tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60878184293187172802024-02-08T16:24:16.457+01:00Digital CrossingsOladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-80341496522011715082011-09-10T14:13:00.001+01:002011-09-10T14:47:52.156+01:00Startup Weekend Lagos Is On<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-1lH0ouzB7y0/TmtijhDRchI/AAAAAAAAAWA/rNHkbUO56ZE/s1600-h/swlagos%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 1px 5px 0px 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="swlagos" border="0" alt="swlagos" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-fqhfYLsU9nw/TmtikkNrpsI/AAAAAAAAAWE/q15QkcXx5I4/swlagos_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184"></a>The hall is large, the teams are clustered in different parts of empty space quietly working on their products. The quietness belies the intensity with which the teams are working. You can’t really tell at first glance what is going on. No company brand banners litter the room. No customer t-shirts worn by the participants. Nothing really shows that out of this room, out of this weekend could come Nigeria’s next internet phenomenon. This is Startup Weekend Lagos .</p> <a name='more'></a> <p>Lagos Startup Weekend is a product of the <a href="http://startupweekend.org">Startup Weekend</a> franchise. Like similar events, it brings developers, designers, project managers and investors together for one weekend to create a technology business or product from scratch. Hopefully, the outcome will be the beginnings of a viable business and/or product that can do well in the real world.</p> <p>For a nice change, I am not the blogger standing by watching the work being done. I’m actually one of the startup teams working on a great product with lots of potential. It’s called <a href="http://www.FindJimoh.com">www.FindJimoh.com</a> and it’s a tool to help you find reputable artisans in your area. The “reputable” comes from the fact that the artisans are recommended by your friends and neighbours who have actually used them.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://twitter.com/the_dej">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-7394063022992158302011-08-31T23:08:00.000+01:002011-08-31T23:08:01.533+01:00Play!Exactly one year ago, in the blog post "<a href="http://digital-crossings.com/pause">Pause</a>", I went on a hiatus from my regular posting schedule of an article every week. Like Captain America, Digital Crossings remained on ice while the tech world moved on. Man, did it move on! RIM struggling in its traditional markets, while exploding in Nigeria? Google buying Motorola? Apotheker (NOT HP) giving up on hardware? An age ending as Steve Jobs takes a bow? And I wasn't on hand analysing what impact any of this might have on Naija? That's virtually a crime.<br />
<br />
Well, the hiatus is officially over and I ask you to join me as I reboot this blog over the coming weeks. <br />
<br />
<b>PLAY!</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/the_dej">Dejo Fabolude</a>. Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-29142747507353711232011-04-12T22:01:00.001+01:002011-04-15T19:18:39.709+01:00Elections 2011: Now that we have all this data, what do we do with it?<br> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TaS9hfx-7bI/AAAAAAAAAUc/ZWZgF-F9n48/s1600-h/select_vote4%5B3%5D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="select_vote4" border="0" alt="select_vote4" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TaS9izu5E7I/AAAAAAAAAUg/lq64MP8gruY/select_vote4_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="277" height="219"></a>There is some serious data out there and we may be missing an opportunity to gather it, curate and use it to significantly transform the way the Nigerian nation functions.</p> <p>Nigerians have taken to mobile technology like fish to water. Initially, it was just voice and SMS data. Information that is locked up in the data stores of the telcos. Over time, Nigerians began to adopt the mobile web and systems like Facebook, Twitter and the Blackberry with the eponymous blackberry messenger. The explosive adoption of this across the country was debated by many as a great opportunity for business, education and social change, while others sneered at social media in particular as having no real power to change the status quo – especially politically. <br> <a name='more'></a></p> <p>Then the 2011 general elections began to draw near and various groups began to strategise. Politicians Like President Jonathan opened Facebook Pages ostensibly to engage young Nigerians. BRF greeted me and thousands of Nigerians “Good morning” from his twitter page everyday. At the other end of the spectrum, Gbenga Sesan gathered bloggers, developers and social media experts together to figure out how to get the word out to people to register and vote. The discussions also included how to use technology to make sure the wishes of the people are recorded and honoured. Similar groups developed and developed tools and systems, including Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria’s <a href="http://www.eienigeria.org/revoda/" target="_blank">ReVoDa</a>, Google’s <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=212059469427545728757.0004a01581f465ea295de" target="_blank">Nigeria Elections</a> Monitoring Map, and other Ushahidi-based solutions such as <a href="http://reclaimnigeria.net" target="_blank">Reclaim Nigeria</a>.</p> <p>Almost by magic, Nigeria became an information nation with millions of reports being pushed to the public internet via tweets, Facebook updates, ReVoDa reports, BBM messages, photo-sharing sites, YouTube, voice and SMS. INEC itself, amazingly, impressively, is using the tools, particularly BBM and Twitter to publish and collect information and reports on the elections. In one short week, between April 2nd and April 9th, Nigeria became a nation in which digitally generated and distributed information actually became at the centre of the people’s psyche. With almost no governmental expenditure we have the richest data set this nation has ever created existing in structured databases. The possibilities are limitless.</p> <p><em>The problem is it could all very well be wasted</em>.</p> <p>Information generated needs to be analysed and curated for it to be useful and it is unclear that enough effort is being made to corral this data into a form that can be usable. Specifically, there are two ways to gather and use the kind of data being generated almost every second.</p> <p>The first is real time response. On the 11th of April reports flowed via the Twitter stream giving up to the minute reports of events. Everything from missing ballot materials, violent attacks, procedural violations and requests for clarifications. All are things INEC and the security services needed to respond to immediately. It would be ideal if INEC had personnel analysing this data real time, pushing intelligence up to decision-makers who are initiating immediate responses to the situation on the ground. I did read some responses to Twitter queries from INEC’s Twitter account (@inecnigeria), but there is much more that could be done with the tools. After all, Ushahidi-powered solutions have been used for rapid deployment of rescue and relief materials in the midst of natural disasters. Indeed the app was born out of the Kenyan election crisis. It is unclear whether INEC are equipped to respond to this flow of information or not, but this was a vital opportunity that should have been taken advantage of.</p> <p>Having gathered the data, it can be used to plan for the coming polls. Much of this data is from the point of view of voters which will differ from that of electoral officers and security agents. This will give a unique perspective that can be used in the deployment of security agents, avoid errors (like the one in my polling booth where our records were sent to another booth further down the express) and develop more efficient methods for accreditation.</p> <p>When the elections are all over, the data can be used to validate published results, pursue legal disputes, prosecution of criminals, demographic studies, sentiment analysis, and planning of the next set of elections (LGAs, the inevitable reruns and 2015). </p> <p>Aside from the electoral process, the information that has been generated thus far and will be created over the next three weeks is an opportunity for scholars, businesses, historians, rural and urban planners, journalists, technocrats and many more to obtain actionable information.</p> <p>However very little of that is going to happen <em>unless we the tech community do something about it</em>. We are not yet a nation that knows how to handle and respond to large flows of real time information. Nor are we a nation with laws that can make use of and respond to crowd-sourced, digitally generated data. However, this election is our learning opportunity and while the traditional institutions may not be prepared for this (the independent observer was writing the results from my booth on paper, while I tweeted the same results and had it worldwide in seconds), the Nigerian people have gone digital. </p> <p>It will be a riotous, tumultuous process. We will make mistakes. People are using the tools to spread as much disinformation as they are spreading the facts. The fisherman in the remote village doesn’t have the digital tools, nor the literacy to report online how everyone was intimidated into voting for a specific candidate, nor could the cattle herder affirm the validity of the results via email. The farmer doesn’t know to send an SMS to an Ushahidi app reporting the failure of INEC officials to show up. A lot of this is focused around the major cities, around a demographic, around a certain educational minimum. Still it is a start. A huge one, and I for one am glad to be along for the ride.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a> </em></strong></p><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-55951462792446757722011-03-07T21:39:00.001+01:002011-03-07T21:39:24.915+01:00BarCamp Lagos is this Weekend<div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, 'Trebuchet MS'; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: 10px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; ">BarCamp Lagos is happening this Weekend. Find the press release By WebTrends Nigeria, the organisers, below.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; "><br></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; ">It's finally here, Barcamp Lagos… We are so excited to make this happen this year. Last year was super-successful and we surely believe we can replicate and surpass that this year. Last year, we discussed about local content, this year we will focus on start-ups, mobile revolution, e-payments, business and monetization. We do recognize these are some of the challenges we are facing in the industry. We will bring those who have experience building technology business from scratch to taking it public.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; ">We have confirmed attendance of <a href="http://ng.linkedin.com/in/chikanwobi" style="color: rgb(213, 78, 33); ">Chika Nwobi</a>, Founder of Mtech communications, <a href="http://za.linkedin.com/in/smagdali" style="color: rgb(213, 78, 33); ">Stefan Magdalinski</a> of MIH Internet Africa, <a href="http://ng.linkedin.com/in/lolaodusanya" style="color: rgb(213, 78, 33); ">Lola Masha</a> of Google. We will update you as we progress but in the meantime, we do recommend that you register to attend, remember; your registration is your entry ticket.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; ">If you wish to sponsor us, talk to us now. <a href="mailto:barcampnigeria@gmail.com" style="color: rgb(213, 78, 33); "><a href="mailto:barcampnigeria@gmail.com">barcampnigeria@gmail.com</a></a> or call <a href="tel:08096880957" style="color: rgb(213, 78, 33); ">08096880957</a></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; "><a href="http://webtrendsng.com/barcamp/registration/" style="color: rgb(213, 78, 33); ">Click here to register</a>.