RLabs Membership Programme

The aim of this program is to encourage collaboration, co-creation, learning, innovation and provide our members from the community, students, entrepreneurs and those in need an inspiration space. The program will offer a variety of membership packages based on the needs of the members.

————————————-

Silver Membership (FREE)

Members will have access to a maximum of 5 sessions a month to a “hot desk” with internet (30min each) *

You will have first preference on ALL courses being offered at RLabs.

Receives a 10% discount on ALL professional workshops and events hosted by RLabs.

48 hour advanced booking required

————————————————

Gold Membership ($20 per month)

Members will have access to a maximum of 5 sessions a month to a “hot desk” with internet (60min each) *

You will have first preference on ALL courses being offered at the RLabs Academy.

Receives a 20% discount on ALL professional workshops and events hosted by RLabs.

24 hour advanced booking required for hotdesk

FREE coffee

 ——————————————————

Platinum Membership ($40 per month)

Members will have access to maximum of 10 sessions a month to a “hot desk” with internet (60min each) *

You will have first preference on ALL courses being offered at the RLabs Academy.

Receives a 30% discount on ALL professional workshops and events hosted by RLabs.

24 hour advanced booking required for hot desk

Joint membership (allow one other person to use your membership benefits)

1 hour access to board room and audio/visual facilities every quarter

Tech. support while at RLabs

Printing facilities (limited to 100 pages)

FREE coffee

Seats are limited and if you are interested in registration for the RLabs membership programme please contact us and we will get back to you about your application. Please note that the membership is only valid with the local RLabs where you registered and plans to allow global access will be announced soon. Special arrangements can be made if you are traveling and the local RLabs have space available for you to access.

* While seats are available. Gold and Platinum members get first preference on available seats.

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

The day itself was one filled with excitement as the RLabs team will have the opportunity to meet some of the amazing leaders and residents of Blikkies Dorp equipping them with Digital and Social Media skills. The group who arrived at the RLabs Creative space in Cape Town was part of the Blikkies 4 Hope project and the training was part of their plan to equip themselves with skills to share their community stories with the rest of the world.

The sessions started with each one of the team and group introducing themselves sharing their expectations for the day. It did not take long before everyone got going covering various tools such as blogging, facebook, twitter and youtube, to name but a few. As the day progressed the atmosphere in the room became evident that the hunger and thirst to learn as well as sharing of stories become the order of the day.

The entire experience have taught us some valuable lessons:

1) Hope is like a flame we always need one another to fan the flame in order to it keep burning.

2) Our circumstances should never be an excuse for a lack of passion. The passion and drive by the Blikkies4Hope team was incredible and contagious.

3) An appetite for learning should always be served with a mixture of endless possibilities and HOPE.

RLabs will continue working with the people and organisations in Blikkies Dorp to make the difference and see a community empowered. To support the Blikkies4Hope project visit their website and for a detailed look into this community view the video by Barefoot Workshops about the people of “Blikkies Dorp”

Tin Town – Original from Barefoot Workshops on Vimeo.

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

The idea was birthed after realising the high unemployment rates in his community and the opportunity to develop digital artisans in working as remote agents/workers for companies in need of digital work. The Social Media Factory team develop the campaigns and strategies for companies and compile manageable pieces of work for its extended community to execute. This is further managed and moderated by the Social Media Factory manager to ensure quality of the work being executed in the factory.

Through this service more than 50 part-time workers has been employed through the Social Media Factory and being part of the RLabs InnovIA the goal is to grow the platform beyond South Africa.

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

The RLabs Innovation Incubator and Accelerator (InnovIA) for 2012 have an exciting line-up of Social Enterprise start-ups and one of our enterprises just released the following exciting announcement:

It has been just over 7 weeks since Uusi had its soft launch (BETA) via Mxit and this decision of launching via Africa’s most popular Social Network has been validated in the current activity and results. We excited to announce that Uusi have passed the 10,000 Mobile CVs uploaded milestone today.

Thank you everyone for the continuous support and we will continue create value to those looking for a New Beginning.

Source: Uusi.me

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

“Well what can I say, it was overwhelming! When registration started I was nervous yet excited that finally something started happening at RLabs Jozi, there was a visible sign that we were going to begin doing what we have been planning for months. I saw the response and I was overwhelmed.

