The Times newspaper has today launched a new initiative – a website dedicated to the upcoming SA Elections. The SA Elections website was developed by Avusa iLab and is by far the best election-related website I’ve seen in a very long time.

While the design is fantastic I have to admit the real value is really in the functionality and features of the site. First up you can vote for your party of choice and the top-ranked parties are displayed near the header area. I love this and it’s going to be very interesting to see how the online community vote in relation to the rest of the country. I’m guessing it will be a lot closer than the actual elections.

The other feature that really stood out is the aggregation of news, not just from The Times, but from all the major news sites in South Africa. While this is a Times powered initiative it’s brilliant to see a site dedicated to the interests of democracy and not just re-purposing existing content from their stable.

There are detailed profiles of each political party as well as the key members of each party and in true Web 2.0 fashion the political profiles have been aggregated from Wikipedia.

This is a great site and really useful but I also have to bring in a few flip-side suggestions. If the guys are reading this then I’d like to suggest the following:

• There needs to be an easier way to comment on stories and commentary. Use the WordPress model and allow everyone to comment without the need to register.
• The comment form is not so lekker. Might need a little sprucing up.
• Finally, I think SA Elections needs to have an Afrigator feed in the “from the blogosphere” box. At the moment it’s only aggregating The Times blogs and I think this blogosphere box needs the same spirit as the news aggregation box.

I think this site is going to be massive for The Times and I wish them all the best with its continued development. Well done guys!

Disclaimer: I used to work for both The Times and Avusa iLab so take this into consideration when reading what I have to say. Despite this I still feel they’ve done a sterling job without me having to be biased.

Making the decision to leave was simple to make in that Afrigator is a passion of mine and I’ve now been given the opportunity to work on my passion full time but on the flip-side it was also extremely difficult. Over the last 14 months I’ve built up very special relationships with Colin, Gregor, Ian and Robin and we’ve grown very close as a team and as a friends.

Together I believe we have provided immense value to the company and I know that I am leaving the iLab in very capable and safe hands. I will now have the opportunity to sit back and watch what the guys produce over the coming months and I look forward to seeing them assist in helping the company reach its goals and objectives.

All I can say is that they will all be sorely missed.

Moving to Cape Town is something I and my family welcome and are looking forward to and while we’ll all miss our family and friends this move will be a life-changing experience for us all. As a parent I couldn’t ask for more than to bring my kids up in a city that has so much to offer and our quality of life is going to improve dramatically as a result.

Packing is now well on its way and on Sunday morning we move into our new home in Claremont. I don’t think we can yet quantify what this all means but I’ll post my experiences on the blog in the coming days and weeks.

Wish us all luck.

I’m not sure what a Systemologist does but Warwick has just showcased The Times’ new Multimedia Portal on one of the Automattic blogs and you can read the full post here.

Finally I can now officially announce that I’ve left The Times and have taken up a new position as the Digital Innovation Manager at Avusa‘s new commercial applications unit known as the iLab.

The iLab was formed to create online, offline and mobile innovation within the Avusa group and I’ll be heading up a small team from this point onwards. I will still report directly to Colin, who is now the Publisher of Times Online, but he will also work very closely with us on the strategy and implementation of new products and services.

We’ve also been busy with recruiting new staff and I’m very excited that Gregor has joined the iLab, in a highly strategic role, as our New Media Specialist. We’re really going to diversify Gregor’s skills and it is without doubt that he’ll be an invaluable addition to the team.

From the 1st of April Ian Barnes will join the iLab team as our Lead PHP Developer and I’m really excited to have his skill-set on board. Ian was responsible for the development of the Vault9 network as well as the blog traffic exchange site Blog Mad, so he has a proven track record in delivering high-quality websites.

There is little doubt that we’re building up a formidable team in the iLab and we’re not done just yet. We’re still on the lookout for a killer Web/Multimedia Graphic Designer so if you want to work with an innovative, dynamic and super-cool bunch of guys then pop me an email.

Exciting times at Avusa and I’m looking forward to reporting on some of our developments in the coming weeks and months.