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; "><strong>Date:</strong> 11-12<sup>th</sup> of March 2011.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; "><strong>Theme:</strong> Technology Business Models; from Idea to Profitable Business.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; "><strong>Venue: </strong>University of Lagos</p><div><br></div></span><br>Oladejo Fabolude<div><a href="http://www.digital-crossings.com">http://www.digital-crossings.com</a></div></div>Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-37935120528834508062011-01-10T22:36:00.001+01:002011-01-11T10:00:46.759+01:00March of the Androids<p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TSuWoFgUvZI/AAAAAAAAAUM/eOFJBfA4TKA/s1600-h/android_apps%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="android_apps" border="0" alt="android_apps" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TSuWp3-sldI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/z8vKj4RQU9I/android_apps_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="366" height="230"></a>Early last year when the iPad arrived on the scene, my <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/03/african-ipad-part-1.html">African iPad series</a> imagined what an Africa-specific tablet would be like and concluded with a concept of a tablet that ran on Google’s mobile OS, Android. Now, in January 2011, three Android tablets are prominent right now in the Nigerian market. The <a href="http://galaxytab.samsungmobile.com/">Samsung Galaxy Tab</a>, <a href="http://www.starcomms.com/images/new_mypad_poster_and_leaflet_FA_for_print.jpg">the Starcomms MyPad</a> and <a href="http://enciphergroup.com/">Encipher Group’s Inye</a>. </p><a name='more'></a> <p>The Samsung Galaxy Tab is being marketed via a partnership between <a href="http://www.etisalat.com.ng/device_galaxy.php">Samsung Nigeria and Etisalat</a>. The Galaxy Tab is the world’s most successful android tablet so far. At 7 inches, it is significantly smaller than the iPad, but that is what some people like about it, and you can make calls from it without going through a special VOIP app like Skype. Coming from one of the top electronics companies on the planet, the device has the characteristic Samsung quality and very nice specs (available <a href="http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_p1000_galaxy_tab-3370.php">here</a>). It’s being offered at 125,000 naira which includes 250MB of internet data, free calling minutes and free text messages per month for 12 months.</p><p>Starcomms should be commended for creating their so-called <a href="http://www.starcomms.com/images/new_mypad_poster_and_leaflet_FA_for_print.jpg">MyPad</a>. This device is a self-branded Android tablet so clearly meant to be a “Nigerian iPad” that they named it after the Apple product and even use an image of the iPad on their marketing products (which is rather silly). It must be said that Starcomms continues to be the local telco that stretches its boundaries and thinks outside the box. Unless the promo is over, they are offering a deal at 75,000 naira that includes the MyPad with their new wireless izap modem with 250 hours of unlimited internet data valid for three months. By itself, the MyPad is 55,000 naira.</p><p>Then there’s the Inye. If the Galaxy Tab and the MyPad got married and had a child it would be the Inye. This 7 inch Nigerian-branded Android tablet retails for 45,000 naira and the specs are available on the <a href="http://www.slashgear.com/encipher-android-table-pushes-cloud-services-0484237/">product page</a>.</p><p>I’m not one to do feature by feature comparisons or in-depth product reviews, but I will say what strikes me the most about these 3 products. I think the Inye stands apart from the others. In creating this product, Saheed Adepoju and Anibe Agamah come closest to the clarity of vision Steve Jobs has for the iPad or the Googlers have for the Android platform. </p><p>Ultimately Etisalat and Starcomms are telecommunications companies, Nigerian telecommunications companies at that. Their business is to get people making phone calls and browsing the internet charging airtime by the second and internet time by the kilobyte. Consequently I think they will treat the Galaxy Tab and the MyPad just like handsets and PCs. In a sense they are complete devices in themselves and all Etisalat and Starcomms have to do is market them vigorously and watch the money roll in (or not, if the populace doesn’t bite). Despite having their name on it, at the end of the day it’s one product in their list of products and services. It says a lot that Starcomms doesn’t have a product page for their tablet. Never mind, Etisalat who have no stake real stake with the Samsung and could easily add the Motorola Xoom, the Apple iPad or indeed the Inye to their stable without blinking an eye.</p><p>Not so the Inye. This tablet is a platform effort as evidenced by several initiatives by Encipher Group. For one thing, they plan for an App store akin to the Android Market or the Apple App store where you and I can find specifically relevant apps for Nigeria and Africa. This app store will bundle in mobile payment systems native to Africa to enable users purchase apps and developers monetise. Secondly, very early in the development cycle, Encipher Group’s Saheed Adepoju began to engage the Nigerian tech community focusing on winning the hearts and minds of these early adopters and I think the input of this group may have helped shape what this product will eventually look like. Thirdly they are partnering with content providers whose business is bringing the technology to African culture and African culture to technology. Lastly, they have a full supply chain system in the works with customer support. In other words, they are committed to shaping this product to the environment it is designed for.</p><p>Of course their success is not assured, Samsung is, well, Samsung and a lot of Nigerians really don’t have confidence in Nigeria-branded electronics, though the lower price may make it attractive. Furthermore, Etisalat, Samsung and Starcomms have deep pockets and wide distribution networks already in place that really won’t cost them anything extra to leverage on for their tablets. However, the Inye has one thing I believe the others are lacking and that is depth. Inye is being shaped to be a 21st century computing device that resonates with the Nigerians. It will be uniquely ours. It might well be the Nigerian iPad. Having said that, they may want to explore partnering with a Telco like Samsung did to create a bundle of some sort, though I would be surprised if they are more interested in maintaining a distance from the Airtels and MTNs.</p><p>Time will tell of course. With the ease of churning out Android-based devices, all three will need to stand out among a deluge of devices that will hit the global and local market this year and it will be a monumental effort for either the MyPad and the Inye not to be lost in the crowd. They will need to find a way to hook into our lives and for the moment at least, the Inye has the better strategy.</p><p>One way or the other, we Nigerians will win. Just as we leapfrogged the West with our adoption of mobile phones, we will leapfrog in our adoption of the next decade’s computing platforms.</p><p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p><p><strong><em></em></strong></p><p><font size="1"><em><strong>Android Image Courtesy of </strong></em></font><a href="www.androidguys.com/2010/04/25/hardware-standards-android-handset-manufacturers-implement/"><font size="1"><em><strong>Android Guys</strong></em></font></a><font size="1"><em><strong>. </strong></em></font></p><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br />
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<script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div>Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-85595557400979494352011-01-01T23:40:00.000+01:002011-01-01T23:43:42.260+01:002011: Rise of the Nigerian Internet<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TR-uCJhm26I/AAAAAAAAAUE/9I9u2jRY6No/s1600-h/africaperspective%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="africaperspective" border="0" alt="africaperspective" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TR-uFBD2m_I/AAAAAAAAAUI/fkTS12s-KyM/africaperspective_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="304" height="400"></a>Today is January 1, 2011. For the last 3 weeks, most of the blogs and online publications I read have been reviewing 2010, making predictions for 2011 or both. Webtrends Nigeria’s Sheriff Shittu even asked several of us in the Twittersphere what our predictions were.</p> <p>Looking at my end of year posts at the end of 2009, I realise that I didn’t do a review of predictions, <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2009/12/to-infinity-and-beyond-well-2010-anyway.html">instead I did a wish list</a>. Sadly most of those items are still not fulfilled. Not yet. No stable electricity, no real eGovernment and the election preparations are just beginning to ramp up. Having said that, many of them were always going to be multi-year things anyway so I definitely do hold out hope to see them to pass. Most importantly, I should actively participate in helping them come to pass and in 2011 I plan to play my role. I hope you’ll play yours.</p> <a name='more'></a> <p>However, I do want to make one wish for this new year. It’s actually a wish and a challenge at the same time: we need a Nigerian internet. Let me hasten to say that I don’t mean we need to set up a parallel network, nor do I mean that we should set up our own equivalent of the “<a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2009/12/great-firewall-of-africa.html">Great Firewall of China</a>”. What I mean is that we need to start to develop internet solutions and mobile apps that are especially relevant to our peculiar socio-economic, ethno-geographic, political, linguistic and spiritual situation.</p> <p>Google and many of the other internet majors all pushed out to create products that are global in scope, but many of them did not start that way. Indeed for many of them, like Facebook, if they hadn’t first found success in addressing the needs and desires of a very specific segment of their society they would never have been in a position to scale to a larger user base.</p> <p>The intriguing thing is that as the internet has broadened to encompass such as vast variety of cultures and societies, the major internet companies are now focused on localisation. The rising stars of the internet are focused on creating services that take advantage of the peculiarities of your locale. Think Yelp. GroupOn. FourSquare. All of these base their value proposition on things within a few kilometres of where people are. Ushahidi’s power is in its ability to generate data from local events. Google is building localised versions of their sites and you can do searches of sites in Nigeria alone.</p> <p>We are here and we know our society and its needs better than anyone else. before we look outwards, we absolutely need to look inwards building things that the man in Lagos, the woman in Lokoja and the child in Lafiaji can absolutely relate to.</p> <p>As we created Nollywood, we now need to create the “<em><strong>Ninternet</strong></em>”. There are already efforts ongoing to create this and just by being Nigerians, even when we clone stuff we put in our own twists. Still we need to create things that appeal to the mainstream rather than just tech enthusiasts like me.So I keep an eye on sites like <a href="http://www.Gyst.com">www.Gyst.com</a> because they are headed in the right direction.