Business Unusual

 Graeme Codrington | Futurist and Partner at TomorrowToday See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zanele  Njapha | Unlearning Expert & Innovation Facilitator at TomorrowToday See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A report suggests that one in six online business interactions are with a bot and that a third of those that interact with one, don't realise it was not a human. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What3Words is making the difficult task of precise location easier for those looking to deliver a package, find a friend in a shopping centre or get rescue workers to where you are stuck. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

South Africans can identify with Taylor Swift fans that hoped to snag a ticket to see her Era Tour. Swift is a very popular artist and so there was always going to be more demand than supply. Ticketmaster was the partner to handle the sale of tickets which resulted in much anger and calls for the company to be broken up to allow for more competition. The criticism and calls for amendments to how the ticketing industry is run is justified, but it may not change the situation without the entire supply chain being considered.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

27 years later and we still are not slowing carbon emission enough. There is reason for outrage and optimism, but mostly outrage. The thing is no-one got anything good done while outraged, only when once calmed down, and appreciating the extent of the problem and then actively looking for practical solutions could a potential solution be implemented.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Elon Musk has many fans, fewer than in the past but still many that believe he will shift us to renewable energy, find a solution for autonomous driving, build a humanoid robot to help/replace workers and get us safely to the Moon and Mars. All while providing global internet coverage, an alternative to traffic jams and long distance trains and a way to fix damaged brains. The catch for Musk and the other companies he is significantly involved in how to split his time between them. It may not be that he needs to be present for day to day operations, but giving the positions he holds with Tesla and SpaceX, not being able to respond when he needs to make decisions about big projects or launch timelines or currently managing staff costs could slow down the companies even though he has regarded himself as the person to supply the momentum to get things down. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guest: Graeme Codrington | Futurist and Partner at TomorrowToday See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guest: Zanele Njapha | Unlearning Expert & Innovation Facilitator at TomorrowTodaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guest: Graeme Codrington | Futurist and Partner at TomorrowTodaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The most recent additions to our historic records are sound and video, but advances in how we work will both may allow us to make them last forever.  Mandalorian Audio credit : Disney Mark Hamill audio credit: BBCSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI has improved significantly over the last few years and is central to what is at the heart of the much talked about 4th Industrial Revolution. But for all the problems it may solve, it raises as many new ones especially around how to classify it and whether deserves its own copyright or patent or even Nobel Prize. Image credit: Midjourney using the prompt by Bruce Whitfield "Cape Dutch farmstead in a storm, in the style of Tinus de Jongh" Audio credit: Yaboi Hanoi - Enter Demons & GodsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Bitcoin network still uses this method while the Ethereum network has recently switched to a revised system called proof-of-stake. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First identified almost 5 000 years ago, Malaria’s name comes from the Italian for bad air from when it was believed that illness was carried by the air. It was first identified as a parasite in 1880, a doctor in Cuba the following year noted the connection between mosquitoes and the transmission of yellow fever and allowed for the parasite to be tracked to being spread by certain mosquitoes. The work resulted in Noble prizes for medicine being awarded in 1902 and 1907. Vaccines for smallpox gave some the hope that something similar could be found for Malaria. Last week we got the results of a multi year trial that suggests we may finally have one. The parasite that has been estimated to be responsible for the unnatural deaths of half of all humanity. Audio credit: Dr Matshidiso Moeti WHO Image credit: Mycteria / 123rf.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It may have taken a long time, but citizens can expect better protection now The Information regulator adds teeth to two groups of law that add to the strength of South Africa’s democracy and institutions that are created to protect it.  Ensuring access to information held by the state and in set cases 3rd parties Ensuring your privacy can be protected Correction: Public bodies are required to submit annual Section 32 reports, not all businesses.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The pandemic required the theoretical and experimental efforts of remote work to become the reality whether we were ready or not.Thankfully there had been efforts to make this possible and that technology had progressed to support it.Most work still falls into the kinds of work that can't be done remotely as it typically requires something to be made or extracted. Manufacturing, agriculture, mining and I will include education.There has been a major shift though, an increase in service related work and creative work that relies on digital production for the output. Full article image credit: © alphaspirit / 123rf.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two of the entrepreneurs might not be well known to most in South Africa, and the third might be best known only thanks to a recent TV series about his impressive rise and spectacular fall.  Their stories mirror the mix of character, vision, timing and a good bit of luck to make something a success. There are thousands who are doing the same each day but because the timing or luck is not aligned. It is fair to say that few successful people get to that position without taking big risks and making decisions that they might prefer not make. Hopefully it offers some reflection on your own actions and that being this successful is not only not possible for everyone, it would be a bad thing to aspire to. Business Unusual might focus on the change and disruption for the potential it offers for progress, but change for changes sake is chaos and no-one hoping for progress would want that. image credit: Elnur / 123rf.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You would never consider visiting or staying next to a lithium-ion battery plant but you may well spend a relaxing weekend at a pumped storage facility. Read the full article. The thumbnail is a display of potential pump water storage locations. Image credit: data.gov.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Netflix documentary The Most Hated Man on the Internet highlights the willingness of some to do anything to make some money and how vulnerable we are to those who are intent at getting access to our accounts. In this case to post naked pictures without permission on a website to get visits and money for ad impressions Copyright law could allow you to have the images removed but was a civil lawsuit for personal images at the time, thankfully that has now been changed and there are harsh penalties for publishing this content which is generally referred to as revenge porn. In this case the criminal offence was hacking. It is incredible that the sentence was less than three years. It was a plea deal, which is likely why it was less harsh. Although given the seriousness of the offence and how long the site remained live (from 2010 to 2012) and that they knowingly targeted people for the purpose of finding naked images to post them publicly and include their personal information for ad revenue. You might think

The standard plan these days is become a billionaire and then set your sights on going to space.  It has been the play for Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and of course Elon Musk, but Mark Zuckerberg the richest billionaire by age (38 and $67 billion) is looking to go further into cyberspace rather than outer space. He has both the time and the money to do it, but it will not be easy.  Audio credit: Adam Mosseri Image credit: MetaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.