to shop. Online retail in 2007 is expected to see the sharpest percentage growth since 2003, and the biggest rand growth in the history of the sector in South Africa.

And in 2008? No less than 3-million South Africans will have been online for six years. The number grows to 3,2 -million in 2009. The online market is suddenly real, the online user is suddenly experienced, social media like blogging is taking off, social and business networking sites like Facebook and MyGenius are taking South Africa by storm, and it all appears to have happened overnight.

But, as they say in the entertainment industry, it takes years of sweat and tears to become an overnight success.

Arthur Goldstuck is an award-winning author and journalist, and is managing director of World Wide Worx, which leads research into Internet and mobile communications in South Africa. Visit his urban legends blog at thoselegends.blogspot.com

NVDL: 3 comments.

1) Internet spend is predicted to overtake ALL OTHER MEDIA in the US by 2011. And why not? The internet is now the domain for movies, music, news, music, TV, games - just about everything.

According to 'The Media': Blog, podcast and RSS advertising is seen to reach US$#1.14 billion over the next 5 years - a growth rate of around 71%. Increasingly the online market is looking towards commentators and inviduals - not corporates or puppets - for the sort of information they want online.

2) In South Africa the internet population is still growing larger -think of iBursts sponsorship of the weather and Survivor. Thus there are two basic drivers domestically for growth online: acquisition & experience.

3). I read on Friday - at The Oil Drum.com - that websites that have been writing (advising, warning etc) about energy issues, will crash when energy prices cut loose and world panic sets in. Millions of people are going to want answers and a lot of people, a lot of channels - including world channels - simply won't know what is happening and why.

Bullard: “Bloggers must be creative” (INTERVIEW – PART 2)

RP: [If] you could earn money blogging, would you start again?
Bullard: I don’t know. Probably not. I think probably because it’s so time consuming and because the emotional and intellectual reward is quite low. It’s easier for me to go and shoot a couple of episodes of Car Torque…where…um, at least if the cameraman or director says I’m a shit that’s fine, because I know who they here. But [with this] you’ve got a whole load of people and you don’t know who they are. I think it’s quite emotionally draining. I think there’s a lot of pressure to be original because I think if you want to do it properly – it’s like a column – you’ve got to be creative. You can’t just put up: [BARITONE VOICE]: ‘I had some wheat bix for breakfast.’
[Laughter].

Ingredient X

You’ve got to come into today’s news and throw an angle on it. And it’s got to be – for me – as fresh as the column. It’s got to have ingredient X – a couple of gags maybe – that says, this defines it. This actually puts it head and shoulders above the others. Another point I’d like to make – which I've made in an article – is that I’ve yet to meet what I’d call someone of substance who blogs.

I mean, Johan Rupert didn’t rush up and say: ‘I always read your blog.’ I mean, you want to aim at that market. I mean it could get there…
NVDL: Yeah.
RP: I think you should read Nick’s blog.
NVDL: No but I totally agree with that because 99% - this seems to be changing though – but 99% of what’s out there is actually drivel. Which is actually quite scary.
Bullard: Are a lot of people sort’ve sitting in libraries pretending to study for exams and actually blogging? I mean how- when- I mean downstairs there are one or two people, you know their names, they’re on every blog. They were on Sarah Britten’s, they were on mine…
NVDL: Mmmm
Bullard: And these weren’t three hundred word responses. These were three thousand word responses.
NVDL: It seems to mean if you’re a blogger, by implication, you don’t have a life. You know what I mean?
Bullard: You get this image of someone who has a dogeared copy of Loslyf, a half eaten Debonnairs Pizza, a rather untidy room in a sort’ve run down area of Joburg where the guy hasn’t actually emerged into the light for at least five weeks.
NVDL: The other things is – I mean I also blog – and I think part of it is, because of cellphones and everything else, I have this perception that no one actually listens to you.
Bullard: Mmmm
NVDL: You know what I mean? I mean, we are listening right now but you do have this perception that in a lot of conversations you have with people, one person is speaking [while] the other one is somewhere else. There’s not actually a…[EMPHATIC GESTURE]: I’M HERE NOW AND SO ARE YOU HERE NOW. Know what I mean?