</p> <p>The thing is, if we don’t do it Google, Facebook and their ilk are already muscling in. TechCrunch is already painting a big fat <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/31/future/">target on Africa</a>. If we don’t move now we will find ourselves overrun by a deluge of “invaders” bringing things that are of real value, but which lock us out and further export our wealth overseas. </p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a> </em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><font size="1">Image Source: Times Atlas</font></em></strong></p><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-36745349861147998152010-12-25T11:39:00.001+01:002010-12-25T11:39:48.379+01:00A Second Digital Crossings Christmas.We thank God for seeing us through to a second Digital Crossings Christmas. The sentiments I shared last year still hold true, but the message of Christmas holds true for all time: the greatest of gifts is in a child born of a virgin in the humblest of circumstances.<p>I shared this poem last year also and it is several years old, but the third verse is brand new. Enjoy.<p><br>AN AFRICAN CHRISTMAS<br>Why sing we songs of mistletoe?<br>Why exalt we the pure white snow?<br>What meaning, tell, Rudolph's red nose?<br>What romance bears fireside repose?<br>In an African Christmas?<br> <br>Why not dream of harmattan air?<br>Why not laud bluest atmosphere?<br>Extol the smell of burning grass,<br>Sing of dust, not frost on glass<br>In an African Christmas<br> <br>Why spend so on tinkling bells?<br>Why gorge 'til your belly swells?<br>The lust of things, halt, dispel.<br>The true Yule tale we must tell well<br>In an African Christmas.<br> <br>It's not the seasons of the year<br>That shape the wondrous Christmas air,<br>But Mary's infant meek and mild.<br>Praise then, all men, the Holy Child<br>In an African Christmas.<p>Oladejo FaboludeOladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-51495537977381388902010-12-17T10:35:00.000+01:002010-12-17T10:35:00.745+01:00Breaking the Silence<p><a href="http://www.enoughisenoughnigeria.com/blog/n-i-g-e-r-i-a-2/"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="RSVP" border="0" alt="RSVP" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TQqG0UeyRRI/AAAAAAAAATc/folFK5Cp9Ig/RSVP%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="340" height="284"></a>A year ago today, <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2009/12/born-this-17th-day-of-december-2009.html">Tejiri</a> was born.I wrote this <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2009/12/from-hospital-reception-waiting.html">blog post</a> while I waited for news of her birth and posted it once she was born.</p> <p>A few days later, my mother-in-law held Tejiri in her arms. Well, a year has gone by, and on this day of Tejiri’s first birthday, my mother-in-law is not here to hold her. She will never hold her or any of her grandchildren again. My mother-in-law was taken away from all of us, in part by a deadly (but survivable) disease, but primarily by indifferent medical care. </p> <a name='more'></a> <p>We talk about poorly equipped hospitals. How about when a hospital is fully equipped, but is staffed by indifferent and <em>inept</em> medical personnel who more than likely got their jobs without merit and have no professionalism and little concern for the human beings entrusted in their care? When a needle can go in the place? Be administered at the wrong time or not at all?</p> <p>We all rave, rage and rant at our leaders – the Senate, the House of Reps, government officials all. We forget that they are ordinary Nigerians like us.Ordinary Nigerians like doctors, teachers and messengers. If they were doctors, their patients would die. If they were teachers, their students would fail. If they were messengers, their despatches would be delivered a day late and a dollar short. Guess what, patients <em>are</em> dying and students <em>aren’t</em> learning. The problem isn’t just “them”. The problem is also us. It starts with us. You see “them” were once us. </p> <p>However, by being in positions of authority, their impact is elevated above that of a grenade tossed into a room and become artillery fire raining down on a nation– 25% of our national expenditure. Their defence of it being only 13% (or did they claim 9%?) is ludicrous in their failure to understand that they shouldn’t even be up to 1% of our national expenditure. Instead they should be contributing multiplied billions to our GDP in growth-friendly legislation, but I digress.</p> <p>More than ever, technology now enables us do what is needed to reshape our nation. If we didn’t know it before <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange">Julian Assange</a> shows us how a few people, with cheap tools, can move the whole world – for good or for bad. We in this nation need to use technology to change things in favour of the multiplied millions in Nigeria. Assange’s method is one way. <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/">Khan Academy</a> is another. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa">M-PESA</a> is another still. As might be <a href="http://mainonecable.com/">MainOne</a>.</p> <p>So technology will help us get information out about the upcoming elections. Where to register, where to vote and how the vote is being handled. Technology will help us know what the candidates stand for and what they have done in the past. Technology will help us protect the vote as we collate information from multiple sources that will give us a true picture of what really happened and hold it up to the world’s scrutiny. Technology will help us hold our leaders accountable once we have them in office.</p> <p>Technology will help us come up with new educational paradigms and help the lowest of the low get access, at the minimum, to the same content as the privileged. Technology will help develop our communities like a Malawian village boy who created electricity by <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8257153.stm">harnessing the wind</a> or as a group of young men and women are doing with solar in Ondo. Technology will help us change the way we manage our personal health, as well as change our healthcare systems.</p> <p>However, technology will only HELP. Unless, we the people, choose to do something, the technology cannot do anything. <a href="http://www.enoughisenoughnigeria.com">www.enoughisenoughnigeria.com</a> used the technology to get the word out, but it was the marching in the streets that got attention of those whose attention needs to be got. Similarly, technology must be used to support actual human activity for it to be meaningful. It cannot be used to abdicate responsibility.</p> <p>A good place to start is with these coming elections. There are tools out there already available and being developed to help support free and fair elections. However, they are meaningless if we Nigerians do not go out to register and then to vote.</p> <p>This blog has been on a hiatus, and this is not a return, not quite yet. However, I break the silence to honour my mother-in-law, to celebrate my daughter and to use both of them to appeal to whoever is out there listening: let us work for a day in which no more grandmothers are sacrificed on the alter of mediocrity. Let us bequeath a better Nigeria to our daughters, and our sons, than our fathers bequeathed to us.</p> <p><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude"><strong><em>Dej.</em></strong></a></p> <p><strong><em><font size="1">Image Courtesy of <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/gbengasesan">Gbenga Sesan</a> and <a href="http://www.enoughisenoughnigeria.com/blog/n-i-g-e-r-i-a-2/">The “Enough is Enough Nigeria” Coalition</a>.</font></em></strong></p> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-59023333960162020792010-08-31T07:04:00.001+01:002010-08-31T20:50:45.045+01:00Pause<p>This is my 100th blog post on Digital Crossings.</p><p>I started this blog in order to start writing again. As a university student, I had fully planned writing to be a key part of what I do for the rest of my life. Of course, like many can imagine, things didn’t work out that way. After putting writing on my New Year’s resolutions lists for several years, in 2009 I actually started writing again. I didn’t care what I wrote as long as I could write (call it my Startup story if you like @Possicon). I wanted to write regularly, so I committed to writing at least once a week. As an IT guy, I chose to write, what I imagined would be easy, non-controversial and would not require a lot of regular effort. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenlantern/128349059/"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 5px 10px 10px 5px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="128349059_9d72641d5b" border="0" alt="128349059_9d72641d5b" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TGGS4s_LDvI/AAAAAAAAAS8/KAqtU9Gl3Os/128349059_9d72641d5b%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="354" height="288"></a></p><p>From that perspective, this exercise has been an unqualified success. Since February of 2009, I have written a blog post every Tuesday and a few more besides. It hasn’t always been effortless or non-controversial, but it has been a lot of fun. Right now, I can’t imagine not writing weekly.</p><p>And yet there won’t be a Digital Crossings post next week Tuesday or for many Tuesdays to come. <strong><em>This is the blog post in which I press the “Pause” button on Digital Crossings.</em></strong></p><a name='more'></a> <p>In the process of writing, I haven’t just been putting words out there. I have also, as a consequence of this writing, done a lot of learning. I have learned about technology initiatives going on around the world in the internet space. I have also come in contact with various people around the Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world, doing creative things. Their stories have made me think, their actions have impressed me, and their challenges have, well, challenged me. </p><p>All this has made me realise that at the minimum, I have to re-think this blog, what its focus is and what its future should be. On a bigger scope, I also have to reconsider what I bring to the Nigerian and global tech community. I work in corporate IT. Corporate IT doesn’t really have a local voice serving its needs in Nigeria in the way that TechRepublic, Eweek, CIO Magazine and the rest serve Western and global business IT. Getting involved in collaborative ventures where IT professionals in my company, in my industry and other industries can grow professionally may be worth pursuing. On the other hand, there are a vast range of possibilities in the Nigerian internet space (43.9 million users?!). I have spoken extensively on what startups and internet businesses should be doing and I can either continue to be an armchair analyst or build something and put it out there. Clearly one is easier than the other, but the other is far better than the one. Then there are partnership opportunities with some of the existing efforts and many technological delights to just enjoy and explore without necessarily being analytical about them. Furthermore, tech was never my first love in writing.</p><p>These are just thoughts running through my head, but to harness them (or to quell them) I do need to step away from my central platform, this blog, for a while. So for the next few months (about 2 or 3, but I have not fully decided yet) there will be no regular blog post from me on this site. However, every once in a while, when I am intrigued enough (or riled) enough I will put pen to paper or finger to key and write. I will also still be very much a Twitteratti, I will still be part of conversations around the blogosphere and will graciously accept (hint, hint) opportunities to write for people.