Monthly Archives: October 2008

October 31, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized 1 Comment

Postcards From the Edge – Developing Generally and Developing in India Specifically

By Ben Kepes

My other blogging gig is over at the Cloud Computing specialist blog CloudAve. CloudAve is sponsored by Zoho as a way to be part of an ongoing conversation around Cloud Computing. Zoho gives us full editorial independence and the only requirement they had was that the blog be hosted on

Tagged cloudave, India, SOFTWARE DEVELOPMETN |

October 30, 2008 Posted in Efficiency, Society 6 Comments

Kids and Computers – If Google is Making Us Stupid What’s it Doing To Our Kids?

By Ben Kepes

I have to say I’m a little reluctant to write this post, it’s a subject that inflames passions on both sides of the debate. I was at a conference a few weeks ago where one of the sessions discussed kids and computers – while the session was primarily concerned with

October 29, 2008 Posted in Design 2 Comments

Design 101

By Ben Kepes

I do this sort of in depth research and analysis so you, my dear readers, don’t have to. The hotel I stayed at in Chennai was the GRT Grand, a lovely place that harked back to the days of the empire and England’s best and brightest enjoying ginsling and high

October 28, 2008 Posted in Business and the Environment, Economic Development, Society 1 Comment

Awesome – VSA 2.0!

By Ben Kepes

The always informative (if generally technophobic) Mr Raf over at Sustento gave me a heads up about Nabuur. In their own words Nabuur seeks to be; an online volunteering platform that links Neighbours (online volunteers) with Villages (local communities) in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Connected through Nabuur.com, Neighbours and

October 28, 2008 Posted in Business, Economic Development, Efficiency, Society 7 Comments

You Know You’ve Made It When…

By Ben Kepes

I’ve always had the firm belief that all consultant were w^#$ers – charging lots of money for stating the obvious, living the fat cat life and doing nothing productive – yep when it comes to consultants I have a pretty “blue collar” attitude. I had an email exchange with a

Tagged nabuur |

October 28, 2008 Posted in Economic Development, Society 9 Comments

So That Was India

By Ben Kepes

I’m sitting at Chennai airport waiting for my flight and I figured this was as good a time as any to reflect on my first visit to the sub-continent. India is a brutal lesson in the inequities that exist in our world. I saw the bill for my one week

October 27, 2008 Posted in Business, Efficiency, IT, New business, Strategy 2 Comments

The Best, Shortest Blog Post I’ve Yet Seen

By Ben Kepes

Over on Julian’s blog, J posted a pearler (that’s antipodean talk for a great post) Worlds shortest blog post – "How do you build a world class software product, compete with large players and grow an excellent, loyal user base on a near $0 advertising budget?" It’s fairly easy. Talk,

October 27, 2008 Posted in Business Leave a comment

Life on the Edge Competition Draw

By Ben Kepes

So – entries have closed and selection is soon to occur. I’ll be making the draw on Thursday when I am back in New Zealand – watch this space – the winner will be announced on Friday!

Tagged free stuff! |

October 24, 2008 Posted in Business, Design, IT, New Zealand, SaaS, Strategy 4 Comments

A New Friend in the Playground

By Ben Kepes

I woke up in the middle of the night to take part in a phone conference (NZ 9am is some ungodly hour in India) only to find my time zones were confused and I was an hour to late. The conference was initiated by Telecom New Zealand and was to

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.