Lessons learnt from this was that we do this not for self benefit nor for self gratification like I initially thought, we do this because as we have been blessed with the ability to bring these forms of media to our youth. 2012 looks promising we have new champions dedicated to making RLabs a success! We have community issues we would like to address as a group and we know as RLabs Jozi we will fulfil these and be successful. This is RLabs Jozi checking out at a 200 because not only do we know we can, but we’ve experienced this Hope that showed us what is possible!”

Source: Valencia Jacobs (RLabs Jozi Champion)

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

She’s The Geek will be incubated (watch short interview with Co-founder Monique Ross above) as it will develop a number of innovative programmes focusing on women empowerment and technology entrepreneurship. RLabs will continue introducing the various projects over the next few weeks that will be hosted in the Innovation Incubator and Accelerator and excited to see these Social Enterprises going from strength to strength.

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

Arriving in Dar es Salaam a few days ago brought an air of excitement in that it is a city with so much potential and a growing interest in technology. The RLabs visit was in partnership with TANZICT that stands for The Information Society and ICT Sector Development Project. It’s bilateral collaboration project between the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology of Tanzania (MCST) and Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

The project’s overall objective is a strengthened Tanzanian information society with enhanced capacities to contribute to the achievement of the Government’s socio-economic development goals.

The project is organized in three components:

1) Support the revision of the national ICT policy and start of the implementation.
2) Strengthen the Institutional capacity of MCST.
3) Create Tanzanian Innovation Program.

Social Entrepreneurship and its role in leaving a social impact:

The first session we had at the TANZICT Innovation Hub was to share the story of RLabs and to see the process of using Social Entrepreneurship in making a difference in the community. The presentation (see above) was followed by a discussion with some young entrepreneurs about how they can use Social problems in the community to make a difference. Through some exercises the entrepreneurs grew ideas into addressing local problems their communities are facing in Dar es Salaam. The day ended with some fascinating pitches by mobile entrepreneurs and it showed the potential for having Dar es Salaam as a technology hub for East Africa. The day really highlighted the need for fresh thinking to solve real problems on the African continent and proved that Social Innovation will be at the forefront of bringing the change needed in Tanzania driven by young tech social entrepreneurs.

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

One of the key values of RLabs has been empowering and reconstructing communities through Innovation. We are therefore excited to launch our pioneering 9 month Innovation Incubation and Acceleration programme with 6 grassroots community-based Social Enterprises who will be the class of 2012. One of the biggest challenges in many of the communities we work in is the problem of not being able to execute many of those great ideas and therefore missing the opportunity to make a difference.

The purpose of this programme is to grow ideas into manageable actions over a period of 9 months and then launching October 2012 at a special launch event. Over the next few weeks we’ll introduce each enterprise and go behind the scenes to meet the team of exciting social entrepreneurs. Each idea that were chosen had to at least meet the following 3 criteria:

1) It needed to be an idea/project that will make a social impact

2) There should be some clear plan on how to sustain it (business model)

3) Being able to scale is important especially considering the growth of the RLabs Global movement

RLabs as part of its offering to the class of 2012 will provide each start-up enterprise with the following:

1) A working space, internet, telephone and reception/admin for the duration of the programme ( end of January – October)
2) Equipment worth R10,000
3) Software development, hosting, servers and professional accounting resources to the value of R150,000
4) Seed capital of R25,000
5) Business Mentorship programme
6) Access to FREE training and workshops
7) Opportunity to grow the projects globally through our current international network

Although this programme will be running in Cape Town next year, we hope to replicate this through the global RLabs movement allowing social entrepreneurs all over the world the opportunity to innovate and make a difference in their communities.

If you are interested in supporting this project then please do not hesitate to contact us or if you want to share your thoughts then feel free to leave a comment.

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

This is testament to the power of mobile phones and the benefit of using a variety of digital platforms. Over the last few years we’ve ensured that mobile become a key component to our strategy for social change. Realising that it is the one technology that most of the world has access to and by leveraging it will assist us in reaching our goal of reaching the world through a Social Revolution.

We will share a more detailed report soon on how we’ve reached the milestone but some of the core technologies used are:

1) MXit Information Portals
2) JamiiX and multiple Mobile Chat services
3) Mobi web portals
4) Mobile Applications
5) Mobile Social networks

At RLabs we will continue pursuing possibilities of maximizing the use of mobile phones to make a difference and to spread the movement of Hope. Thank you to everyone who has contributed towards this journey and we hope together that we can now look forward to the next Million.

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post