What makes someone influential on the internet, and who is influential in South Africa

Hi hi,

I can see where you are coming from. But I think you are blogging from one side of this coin. What you perceive as influence (changing the way we do things) is limited. I know many bloggers who are changing the way their clients do work, designers who are changing the way design is perceived in SA and the way others design. Bloggers who have shaped the way that entrepreneurs work online and political bloggers whose opinions have changed, challenged or altered mine.

I'm not going to name names because that's a shitstorm waiting to happen. But I can confidently say that there are people, bloggers, writers and business people in SA who are changing things.

[provocative linkbaiting :-P but nonetheless, I can't resist]
If only just one then >>
Dave Duarte: from Barcamp that started all the realworld connecting for us geeks, to GeekDinner, 27dinner, Nomadic Marketing (at one of the world's top 10 Executive Education units in the world, UCT GSB) that's changing the way that leadership in business and government is influenced and strategizes around social media. To quietly working to change the policies of publishing, music, arts and education through the opensource model that works effectively online and translating it into the realworld as South Africa's Public Lead for Creative Commons.

Does that qualify as influential in your estimation?

Hmmm, I have to say, living in south africa myself, I see where he's coming from as well...although there are tons of influences, I suppose we can confidently say, there are influences in south africa, but Im wondering if he wasn't talking about influences that make a difference for the country as a whole in a positive matter...

I personally think that when we start seeing a change in the "real" tangable south african world effected by bloggers, then the influence that we are hoping for has come.

Granted I haven't spent much time at those other blogs, but of what I have seen, the influence is subtle.

I believe that blogs and news feeds should have the effect to change peoples opinions on who to vote for, how to run their businesses for the growth and benefit of the country as a whole and how we can come together as one nation joined by one common ground in the world as we are here online.

Have to disagree, Matt Buckland has definitely influenced me with his blog posts - his blog and a few others (including Dave's mentioned above) have in fact influenced me to the point of questioning the industry I am in and changing the direction I am personally taking within that industry. I dont think that kind of influence is anything to ignore even if it does affect us individually rather than collectively.

I know several bloggers throughout Africa, and many of them are quite visible among Afro politics and social justice blog consortiums.

@arthur - given that bloggers are being allotted official journalist credentials for political conventions and international conferences, indicates that the scope of influence for Web 2.0 as well as the traditional media is changing.