South Africa in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index

The mood in South Africa is more gloomy than usual, so it’s pleasant that the 2023 World Press Freedom Index provides some good news. South Africa’s ranking has improved markedly from last time I wrote about it, in those distant pre-COVID days of 2019, when South Africa had dropped 3 places in the rankings to… Continue reading South Africa in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index

From Asergo to Gandi in six days

I’ve been hosting my server with a Danish company, Asergo, since 2006. Back then they were called Easyspeedy. It hasn’t all been plain sailing, but things got much better over time, and in particular since they rebranded from Easyspeedy to Asergo in 2017, it’s been a fairly flawless experience. There were some customer service issues… Continue reading From Asergo to Gandi in six days

South African language Wikipedias – Wikimania 2022 update

It’s Wikimania 2022 and, being a hybrid event, Cape Town hosted its own get-together. I took the opportunity to take a long overdue look at the state of the South African language Wikipedias. I include all eleven official languages, with the exception of English. Afrikaans 104,335 (95,700 on 18 January 2021) articles 190 (210) active… Continue reading South African language Wikipedias – Wikimania 2022 update

Adrenaline

My usual week is pretty relaxed, perhaps a tennis ball flying at my nether regions being the event most responsible for any surge in adrenaline. This week upped the ante a little. 1) Driving to Blouberg along Koeberg Road, I see a cat haring across the oncoming traffic. There’s an island between the two directions… Continue reading Adrenaline

South African language Wikipedias 20th birthday review

I was asked to do a presentation at a Wikipedia 20th birthday party hosted by Wikimedia South Africa, which unfortunately I can’t make, but I still took the opportunity to look in a little more detail at the state of the South African language Wikipedias. I include all eleven official languages, with the exception of… Continue reading South African language Wikipedias 20th birthday review

RIP Dawn

Dawn Pilatowicz died last night. Dawn was one of the most inspirational people I’ve met. Warm, generous, kind-hearted, wise. I first met Dawn through our involvement in the Talent Exchange, a Local Exchange Trading System (LETS) that started here in Cape Town. She lived with polymyositis, a muscle-wasting disease. Her power was in a remarkable… Continue reading RIP Dawn

Weeeee’re back!

You may not have noticed, but my server crashed a while back (I did get one unprompted comment, so I’m not completely writing into a vacuum). Since it no longer runs anything business-related, and I had been looking for a cheaper server, I wasn’t in any rush to restore it. I had already got an… Continue reading Weeeee’re back!