</p><p>Quite a number of amazing people have made this first part of my journey as a blogger a rich and fulfilling one. There’s <a href="http://www.loyokezie.com/">Startups Nigeria’s Loy Okezie</a> who has been in many ways my entry point into the community and continues to open doors. Sheriff Shittu (and I still don’t know what his @Possicon Twitter handle means) of <a href="http://webtrendsng.com">Webtrends Nigeria</a> whose his passion and leadership in the space have been inspirational. There’s <a href="http://www.ictworks.org/">ICT Works’</a> Wayan Vota who connects many dots across Africa and the West and was the first to republish one of my posts. Mambe Nanje of <a href="http://www.afrovisiongroup.com/">Naijaborn and Camerborn (and all sorts of “borns”)</a> stands out as the single largest commentator in a blog devoid of actual conversation. Then there’s the Titanic <a href="http://twitter.com/gbengasesan">Gbenga Sesan</a> whom I have never met in person, but who was instrumental in getting some of my work into newspapers and industry publications. <a href="http://pinigeria.org/">His incredible energy for the people reminds me constantly of what the tech is really about</a>. To these and other tech professionals and enthusiasts who I have encountered along the way and those few hundreds who have endured my multiplicity of words, I say thank you. Very much.</p><p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p><p><strong><em><font size="1"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenlantern/128349059/">Pause button courtesy of Greenlantern33 on Flickr.com</a></font></em></strong></p>Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-36383154188388982222010-08-24T18:17:00.001+01:002010-08-24T18:17:00.384+01:00If We Have To Register Our SIMs, Then Let’s Benefit From The Effort.<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TEYTHcpCjII/AAAAAAAAASc/WXJePsqrOMY/s1600-h/img_1853_sim-card_450x360%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="img_1853_sim-card_450x360" border="0" alt="img_1853_sim-card_450x360" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TGHSiy9sOZI/AAAAAAAAATQ/kYgt-84Ej1g/img_1853_sim-card_450x360%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="304" height="204"></a> I have written <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/07/sim-registration-thing.html">criticizing the rationale</a> behind the new <a href="http://businessworldng.com/web/articles/337/1/NCC-Set-Jan-2010-as-SIM-Card-Registration-Deadline/Page1.html">SIM registration requirement</a>. However, there isn’t really any groundswell of opposition to it (no #NoSIMRegNigeria hash-tag on Twitter). Unless our history of not doing such things well comes into play, soon enough there are going to be several huge databases lying around the place that would have the names, addresses and biometric information of at least a quarter of our populace. Indeed if the <a href="http://itrealms.blogspot.com/2009/11/nigerias-teledensity-soars-above-50.html">NCC is to be believed</a>, we have already passed the 50% mark in tele-density. My reasoning is if that data has been gathered, and <em>it is</em> our data, then we should derive some positive benefit from it, not just the government. </p><p>While I still stand by my recommendations around have the data should be stored and accessed, I believe there are opportunities for the citizenry to be served by that data. This will have to be built upon secure APIs providing controlled access to that data. This also assumes data quality without which no benefits can be achieved whether in security or commerce. Be that as it may, I believe the following benefits can be achieved.</p><a name='more'></a> <h5> </h5><h5>Digital Commerce Personalisation.</h5><p>Many services collect our phone numbers today in order to contact us for notification. Some of them, like banks already collect all sorts of bio-data already which they use to provide you service. For organisations that don’t need to gather and store this kind of data, they could use the aforementioned APIs on a as-needed basis. Sort of like the way users of InterSwitch’s online payment processor don’t store or even access your card details, instead they go off to InterSwitch’s site to complete the transaction, this data set can be used to provide a similar set of opportunities for other businesses to provide you personalised services without explicitly collecting, storage or even being able to “read” that data. For instance, someone could build a custom cake site where I go to order a birthday cake for my wife. So I don’t forget, I go in and place the order 3 months before her birthday. The only personal data of hers that I provide is her phone number. The baker’s site code goes and fetches her name for the icing of the cake, her birth date to enable the baker know when to prepare the cake. When the cake is ready, the baker provides the number to her courier who uses that to obtain the delivery address. The baker never has this information, only the courier company gets that info as it wasn’t relevant to the baker’s apps use case.</p><p>This is clearly a contrived example with all sorts of holes in it. For instance, ideally there should be some way of getting permission before any of the hidden information is revealed to the third parties involved, but since it should be my wife providing this permission, it would ruin the surprise. Furthermore if I am going to be prompted by some mechanism to authorise that some site should go off and get my info, why don’t I just provide it directly? However this is not an attempt to develop robust business rules, but to demonstrate some of the possibilities. </p><p> </p><h5>Data Transmission Brevity.</h5><p>This is related to the first. A widely used tool in Nigeria is SMS. We use it in an amazing variety of ways. One of its limits is you can only put so much information in a text. The capabilities of SMS in initiating financial transactions, doing registrations, etc can be simplified if we exchange a limited set of information by SMS which then authorises back end systems to exchange the needed personal details.</p><p> </p><h5>Identity Validation. </h5><p>As long as we are going to be going through a process of validating our identities (please see my <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/07/sim-registration-thing.html">previous post</a> where I expressed doubts about how well this can be done), then having validated it, shouldn’t we be able to use our phone numbers as “certificates of authenticity” on eBay-like sites as I discussed in my “<a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/08/few-ideas-part-3-solving-trust-issues.html">A few ideas: Part 3</a>” post? This ease of identity validation is one of the reasons why eBay can work in Europe and the US and not necessarily work well here in Nigeria.</p><p>These are three potential benefits that I can think of. Do they make sense or do you consider them a load of bunk? Can anyone else think of some other than these and the ones the government is touting? Let me know in the comments section.</p><p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p><p></p><p><strong><em><a href="http://tech2.in.com/india/news/mobile-phone-accessories/behold-the-1-gb-sim-card-from-samsung/2742/0"><font size="1">Picture of a 1GB SIM from Samsung courtesy of Tech2.com</font></a><font size="1">.</font></em></strong></p>Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-50977279234852263702010-08-17T18:29:00.000+01:002010-08-17T18:29:00.350+01:00Making the Nigerian Internet A Level Playing Ground<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TGG9UUoc59I/AAAAAAAAATI/wpTGsHOdl_Y/s1600-h/328454_f520%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="328454_f520" border="0" alt="328454_f520" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TGG9YS_jlPI/AAAAAAAAATM/TRco0TewzyM/328454_f520_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="237" height="244"></a> Last week two significant things caught my attention. First <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-silver/google-verizon-deal-the-e_b_671617.html">Google and Verizon seemed to trying to preempt the US Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to reach consensus with the major stakeholders in the US internet infrastructure space</a>. The two giants appeared to be proposing rules that would keep the internet a level playing ground, so called “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality">Net Neutrality</a>” rules. However several analysts expressed concerns over clauses that appeared to give them loopholes to make the wireless infrastructure of the internet less than open. Today, the wired internet (based on fibre optic and other physically wired connections to people’s homes) is the largest part of the means of internet access in the US. However, it is clear on several fronts that the mobile and thus wireless internet is the future and these two titans appear to be trying to position themselves to have clear advantages, arguably at the expense of customers and competitors alike.</p><a name='more'></a> <p>The second significant event was the report that according to the ITU <a href="http://www.itnewsafrica.com/?p=8555">43.9 million Nigerians</a> were now using the internet. 43.9 Million. That’s nearly 30% of our population. That’s more than 4 times the regularly mentioned 10 million Nigerians. There are many things that run through my mind as I think of it. The opportunity, not just for commerce, but for education, cultural transformation, and so much more. </p> <p>Now to tie these two things together. The mobile internet is <em>the </em>internet for Nigerians. Most of us, just as it was with telephony, have never really experienced wires and internet access together and the huge benefits of mobility will only strengthen that part of our technological culture. Like we did with unwired telephony, we are leapfrogging Western society in that regard and just as with mobile telephony we can enable a myriad of societal benefits. My concern here is that the enablers of mobile internet access, mostly the same enablers of mobile telephony, could deliberately put in road blocks that stunt this growth in order to wring the most money out of us that they can. Whether Google and Verizon are misguided, misunderstood or mischievous their actions could further cost the US even greater loss of their position of internet leadership and the wrong choices here could keep us from rising to ours.</p> <p>Don’t get me wrong, if you investment in something, you deserve to reap the benefits from your investment. As I see fibre optic cables being run down our major highways and read about <a href="http://www.powerset.com/explore/go/GLO%252D1-%28cable-system%29">GLO-1, Main One, SAT-3</a> and others with monetary values in the billions written in the same sentence with them, I am constantly conscious of the huge expense that has gone into putting these things in place. It pains me when I see road construction rip those cables out of the ground. These Telecoms firms should make as much money as they reasonably can from their investments. However, in the rush to profit they shouldn’t act in such a way that they significantly raise the barriers of entry to the internet that will keep the rich and poor both from getting cheap, fast and reliable internet access. They shouldn’t make it too expensive for entrepreneurs to deploy quality internet based services in-country. </p> <p>You hear me Globacom, MTN? Don’t be like Google or Verizon. Don’t be evil.