New Media Labs launch the first phase of ‘The Trust’ portal of giving.

New Media Labs launch the first phase of 'The Trust' portal of giving today. The site is a relatively complex CMS for charities to register and receive donations. This application is sponsored by Alan Knott Graig (ex CEO of Vodacom) and his son (IBurst CEO), Jonothan Ackerman (Marketing Director for Pick and Pay) to name a few of the high profile trustees.

The application allows you to create a portfolio of giving, once you have decided on the charities you would like to donate to, you make payment using the MyGate integrated payment gateway.

Second phase includes an online store, eBay mashup and payment assurance engine. As well as a number of facebook applications.

The Client is very pleased, and believes this portal will eventually change the way South African charities are sponsored in the future. We believe it will too.

New Media Labs launch the recruitment website for Mandi Dicks Recruitment Consulting

New Media Labs launch the recruitment website for Mandi Dicks Recruitment Consulting. Working with Mandi Dicks has been a pleasure, she is not your average recruitment consultant, she puts real energy in and has thus always provided us with really good candidates.

We built the site using DotNetNuke as a CMS provider and integrated a custom job posting module.

MDRC has become New Media Labs only candidate provider and as such we consider MDRC to be a partner of ours.

Ernst Kuschke, Microsoft C# MVP joins the New Media Labs team.

Yesterday (14 October 2008) we proudly welcomed Ernst Kuschke the Microsoft C# MVP to the NML team. Ernst will be working on the GTM (Adora) project.

Ernst is a highly experienced and very up to date developer. Ernst adds to the NML MENSA members list.

His MVP profile reads as follows.

Speaking Engagements
• SCRUM as a development methodology
• Beyond Continuous Integration
• Facebook on the .NET Framework
• Continuous Integration
• Developer ASP.NET AJAX Security
• Building ASP.NET AJAX enabled Applications
• LINQ
• Test Driven Development Demystified
• Microsoft Robotics Studio & CCR
• LINQ in C# 3.0
• Panel Discussion - A Developers Peek into the Future
• LINQ in C# 3.0
• Extreme Programming
• Continuous Integration
• Bug Tracking in the SDLC
• ASP.NET 2
• Visual Studio Team System
• SQL Reporting Services
• Continuous Integration
• Asynchronous API Design
• .NET 2.0 Trailer

Conferences
• Tech Ed Africa 2008
• MVP Global Summit 2008
• DevDays 2007
• MVP Global Summit 2007
• Tech Ed Africa 2006
• EMEA Regional Summit
• Tech Ed Africa 2005
• MVP Global Summit 2005
• DevDays 2005

Second Big Silverlight Development

New Media Labs has just finished our second sprint of a large silverlight front end enterprise web2.0 development for a South African private bank. We can’t say much about this project for now, suffice to say the product is going to be awesome and this is undoubtedly the biggest silverlight development in South Africa at the moment.


Middle Tier - Microsoft Repository Factory (due to the number of custom stored procs)

Service Layer - WCF using the Web Service Software Factory

Presentation Layer - Silverlight

Eluthandweni Aids Orphans Web Site

Dereck was approached by his good friend Bandi Biko to build a web site for the Homes for Aids Orphans. Eluthandweni - Means "Place of Love. It is a non-profit making organisation aimed at providing a safe, residential environment for AIDS orphans where they will be loved as individuals, provided with education, healthcare and life skills training, as well as taught the importance of having a work ethic and discipline.

We built the site for them using our Dot Net Nuke enterprise content management system. Dot Net Nuke really is an amazing open source .Net platform for building website. We purchased the skin from snow covered and the most time consuming part was adding the content and getting the graphic designer to create the images for us.

If are you an NPO or NGO and you think the kind of site you need fits an enterprise content management (content templates) model we will host if for you at no cost.

Brandhouse Mixology Silverlight Enterprise Web2.0 Portal

New Media Labs develops the first silverlight Enterprise Web2.0 portal in South Africa for the brandhouse mixology program. Mixology will use this social networking website to link Mixology members together. And in doing so promote bar staffing as a respectable career. The mixologist will be able to take video footage of themselves "Flaring" or mixing cocktails and upload them to a mixology silverlight video server. Maps will provide locations of each bar with a Mixologist bar staff member, along with links to their profiles or videos they have uploaded. Photographs taken at events will be uploaded to a photo profile for Mixology and only viewable by Mixology members.

The video content was originally going to be provided by youtube. But due to the complex authorisation workflow process brandhouse required, we decided to build our own video encoding and streaming service. The videos were then encoded using the Silverlight2.0 Encoder (apparently the first production purchase of this software in South Africa).

This was a very fun and exciting project. The application has come out of the testing phase so watch this space...

Global Vision (Pty) Ltd Acquires 40% Shareholding of New Media Labs

As part of a strategic partnership New Media Labs has sold 40% of its shares to Global Vision.

Global Vision is a leading business software solution provider and development house, with its roots firmly grounded in South Africa. Since their inception in 1999, they have steadily grown into an established IT specialist and business partner to local & international clients. Global Vision prides itself on solving complex business problems. and they attribute their success to their passion for success that has put them on the cutting edge of global software development trends. Global Vision offers a host of services and solutions, which compliment the offerings of New Media Labs.

Global Vision has solid experience in delivering complex and customisable software and systems solutions, turning seemingly impossible business problems into practical solutions. On time and within your budget.

Among the Global Vision product suite are world-class solutions, Eureka is a relationship marketing software application that measures and profiles consumers based on their involvement with the brand. Through its highly skilled and professional CRM arm Global Vision provides professional services and technology to help you not only stay in business, but to grow, prosper and flourish. Chase is a web-based incident management software application ideally suited to environments in which incidents need to be logged, tracked and reported on. Some prominent clients feature the likes of the V&A Waterfront, UCT and UWC. Recruitbank is an Applicant Tracking System that manages your whole internal and external recruitment process from requisition through to hire.

Jon Jacobson (Global Vision MD) and Wayne Powell (Global Vision FD), both founding members of Global Vision have joined the board of New Media Labs. “Our stake in New Media Labs is an investment in our product offering,” says Jon Jacobson. “Web 2.0 has huge potential to enhance CRM strategies from a consumer acquisition and retention perspective. NML’s take, on using “mashup” concepts to integrate offerings from various social networking spaces allows us to incorporate Web 2.0 functionality into our products and will keep us on the cutting edge. ”

"We are excited about this strategic partnership and have every confidence in Global Vision as a partner. New Media Labs will work closely with Global Vision in order to add value to our customers whilst enhancing our customers business" say Dereck Sigamoney. “We are already starting to reap the rewards of our partnership and we are making some key decisions to ensure the growth of New Media Labs.”

www.globalvision.co.za