South Africans love Facebook
Are you on Facebook? The rest of South Africa is, as there are nearly 120,000 members on the South Africa regional group in Facebook (and those are the ones that joined the group). Now back in 2005 the South African Census counted 35,000 developers in the country (that’s people who called themselves a developer, be they Java, .NET or any other language) and the general feeling is that it’s probably a little more; but using that figure means that nearly triple the number of geeks in South Africa who are “normal” people are using and participating in Facebook!
I’ve mentioned this before but it’s great to see South Africans making use of the services on the internet. We really have some problems in the country regarding usage of the internet what with artificially capping and a monopolized service provider that can take up to 6 months to install a line. Add to that, that South Africans are (or at least were) suspicious and fearful of submitting personal and financial details online and I think you’ll agree with me we’re seeing quite a change here.
My previous comments about the worry of giving Facebook my personal details and trusting them to keep it private is still valid and up for debate. I joined Facebook a month or 2 ago and I’ve been totally blown away with the old friends and contacts I’ve made but there’s still the question of who owns my data. Facebook has also exploded with a tonne of little apps you can add to your Profile page; and although you have to confirm you’re happy to share your details with the app, the options are “opt-in by default” and every application I’ve looked at always wants all of my data as supposed to really sitting down and figuring out what it needs from me.