</p> <p>Of course evil is in the eye of the beholder when the smell of money is in the air. We pay 25 times more per kilobyte for mobile 3G internet access than they pay in the UK (i.e. usage without a contract just per usage charges) and the providers go smiling to the banks. That price may drop with all the fibre coming into Nigeria over the next few months, but I suspect that without intervention the prices may not fall to an equitable level. This is why our own FCC, the NCC should put policies in place today, that will protect our digital tomorrow. This isn’t just about pricing, it is about making sure that the decisions that are made for today and for tomorrow will help us achieve the societal advantages that the internet can bring whether or not the gatekeepers care for it or not. They need to start the engagement today that will protect the Citizenry while continuing to ensure that this is a viable investment climate for communications technology infrastructure investment. </p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-36370254260636366022010-08-10T19:00:00.000+01:002010-08-10T20:17:20.616+01:00How to Lose A Customer<p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TGGjuCoG2DI/AAAAAAAAATA/t0xbnmwzA1s/s1600-h/0_apr_credit_card%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="0_apr_credit_card" border="0" alt="0_apr_credit_card" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TGGjwPpDVuI/AAAAAAAAATE/lKznv5gNNak/0_apr_credit_card_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="354" height="237"></a> My bank, Guaranty Trust Bank (<a href="http://www.gtbank.com/">GTBank</a>) recently started migrating customers away from the InterSwitch CashPlus ATM/Debit Card to the more secure <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV">“Chip and PIN” (EMV) technology</a>. Their chosen solution is the Naira MasterCard product in still in partnership with InterSwitch. The process has been painful for me because I use my card to pay my bills online. The problem is that the Naira MasterCard doesn’t work on the old or new bills site that InterSwitch has set up (<a href="http://www.quickteller.com">www.quickteller.com</a>) and there is no prognosis for when it would be turned on for bills payment on their site. My problem actually started before the new card was issued. First GTBank reduced the ATM limits on the old card without informing users or at least not doing it in a way that caught my attention until I ran into problems when I needed cash for a transaction. Then they disabled the ability to use the card on most websites with equally little customer engagement. This significantly handicapped my ability to run things the way I used to.</p><a name='more'></a> <p>In the pursuit of a solution, I spoke to GTBank card services, but all I got were explanations, not solutions. Almost by accident, I discovered that I could still do some of the transactions I couldn’t do online at the ATM. At least with the old card. Once that was replaced with the Naira MasterCard, that avenue went away. So I ended up having to go waste valuable time lining up in a banking hall to pay bills that for over a year I had been paying online. </p> <p>Since GTB wasn’t offering me any solution, I finally managed to speak with InterSwitch personnel to be sure that it wasn’t a bug and that Naira MasterCard wasn’t yet active on Quickteller.com. They confirmed that it wasn’t in fact active yet, but (and this is the point of this post), that their <a href="http://www.interswitchng.com/verve/">Verve Card</a> was fully functional on the site and I could get one if I had an account with a participating bank. It immediately occurred to me that several dynamics were in play in this conversation. First InterSwitch didn’t really have that much of a stake in the MasterCard thing and would be very happy if I moved to Verve, secondly my bank was at risk of loosing revenue from me and people like me because they had deliberately (I am tempted to say “with malice aforethought”) put barriers in place that were suddenly making life difficult for their customers. Third, with only a little effort I could restore my comfort zone by moving to another bank, the same way I had moved to GTBank. Lastly, the other banks were not using the opportunity to market to people suffering through this change.</p> <p>All this highlights the dearth of a personalised customer orientation in big business in Nigeria. It is these little things that can make or break a relationship with customers and take revenue away from a business. There are several key lessons that I could spell out here. For one thing, you don’t leave loyal customers in the lurch when you are making this kind of change. As part of the process, you dedicate as much to the front end of managing the customer experience as you do to making sure that the technology at the back works the way it should.In corporate IT, we call it “<a href="http://www.tech-faq.com/change-management.html">Change Management</a>”.</p> <p>I won’t say much more than I have already said. However, we press forward with business models, especially on the internet, that cannot count on being able to afford huge expensive media blitzes to win or retain customer loyalty. As we do this, let us bear in mind that it is the simple inexpensive acts of making individual customer’s lives better, i.e. our value proposition, that will be the single strongest marketing campaign we can ever conduct. </p> <p>Make each person feel special and millions will beat their way to your doorstep.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em></em></strong></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 350px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F08%2Fhow-to-lose-customer.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=350&action=like&font=trebuchet+ms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-78846916092714607592010-08-03T18:11:00.000+01:002010-08-03T20:49:05.724+01:00A Few Ideas Part 3: Solving the Trust Issues<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/springstone/3411654812/"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="3411654812_2046f3beb2" border="0" alt="3411654812_2046f3beb2" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TFhyrgLj8pI/AAAAAAAAAS4/IhaxNttpyNQ/3411654812_2046f3beb2%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="354" height="266"></a> This is the third of the <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/07/problem-tech-solution-1.html">three ideas</a> I had committed to share in response to Gbenga Sesan’s challenge. The whole ideas thing came out of my <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/search?q=Clone+Wars">Clone Wars series</a> where I had claimed that there are enough local problems to use technology to solve rather than creating copies of technologies that don’t necessarily solve anything. I seriously love Twitter, but it doesn’t in and of itself solve any problem. However, a whole slew of things have been built on top of it that solve a variety of problems.</p> <p>On to today’s idea. EBay is one of those unique web-based businesses that was profitable from day one. EBay’s original business required very little infrastructure because what it did was connect buyers with sellers and take a cut of the transaction for providing this connection. This <a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/#Brokerage">brokerage model</a> is an excellent one that many have tried to replicate the world over.</p><a name='more'></a> <p>You and I both have stuff we would like to sell off and make some cash from, but the problem in Nigeria is that we generally don’t trust each other, and unfortunately we have good cause for this lack of trust. As I wrote in a post last year, my very first attempt to sell something on eBay itself was hijacked by <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2009/07/bad-name.html">someone trying to dupe me in Surulere</a>. This kind of issue makes it hard for people to do commerce with strangers online in Nigeria and those who have tried to replicate eBay type systems have had it really difficult. <a href="http://www.firstnaija.com/">First Naija</a> for instance, seems to be depressingly empty despite appearing to be well implemented (though I don’t actually have any information as to why it is empty). BidNigeria (see their “<a href="http://bidnigeria.com/support/knowledgebase/">about us</a>”) also looks interesting, but time will tell how it does. </p> <p>EBay works in the US and similar societies because it is relatively easy to locate people and bring the weight of the law down on them not because they are intrinsically more honest. People (for the most part) are more trusting in these societies because broken trust is easier to punish. Where people are duped, it is because the people they sold to or bought from have succeeded in presenting a false identity or false location information. Ironically, the SIM registration thing may actually be a tool that could be used to address that here in Nigeria, but that’s not the solution I’m looking at.</p> <p>The solution is fairly simple, and as one of the speakers at BarCamp Nigeria 2010 pointed out the banks, faced with a similar problem, have worked out a solution. Banks require all new customers to be validated by an existing customer. This, known as the “web of trust”, is based on the fact that if I trust you, then I can probably trust the people you recommend. It’s a bit more involved than this, but at the core, this is what it ultimately is. </p> <p>There are various ways to implement this. One of the most obvious is to use the social graph that exists in systems like Facebook. Your relationships on these platforms are based on existing real world relationships (at least they are if you have been judicious in who you “friended”) and you already know to what extent you can trust the persons you are connected to. Another option is to build your own social graph specifically for this product – in effect, building your own social network. There are other possible ways to do this and smarter people than me are already working on it. Either way, build your auction or peer-to-peer sales solution connecting people to people they already know and they will already have data as to whether or not they can trust the buyer or seller.</p> <p>Let me close this series with this thought, I am conscious I am giving away ideas that could be used to build businesses, but I am doing it for at least two reasons. First, the ideas are not particularly unique, earth-shaking or even very original. Look around, someone somewhere is already implementing them in one form or the other.There really is nothing new under the sun. Secondly, and more importantly, ideas are not worth very much. Really they are not. We’ve heard the old story about the cemetery being the richest place in the world because ideas are buried there. Yes and No. An idea is only worth as much as its execution. No more. Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper are essentially the same idea. It’s the execution that makes the difference. The iPod is synonymous with MP3 players, but Apple did not invent the idea. Yet their execution gave them most of the market. Great executors don’t always originate ideas, but they do them better than everyone else. Many VCs won’t do NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) with startups who are just pitching ideas, because the very next startup is going to pitch the same thing at them. They also don’t sign up many startups until the startup can show that they can out-execute the other guy doing the same thing <em>and</em> differentiate themselves. </p> <p>I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t protect your business plans, designs, specifications, or algorithms. They are all work product, but ideas themselves are a dime a dozen. Most importantly, when you share an idea, the idea itself can grow in the sharing and you get something more concrete and more doable from the conversation. Yes you risk someone stealing your thunder, but if it is so easy to implement, it may not be worth your time anyway. My final word is this: as much as we compete, we need to collaborate as well and sharing ideas is the first step towards that. </p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p></p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/springstone/3411654812/"><font size="1"><strong><em>The handshake is courtesy of Spring Stone @ Flickr.com</em></strong></font></a></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 350px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F08%2Ffew-ideas-part-3-solving-trust-issues.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=350&action=like&font=trebuchet+ms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-44518943569966498512010-07-27T18:28:00.000+01:002010-07-27T19:48:29.182+01:00A Few Ideas Part 2: A Reputation Engine<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45093624@N06/4164214743/"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="4164214743_8858eba712" border="0" alt="4164214743_8858eba712" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TE8pbFaa0KI/AAAAAAAAASk/4btWX__-WgU/4164214743_8858eba712%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="354" height="237"></a> In response to a request to talk about specific problems that technology can be used to solve in Nigeria, I wrote <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/07/problem-tech-solution-1.html">“A Few Ideas”.