Why Do we Blog?

I think that’s part of the reason why people blog. It’s that desperate yearning to communicate something.
Bullard: Absolutely. Is there anybody in there?
NVDL: And it is desperate. But what I would like – as a member of the pubic – from your blog which doesn’t exist is an almost one way stream of information. Not really commenting or reacting to what people are saying, but basically, you’re a writer and you’ve got your opinions… I mean that’s how I started blogging regularly – I was writing anyway. I’m not in your league at all but what I’m saying is, what you’re writing anyway, why not – once it’s published – why not put that in the public domain so it’s accessible. You know there are people who want to know what you’re saying…
Bullard: They haven’t done that with the weekly column. I don’t know if it’s a policy decision.
NVDL: I think with this company they wanted to get some sort of…
Bullard: Interaction.
NVDL: I think they wanted to utilize that[The Hype Around David Bullard], but I would think, for you personally, if you’re writing anyway, all you do is you copy and paste it – it takes no time – and all it is is a resource of David Bullard’s writing. It’s a resource. If you like it read it; comment if you like it, but that’s not really what it’s there for. It’s a resource; use it if you like.
Bullard: How many people look at your blog? Do you know how many people pass through?
NVDL: My record hits was earlier this week. 871 on Monday [8th October 2007].
Bullard: And what’s the general percentage of comments? Is it difficult to say?
NVDL: It’s not very high.
Bullard: I don’t know how many people pass through my blog, but I know how many people comment, and how many reactions I’ve had.

When and Why Do We [Care] To Comment

NVDL: I think there are a few reasons why your blog elicits comments. One of them is you’re high profile. Another thing is what you’re saying is part of the public consciousness at the time.
Bullard: Yeah, you can’t go wrong putting up why I’m a white supremacist. I mean it’s bound to get a reaction.
RP: Yeah [Laughs]
NVDL: And - yeah, it’s controversial - and the other aspect is it’s intelligent. What I’ve found – I’ve read some of the comments on your blog – there seems to be this desire to out-think in quite a nasty way though. You sort’ve try to blast someone with an insult, which is better than another insult.
RP: Yeah.
Bullard: Yeah, I know what you mean.
NVDL: I think you called it ‘kindergarten bashing’.
Bullard: Someone comes in and says: ‘Oh you should be reduced to a cub reporter.’ Or, you know: ‘You’re a failed stockbroker.’ I was never even a stockbroker. But you get all of these strange perceptions…
NVDL: Yeah.

On Defending The Perceptions of Cybersquatters

Bullard: I think once you start defending those [perceptions] you’ve shown you’re even interested in the debate, and it’s just a waste of space. What I eventually did was just delete the one’s I didn’t like.
RP: [LAUGHS]
Bullard: And then I got accused of censorship; I was quite happy with that. It’s my blog. If you want to come to my party and you actually start throwing up over the furniture, and nicking my CD’s, I’m gonna chuck you out the house. Same on the blog.
NVDL: I’m sure you’ve experienced this: You tend to get a lot of response[s] when you’ve made an error. That’s how people are. If they agree they don’t say anything. It’s this crazy aspect of people [especially on blogs] that people are quick to criticize [and show you they're right and you're wrong] and slow to praise. People do praise, but they’re much quicker [snapping fingers] to criticize.
I think it’s an ego thing, like: Oh, I see you made a mistake. You’re this intelligent person, there’s your error and I’ve spotted it, so that elevates me.
Bullard: Yes. But you know what can do [WRY SMILE], at least in the print medium. Blame the subs. You say, well of course, the bloody subs should have picked that up. And no one actually excuses you, but at least you’ve got someone else to blame. Blogging, unfortunately, you can’t, can you, really? It’s your court.

Tune in here next Wednesday (or whenever), for Part 3: Bullard - An Out to Lunch TV Talk Show?
For more refer to search label: The Bullard Tapes