Welcome into what we are sure will be a STUPENDOUS second year of JOVA.. and we mean that in a (2000 and) great way... In fact lets top what for us was a phenomenal year. We've been hanging out a lot on Twitter, so we thought we'd kick off this year by sharing some of the inspiration and creativity that we find everyday... Tweet!

 

FOR STARTERS - our favourite story has to be about the GUERIILA KNITTERS called KNITTA  - instead of graffiti or stickers, they  KNIT their mark around the world...  We love it!

 

"Knitta began in August 2005, when the soon-to-be-Knittas were discussing their frustration over unfinished knitting projects: half-knitted sweaters and balls of yarn gathering dust. That afternoon, they knit their first door handle. Then it dawned on them… a tag crew of knitters, bombing the inner city with vibrant, stitched works of art, wrapped around everything from beer bottles on easy nights to public monuments and utility poles on more ambitious outings. With a mix of clandestine moves and gangsta rap — Knitta was born! Today, Knitta is a group of ladies of all ages, nationalities, and… gender."

So you've heard about Air Guitar competitions, where zany people pretend to be guitar heroes jumping around in tight pants, with a pretend guitar in their hands? Well Durex have jumped on this strange phenomenon (I never quite got it...) in the name of safe sex with their Air Sex competition running in the month of November in France. The competition is based on the notion that 'those situations that appear the least risky could hold the most risk... ' hence the Air Sex. The competition encourages young people to submit video's of their personal rendition of Air Sex, with condom. The public are invited to submit their votes for their favourite Air Sex video, for each vote submitted, one durex condom is given to a charity. The winning video will be broadcast on television, on World Aids day in France. Great initiative around a subject that does not get enough airplay. 

I've been teaching in a high school in Europe for a few months now, I was recently asked by a colleague to come in and speak to her class about tourism in South Africa. The idea is that the students would be inspired by my talk and then create their own projects as imaginary visitors to the country, each describing their journey. It's not far off from South African Tourism's  recently launched initiative that invites YouTube (and others) users to put together an advert for the country, expressing their 'craziest' impressions of the place. This should make for a fun project, as some of the questions I get asked about South Africa reveal just how blurry and mysterious our continent and people are to the rest of the world. The video's are then posted on their YouTube channel for the next three months and the ones that get the most hits win an all-expenses paid holiday to South Africa. Nice thinking SATourism, exposing the cliches and stereotypes of our country (wonder if anyone will make a video not staring a lion, hungry looking kids or thorntrees) while trying out a great experiment in talking directly to your audience through social media. Read all about the competition here on TravelWires , see the YouTube channel here or simply enter here .  We invite you to get creative and inspire you with our photo from DVDMerwe of 'Ronnie's Sex Shop ' on Route 62 in the Cape. 

A quick heads up for anyone in New York that's passionate about Social innovation or wants to learn more, THE FEAST conference, taking place tomorrow, looks to be a brilliant gathering of minds, featuring speakers such as Piers Fawkes from PSFK , a speaker representing the amazing IDEO design agency, the co-founders of FAME THEORY and the co-founders of IF WE RAN IT , all pretty inpirational initiatives and companies that we'd LURVE to be able to listen to... SO if you can... GO GO GO! JOVA!

This is our (ongoing) list of some of our favourite online creative magazines, all of which are free for your downloading pleasure - please feel free to submit any we don't/should know/have forgotten about to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and read all the way to number 10, it's worth it. PS: Please note the copyright laws on ALL the e-mags below - they're working hard to bring you outstanding creativity and content, please respect this by not reproducing their work in any way or form without their permission in writing:

 

1.We'll kick off with Studio83 , a fresh and fun e-mag lovingly put together by the starshaking Johannesburg-born creative designer George Gladwin Matsheke. You can download the latest edition "Modern Man" for mahala ('free' in South African lingo) on the site as well as all previous editions... enjoy.

Today we're doing our bit for Breast Cancer by filling you in on what we believe is a double whammy of a fabulous concept in aid of 'raising awareness and funds in support of breast cancer' in South Africa. The first initiative is the life-saving 'Mobile Breast Check Unit', a mobile breast cancer screening unit that travels around our rural areas educating women about the importance of breast self-examination and early detection of breast cancer, further increasing access to life saving information among rural women. OF COURSE, for this Mobile Breast Check Unit to be able to spread the word, it needs funding, this is where the inspirational Design For Life campaign comes in:

What do you do when you're a brand like Nike Jordan that has so many loyal (obsessive?) fans that you can't do anything wrong? How do you further engage your superbrandfans and increase their desire to continue to be a part of your inner-circle clan, keeping them interested and letting them know that you feel them and appreciate their support? It's simple, raise the bar and create an exclusive VVIP experience for those extra special fans that can never get enough. Pull them into your ranks and give them the brand advocacy 'influencer' stamp of approval and let them feel special. The Nike Jordan Flight club was launched in November 2007, as explained 

In a JOVA first we attended a festival virtually, thanks to two cyberspace souls that were able to Represent us at the last minute at the PICNIC Crossmedia creative festival in Amsterdam last week. They've kindly blogged the highlights for us, big shout outs and thanks go to Laetitia Dam and Bertrand Robinne for hanging out on our behalf. Of special interest to us was the Suprising Africa day, that they covered in detail for us. See their photo-story here (video still to come) and read their review below:

 

A new Ecosystem conference

Being music lovers we first stepped in the Flexbar where “A New Music Ecosystem” conference took place. “The music industry is changing. Artists and developers everywhere are working on new ways of connecting fans and bands and developing new businesses along the way”. As MySpace users we were mostly interested in the presentation of new Music websites. The one that caught our ears was Twones introduced by the dynamic and young Tim Heineke. Twones is a music service and a new way to store, organize, find & share music played all over the web

It's an inspired idea combining Urban Music, Blogging and Sports: instead of getting another sports talking head to waffle on in changeroom style, persuade one of the world's hottest MC's (aka Rappers for those old folks who don't own a TV) to do the job instead. Good Work ESPN magazine on bringing Lil Wayne into your ranks , not only will you break down stereotypes when readers see how much Lil Wayne loves Tennis, but you'll also draw a fresh new readership to your magazine who probably would never had clicked your way...or maybe? We say again, Inspired. Word out.