</a> This was a misleading title since only one idea was actually discussed. The plan had been to discuss 3 different ideas in the post, but it turned out that that would have been too much for one post. So I’ll be detailing two ideas in two following posts starting with this one. </p> <p>In the first post, I suggested a mobile app for improving vehicular and road safety by crowd-sourcing a map that could warn drivers that they were approaching a bad spot in a road, and could potentially be used by governments to plan road maintenance. This second idea is also something of a crowd-sourced mapping solution. In Nigeria, we are way too used to bad customer service. I walk into a shop, get treated badly and the next customer walks into the same shop, gets treated the same way and the cycle continues. We should break this cycle. </p> <div id='extendedEntryBreak' name='extendedEntryBreak'></div> Specifically, I would like to propose an app where Nigerians can go online to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down for a specific product, service, institution or facility or the intersection of these. As simple as that. <p></p> <p>So if I find that the service at the Mr. Bigg’s in Ajah is exemplary, I can go online look to see if it is already rated on the site. If it is already rated, I can give it my own rating. If it is not, I can add the facility, tag the service, provide the location and add my own rating. Then someone else who wants to go to the same place to buy food can look it up on the site, see the ratings it has received over time and make an informed decision. This system will also be kept as simple as possible either excluding the means of providing longwinded reviews entirely, or limiting free text to something even shorter than the Twitter standard 140 characters. It also a product that could be built on top of existing social networking platforms in order to make use of the existing relationships people have built on the likes of Facebook and Twitter. This would strengthen the value and validity of the ratings.</p> <p>With an app like this, we can begin to build what amounts to a reputation engine for various business and services from large corporate chains to small traditional markets, government institutions, schools and social services. It could even serve as a discovery engine for these services. The value to the end user is that you get to see what people really experience as opposed to what the service advertises. So I go to the places where people are enthusiastic and avoid the places where people get mistreated. </p> <p>The businesses themselves could potentially receive value from this. So if I run an institution that has branches, I can go online to compare the reputations of my Apapa branch and my Ikeja to see how they are doing in the eyes of the public. I could also see how my competitors are reputed compared to my business. I could use it to make investment decisions for my business. </p> <p>How does the developer monetise? Adverts, for one. People are already thinking of products and services as they visit this site, so they are already in the frame of mind to click on links. I’m not even suggesting a Google Adsense thing here, I mean the developer selling adverts directly to businesses. That way, they get to keep more of the revenue and can do hyper local services better. The developer can also develop and sell analytics services to businesses that could assist them in their planning and customer relationship management.</p> <p>Just like the first week’s idea, there is nothing inherently original and groundbreaking in this idea. Review sites have been on the internet for most of it's history. The American website <a href="http://www.yelp.com/">Yelp</a> does something pretty similar this. The Kenyan site <a href="http://www.gotissuez.com/main/">GotIssuez</a> is more activist, but uses the same principles and the recommendation engine in Amazon.com is one of the reasons for the fantastic growth the site experienced. Forum sites like <a href="http://Nairaland.com">Nairaland</a> do this type of thing in free flowing interactions on the site. However something that targets the Nigerian marketplace in a structured, searchable form and addresses our own needs has great social change potential as well as good business potential too. In addition building a mobile component into it so that people can rate from their phones, search for ratings and even search for products and services would make it more powerful and useable.</p> <p>Of course a system like this could easily be manipulated to make a particular business or service look really good and another one look really bad, so technology would need to be developed or adopted to prevent this kind of gaming. There are all sorts of challenges I can see with this product such as <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/04/yelp-lawsuit-extortion/">Yelp has experienced</a>, but it would serve as a good means for good service to be publicised and bad service to be known and avoided.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em></em></strong></p> <p><font size="1"><strong><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45093624@N06/4164214743/">Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down --- Image by © Matthew Borkoski/Monsoon/Photolibrary/Corbis as found on Flickr.com</a> </strong></font></p> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F07%2Ffew-ideas-part-2-reputation-engine.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=350&action=like&font=trebuchet+ms&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:350px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe><p></p><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-45512440099298877392010-07-20T19:47:00.000+01:002010-07-20T22:26:06.220+01:00The SIM Registration Thing.<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TEYTHcpCjII/AAAAAAAAASc/WXJePsqrOMY/s1600-h/img_1853_sim-card_450x360%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="img_1853_sim-card_450x360" border="0" alt="img_1853_sim-card_450x360" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TEYTKvpJj6I/AAAAAAAAASg/NLp7M53mODI/img_1853_sim-card_450x360_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="354" height="237"></a> The SIM registration thing has been on the edge of my consciousness for a while. Each time I read or hear some announcement about it the media or come across something on a telco’s website about it, the thought occurs to me that someone who understands the industry really should write about the potential economic impact of this new law. One of the things that has contributed to the growth of cell phone usage in Nigeria is the extremely low barrier to acquiring one. I actually think that one of the reasons fewer people have acquired postpaid lines is the relative complexity involved in getting one. I believed that the new rule would have some kind of chilling effect on the industry, but was hoping that someone more knowledgeable than I am would write about it.</p><a name='more'></a> <p>Despite this, I hadn’t actually gone looking for any writing about it, Until <a href="http://www.davidajao.com/blog/">Oluniyi David Ajao’s</a> blog post popped up in my Twitter stream. Niyi’s post (which for some reason has disappeared from his blog page, but it is still <a href="http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=nigerians-ncc-wants-to-track-your-movement&d=66613787754912&mkt=en-GB&setlang=en-GB&w=aaca5e10,dd988fc5">cached on Bing</a>) doesn’t look at it from a commercial impact perspective so much as it is an examination of the touted security “benefits”. He is harsh in his criticism. For the most part, I agree with him. I don’t think the reasons for the new rules are well thought out or are hard to circumvent. In particular, in a country where it is easy to get multiple driver’s licenses and passports (official ones) in multiple names, the idea of being able to tie a SIM to an individual who doesn’t want his identity divulged is laughable. At the very minimum, a kidnapper can use his victim’s cell phone to make his ransom demands, and can make those demands while on the move, thwarting any attempt to use triangulation or GPS to track them. It also assumes an investigative efficiency that the law enforcement agencies cannot be expected to demonstrate.</p> <p>My concerns over the impact of this on commerce appear to be valid if MTN’s experience with <a href="http://www.thisday.co.tz/?l=10300">such a law in South Africa is examined</a>. There was a drop in line acquisition and thus business growth attributed to the law, and I fully expect the same to happen in Nigeria. However, these are not the biggest concerns. A larger issue is this: do we want any large organisation, a telco or a government agency to have unfettered access to our location data without our explicitly choosing to give them that information? Do we want to give telcos information that is not specifically required to enable them provide me a service and get paid for it? Am I expected to trust that they will implement adequate security protocols to make sure that my data is not mined and used in fraud, identity theft, impersonation and even by the selfsame kidnappers to track me down? My fingerprints in MTN’s database? All over the world governments are <a href="http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/word-war-iii-google-vs-governments/">vehemently resisting the likes of Google</a> capturing and storing personally identifiable data and our government is asking private organisations to capture and hold this information in trust? <a href="http://businessworldng.com/web/articles/337/1/NCC-Set-Jan-2010-as-SIM-Card-Registration-Deadline/Page1.html">This is why we need a Federal CIO.</a></p> <p><a href="http://leadershipnigeria.com/editorial/16936-registration-of-sim-cards">At least one writer finds the idea to be a good one</a>. Though I should point out to “Jacob” that the countries he refers to capture this information for billing purposes because they mostly sell contracts (postpaid lines) not prepaid. Some might argue that if you are not engaged in or planning to engage in criminal activity, you should have no course for concern. Maybe. It is also true that it is the innocent that are worst hit when institutions mismanage or abuse the enormous powers they hold. The criminal usually escape unscathed. Simply put, I don’t trust the telcos or the government to do right by me with my data. I also do not trust them to take the necessary action if the scenario presented itself for them to apprehend criminals or save lives.</p> <p>However, my protestations are a tad too late.The ship has sailed and we will have to deal with the effect down the road. <a href="http://businessworldng.com/web/articles/337/1/NCC-Set-Jan-2010-as-SIM-Card-Registration-Deadline/Page1.html">The time to get involved in the debate is long past</a>. For now, let me make some suggestions on governance to manage the situation.</p> <ol> <li>All systems that store any of this information should be subject to strict laws and controls about encryption and access. At a minimum the kinds of controls that govern financial records (on the scale of the US PCI and Sarbanes-Oxley IT systems rules) should be enforced. If these are not already in place, the process should be stopped until they do. <li>No data should be provided to any law enforcement agent without a warrant from a court of law. <li>Location data, if captured, should not be retained for more than an agreed upon timeframe? Perhaps 3 months at the most. <li>No commercial use should be made of this data without an explicit opt-in by customers (Indeed, if you are going to use my data, not only should you get my permission, but you should pay me for the privilege). <li>Any data breach should immediately be published to the public. <li>Equip the police. Technology is only as good as the human infrastructure and people processes behind it.