One of the disadvantages of being a passionate person is the ride that passion can take you on.  At my first big Open Source event approximately a decade ago, I was this eager young thing happy to be around people who actually got Open Source.  I was so excited at the potential that Open Source had to help South Africa, Africa, and the world solve all sorts of problems.  As time went by, while I was reinvigorated somewhat by each passing event, I was also growing more and more cynical about how achievable and realistic many of our goals were.

As I've followed the hype and pomp around social media as it arrived in South Africa, that cynicism was quick to come to the fore and point out that talk is cheap.  And, really, so much of what has happened in the past few years in the space in South Africa (and abroad, I guess) is talk.

Strangely, that cynicism has been very quiet when thinking about the Silicon Cape Initiative.  (I suppose it is good politics to back an initiative of the person who has my current and future financial situation in his hands, but anyone who knows me knows that I'm very rarely that insightful of office politics, and equally rarely cautious of it.)

Over the past week or so, I've wondered why that cynicism has been absent.

A large part of that, I think, has come from the Cape Town GeekDinners, my beloved *Camp two years back, 27dinner, and BarCamp Cape Town.  Through these events, I've expanded my understanding of the level of talent and interest and energy available in Cape Town and South Africa, underneath the facade of the social media/personal branding hype, and I'm excited by what I see there.

Another potential reason is that I'm seeing a few people I respect emerge from their silent action-focused mentality and tentatively enter the fray - both here and abroad.  Willing to give belief a chance again after being a little ahead of the curve and getting more than a little burnt.

Or perhaps the cynicism just thinks it will have a stronger hold if I get empassioned about it and it fails to deliver.

I doubt many could find any non-trivial faults with the Silicon Cape Launch event itself.

The speaking line-up was excellent:

  • Vinny Lingham (aka my big boss) and Justin Stanford's co-presentation worked well (a gamble, possibly, but that's in their blood), explaining the origins of the idea and showing off their passion for the project.

  • Andrea Böhmert brought everyone down to earth by challenging some assumptions we have about Cape Town, and how that might not be what the rest of the world understands of Cape Town.

  • Laurie Olivier showed off the experience and ensuing insight that has been valuable to Yola in the last two years.  He compared the meeting to one he attended 20 years ago in Israel before their technology industry boomed, and discussed what was done to achieve that.

  • Johann Rupert certainly validated the great respect he's always received from Laurie and Vinny in my hearing.  A strong, often eloquent, speaker, he gave a powerful warning that societies that don't take care of their intellectual capital will lose it.

  • Dr Mamphela Ramphele gave a very well-received talk, especially since she showed that she was paying attention to what was said earlier about those things that government can do, and also what they shouldn't.  Her newish role at the head of the Technology Innovation Agencyis certainly one that can help bring about the changes that the previous speakers called attention to.

  • Helen Zille was also well-received, and my personal bias against her aside, gave a fairly party-politics-free talk (although I appreciated her initial Malema gibe, as did most of the audience, it seems).

A good balance - a lot of optimism, some realism, foreign and more experienced perspectives, an enumeration of challenges, a few posited solutions, and generally a feeling that this is something that can be done, if enough (and the right) people put the effort into it.

The panel discussion was very interactive (certainly more so than any I've seen before), giving the attendees an opportunity to air their thoughts, and ask questions and get answers.  (I wish Henk had more opportunity to talk, though, being my pick of the entrepreneurial representation on the panel.)

So, a well-executed event.  Some sparks of interest fanned into passion. Obviously, where to from here?  How do we keep the passion going?  What are the most effective next steps?  How do we measure the progress?

I started by saying that passion comes with disadvantages.  Passion ill-tended leads to a cynicism that inhibits not only that person, but those around them.

A few hundred people empassioned can turn into a lot of cynicism, and fast.

 

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