</li></ol> <p>If nothing else, this situation brings up the fact that we absolutely need to have a national dialogue about information and communication technology and the rights and privileges of the citizenry. We who understand the technology and have some insight into the social economic impact should keep a very keen eye on what our governments come up with and be vociferous in providing support when appropriate or criticism when needed</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://tech2.in.com/india/news/mobile-phone-accessories/behold-the-1-gb-sim-card-from-samsung/2742/0">Picture of a 1GB SIM (!) from Samsung courtesy of Tech2.com</a>.</em></strong></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 350px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F07%2Fsim-registration-thing.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=350&action=like&font=trebuchet+ms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-60153706535469624342010-07-13T20:42:00.000+01:002010-07-13T22:21:35.425+01:00A few ideas<p><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ilupeju,+lagos+nigeria&sll=6.45555,3.134362&sspn=0.001005,0.001725&ie=UTF8&hq=ilupeju,&hnear=Lagos,+Nigeria&ll=6.620424,3.3551&spn=0.008036,0.013797&t=h&z=16"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TDzYC_MmT_I/AAAAAAAAASY/dJcltOVnU0U/image%5B6%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="324" height="241"></a> <a href="http://www.gbengasesan.com/blog/">Gbenga Sesan</a> had this to say <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/06/clone-wars-part-3-platforms.html#IDComment85194290">in reponse to one of my posts</a>. <em>‘Dejo, I'll like to know what problems you refer to <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/06/clone-wars-part-2-pros-and-pitfalls.html">(in Part 2)</a> when you say, "...by cloning an existing product you run the risk of solving a problem that doesn’t exist in your environment while ignoring rich opportunities that you could be addressing." I think that is the nexus of your brilliant series (which MUST be pushed to a wider audience, maybe through regular ICT reporting channels), and it'd be great to identify such problems and who knows, there may be people waiting to have a go at them. Thanks.’</em></p> <p>I replied by promising that <em>‘I'll do a postscript next week listing at least 3 specific problem domains and speculating on possible solutions’</em> (What had I just let myself in for?).</p><a name='more'></a> <p>Coming up with an idea is the easy part, building is the hard part. Still, the ideas we put out there may just inspire someone to grab on to one of them and make something worthwhile. Some of these ideas may be way out there in terms of craziness and seem like flights of fantasy, but with some of the new technology coming out everyday and becoming more and more affordable the wildest things can become simple to accomplish. Yesterday’s science fiction is today’s reality. Just yesterday Google announced <a href="http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=App+Inventor&FORM=EWRE&qpvt=App+Inventor">App Inventor</a>, a new development tool that will enable ordinary people with no programming skill whatsoever to build applications for their Android phones. One person built an app using App Inventor that could detect when he was driving (accessing the GPS on his phone) and would automatically respond to every text message with a response that he was driving and couldn’t respond. This is reminiscent of the website building tools that everyone and their dog used to build websites in the good old days and resulted in the extraordinary growth of the internet. It actually deserves a Digital Crossings post of its own. Which brings me to the first of my set of problems and possible solutions. </p> <h4>The Problem.</h4> <p>Nigeria is covered in bad roads. We are used to the situation, but they have resulted in far too many deaths. In my opinion, the worst roads are those that are smooth for good portions and then suddenly collapse into a porthole. Drivers lulled into a sense of security by the smooth portion come suddenly upon the bad portion and all sorts of accidents can occur. The obvious solution is for the people responsible to fix the roads. Thousands of dead Nigerians are evidence that they are not doing it. </p> <h4>A Solution.</h4> <p>Like so many things in our nation, the citizenry may need to take care of themselves. Movements like <a href="http://www.lightupnigeria.org/">Light Up Nigeria</a> and <a href="http://www.enoughisenoughnigeria.com">Enough Is Enough</a> are applying pressure in various ways to get action from those with the responsibility on a variety of things. However, if we can’t solve the fundamental road problem just yet we could develop an early warning system. With technologies increasingly available in more and more mobile phones a driver along the roads of a city like Lagos is constantly broadcasting location information. Some have accelerometers that can detect bumps or dips. Some have voice control. A mobile phone application can be built that uses the capabilities of different phones to record trouble spots. As a driver drives along and encounters these trouble spots the phone can detect when the car moves in an unusual way, or the driver using voice control tell the application that this is a bad spot. This information is then broadcast via one of several possible means to a database that collates multiple reports and plots them on a map. Multiple reports are what give a report validity.</p> <p>The second piece of this application gives a driver an audible alarm when they approach such a bad point giving them enough forewarning to slow down. This may even be used to develop a system to prioritise what gets patched.</p> <h4>Final thoughts.</h4> <p>This is not a unique solution (<a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/06/clone-wars-part-one.html">a clone</a>). I have heard of similar solutions elsewhere already and it is the kind of thing that can use crisis mapping technology <a href="http://www.ushahidi.com/">(like the one that starts with “U”).</a> Secondly, there is the problem of getting this on people’s phones – never mind the development challenges of building for phones with different capabilities. Ultimately, it relies on crowd-sourcing which requires skill to raise to a critical point before it becomes useful.</p> <p>Told you some of these ideas could be way out there. </p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 350px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F07%2Fproblem-tech-solution-1.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=350&action=like&font=trebuchet+ms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-65866215735610112152010-07-06T20:17:00.000+01:002010-07-06T23:26:04.012+01:00Clone Wars Part 4: The Advert Trap.<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pentax/405617664/"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="405617664_c77850dea9" border="0" alt="405617664_c77850dea9" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TDOljeI3aGI/AAAAAAAAASU/bmrWnHjmICA/405617664_c77850dea9%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="354" height="256"></a> The <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/search?q=Clone+Wars">Clone Wars series</a> started out in my mind as a commentary on all those Nigerian social networking sites popping up across the internet. The original idea was to speak out against them, but as you can see from the actual series itself, I changed my mind along the line. Still, I do advocate we do more than just churn out social sites. </p> <p>Having said that, it isn’t just social sites that are being cloned. We are also cloning revenue models. Just like with cloning web services, there is nothing wrong in copying someone else’s successful monetisation method, but we severely limit ourselves by not giving more thought to our models.</p> <p>The most popular monetisation model for internet services in the world today is adverts. Google did not invent the advert model, but they have made the greatest success out of it. They make almost all their products free to customers and get advertisers to pay for them. This has created an internet culture where users expect most internet-based services on the internet to be free. </p><a name='more'></a> <p>In Nigeria, we have a history of not paying for intangibles such as services as software. While we have never had problems paying for items and products, we have historically found it difficult to put a fair price on a technical service or intellectual property. Probably every society faced this difficulty at one time or the other. When I started out, you could get a disc for a few hundred naira that had Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, several versions of Windows, and everything Autodesk had on the market. When my boss back then tried to make a business of selling legitimate copies of AutoCAD at the proper price of $3,000 he was thought to be insane. Google with their free services; the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open_source_software">Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)</a> movement; file sharing sites and such merely cemented what was already culturally ingrained in us. On top of all that there is the long-running problem of the lack of any payment mechanism for online services. I call it a problem, but it really wasn’t because very few people actually wanted to pay for anything online, but those who did – until the last few years – couldn’t.</p> <p>I said all that to say this – because we are so comfortable with free online services, the ad-based revenue model seems to be the most natural revenue model for a Nigerian web enterprise. The problem is that I don’t believe that it truly fits our society, not yet, Not as means for technology entrepreneurs to find prosperity anyway. I looked for empirical evidence to support this belief without any success. In particular I looked for information on Google’s ad revenue per country, but it isn’t out there or I’m not looking in the right places. So I have to rely on anecdotal evidence and have to say that if most Nigerians are like me and the folk I know, most do not click on ads. Another example. In two conferences I attended in Lagos with Google staff present, a show of hands was asked for of people who use Google AdSense on their sites and blogs. A good number of of folks raised their hands. Another show of hands was asked for of people who made up to a hundred dollars per month from their sites. The number of hands that went up were just 2 or 3 in each conference.</p> <p>I believe that advertising, if done right would be a good business model, <em>for the ad engine provider</em>. However, as a source of revenue for some other service, it may not be the best model in Nigeria right now. I an open to correction on this by someone with more empirical data, but my instinct right now is that Nigerian internet entrepreneurs need to look elsewhere for monetisation. Having said that, you lose nothing by signing up for an AdSense account and having Google sourced adverts alongside what ever else you choose to use to monetise. <a href="http://www.flyaero.com/">Aero Contractors</a> does it, why not you?</p> <p>I believe that the strongest source of revenue for Nigerian internet businesses for now is to make money from things people are already familiar with – physical goods and real world services. <a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html">Michael Rappa, over at Digital Enterprise</a> lists the following models:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/#Brokerage"><b>Brokerage</b></a> <li><a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/#Advertising"><b>Advertising</b></a> <li><a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/#Infomediary"><b>Infomediary</b></a> <li><a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/#Merchant"><b>Merchant</b></a> <li><a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/#Manufacturer"><b>Manufacturer (Direct)</b></a> <li><a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/#Affiliate"><b>Affiliate</b></a> <li><a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/#Community"><b>Community</b></a> <li><a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/#Subcription"><b>Subscription</b></a> <li><a href="http://digitalenterprise.org/#Utility"><b>Utility</b></a></li></ul> <p>He goes into detail on each model in his article and it makes educative reading. I think that at the stage we are in the Brokerage, Merchant and perhaps the Utility models are the most suited for our level of development. These models definitely require a lot more work to make happen than just inserting code as provided by an ad engine into your site, but several of them may actually serve us better than the advertising model does. At least consider them in your startup’s plans.</p> <p>The Clone Wars series ultimately seeks to help us break free from a mindset that builds generic products and services that do not elevate our societies, our psyches or increase our incomes. As Nigerians we must differentiate. We must apply the mental discipline that is needed to innovate. For all our sakes, we must.</p> <p><strong><em>Here ends the “Clone Wars”… for now.</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em></em></strong></p> <p></p> <p><strong><em><font size="1"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pentax/405617664/">The 3 cows are courtesy of Mix over at flickr.com</a></font></em></strong></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 350px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F07%2Fclone-wars-part-4-advert-trap.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=350&action=like&font=trebuchet+ms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-65920854699230050342010-06-29T19:17:00.000+01:002010-06-29T21:31:27.928+01:00Clone Wars Interlude: Impress Me.<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jemil75/103188707/sizes/l/"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="103188707_ee881f23f1" border="0" alt="103188707_ee881f23f1" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TCpWNYb3vgI/AAAAAAAAASQ/_lwL2pazSpo/103188707_ee881f23f1%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="280" height="372"></a> I seriously need someone to impress me.I mean impress me like the iPhone impressed me. The original iPhone as well as its two successors, are half-baked pieces of plastic with horrible battery lives, no user replaceable parts, a dearth of standard cell phone features like SMS receipt notification, horrible cameras, inaccessible storage, meaningless bluetooth, and completely locked in software. And yet the first time I touched the interface, I was sold by its usability, the beauty and simplicity of its interface and the power of the app store. I was impressed.</p> <p>Impress me like the netbook phenomenon. A fully functional laptop for less than fifty thousand naira that could do what 90% of the populace actually need computers for with up to 10.5 hours of battery life in some cases. This is the computer for the ordinary Nigerian with our power problems, constant mobility and simple computing needs.</p><a name='more'></a> <p>Impress me like <a href="http://www.MapQuest.com">MapQuest.com</a> impressed me. The first time I went online and could generate turn by turn instructions in a strange city just by providing my starting point and destination. Now the likes of NavTeq and Google are impressing me even more by making that mapping technology available on my cell phone for live turn by turn directions.</p> <p><a href="http://www.Amazon.com">Amazon.com</a> impressed me. Bezos and company did not just create a virtual store in the cloud that can provide to most people in many countries almost any consumer item they can order. They created a supply chain masterpiece that became so efficient they can ship many goods for free, and offer that same supply chain system to other businesses for order fulfilment.</p> <p><a href="http://www.ushahidi.com/">Ushahidi</a> is awesome in providing a simple scalable crisis mapping technology that is disrupting long established systems and providing information for rapid action and intervention where needed. It is currently Africa’s foremost technology offering to the world. <a href="http://www.zipcar.com/">ZipCar</a> is intriguing. A car available to you anytime, anywhere without need to actually own or maintain one, that you can leave anywhere and pay low fees to use? Intriguing.</p> <p>Skype is so cool in providing a means for free internet calls across the planet, then low-cost calls to more conventional phone lines – including video. Of course all that is dependent on the cost and quality of your internet service, but still it impresses. Twitter impressed me by presenting an ultra-simplistic service that has spawned an astonishingly vast number of emergent properties and services that is the envy and model of other online entities large and small.</p> <p>Impress me like Aero Contractors impressed me with their highly sophisticated use of eCommerce to generate cash flow for their business during their times of difficulty (whether they were successful is another issue entirely). Impress me like <a href="http://www.DokitaSays.com">www.DokitaSays.com</a>. An organically growing medical resource that has content that caters to the medical needs of local Nigerians providing enough information for people to make informed decisions about their health and healthcare. That is serious crowdsourcing and should be copied by the lawyers and other such professions. <a href="http://academicearth.org">Academic Earth</a> makes me applaud their collecting the best free academic content from around the world into one place where I can get it and actually learn. I may not get a degree, but I can get an education.</p> <p>Impress me like my ISP (and all the rest of them) has FAILED to impress me in not providing an online payment mechanism for renewing subscriptions. For goodness’ sake, the internet is their business right?</p> <p>I have gathered these examples of hardware, software, technologies, and technologically delivered services (mostly) from abroad to say something I have said in a variety of ways already. I am convinced that a Nigerian somewhere is going to create a solution that uniquely addresses something in our Nigerian environment in a way that will impact our society the way that the advent of GSM did. GSM and similar services are infrastructure services and they are key and fundamental. However they are the equivalent of highways. They are necessary for transportation and to engender commerce and communication. Like the expected influx of fat bandwidth pipes over the next few months, we should relish their presence, but that celebration should be quickly tempered by a desire for places to visit. That’s the whole point of a highway. The real excitement comes from what is at the end of the road. So I seek the applications built on top of all that infrastructure that will fundamentally disrupt the way we do things in this country. </p> <p>I know someone, somewhere is working on something that will do that. Probably in Ajegunle. Maybe in Lekki. Certainly in Surulere. At UNILAG. ABU. Covenant University. FUTO. UNN. An Andreesen. A Page and Brin. A Shuttleworth, a Jobs, a Gates, a Hewlett and a Packard.</p> <p>Go ahead. Impress me.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://www.twitter.com/the_dej">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>If you know of a tech solution that provides genuine value to the lives of Nigerians, why not post it in the comments here or Tweet about it with the hashtag #ImpressedMe</em></strong></p> <p></p> <p><font size="1"><strong><em><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jemil75/103188707/">Photo of impressive building in Prague design from Jemil75 at Flickr.</a></em></strong></font></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 350px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F06%2Fclone-wars-interlude-impress-me.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=350&action=like&font=trebuchet+ms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-15376265607145610932010-06-22T20:05:00.000+01:002010-06-22T23:08:02.785+01:00Clone Wars Part 3: Platforms.<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/211239773/"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="211239773_940d75fc4d" border="0" alt="211239773_940d75fc4d" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TCEyu3VJtBI/AAAAAAAAASM/7_CWgfZDhLc/211239773_940d75fc4d%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="354" height="236"> Doing clones</a> is usually an attempt to replicate a successful business model. The most common type of clone out there today is the social network and every second start-up in Nigeria seems to remarkably resemble Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn or Twitter. <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/06/clone-wars-part-2-pros-and-pitfalls.html">As I said earlier</a>, there is nothing wrong with duplicating successful models in and of itself, but I am concerned that we are not doing it the way the Japanese, the Koreans and the Indians have done it. What these societies have done is take the technologies and products of the West and put their own peculiar spin on these technologies, made it their own and created products that the world beats a path to their door for. Names like Samsung, Toyota and the city of Mumbai stand testament to this.</p><a name='more'></a> <p>In an attempt to get our folks thinking about alternatives to social networking as a business solution I will be looking at different business segments and business models. One of the richest possibilities out there is internet platforms. </p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing_platform">Wikipedia defines a platform</a>: </p> <blockquote> <p>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing">computing</a>, a <b>platform</b> describes some sort of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_architecture">hardware architecture</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_framework">software framework</a> (including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_framework">application frameworks</a>), that allows <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_software">software</a> to run. Typical platforms include a computer's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_architecture">architecture</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system">operating system</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language">programming languages</a> and related user interface (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_time_system">runtime</a> libraries or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface">graphical user interface</a>).</p></blockquote> <p>I would say a platform is a technology solution that other technologies can be built on top of and that enables third parties to also earn revenue. Platforms are the heart and soul of modern internet technology efforts. The most successful technology businesses of all time have all been platforms. This is because they have all created avenues for third party solutions. In my opinion, Microsoft’s greatest successes weren’t the Windows and Office products, but a certain programming environment called Visual Basic. VB allowed millions the world over to rapidly create fully functional business solutions of their own. The success of the iPhone is the App Store which has enabled the developers of its over 200,000 applications earn 1 billion dollars in revenue. The flavour of the moment, Twitter would not be what it is without the access it gave to third parties to use its functionality in their products. Amazon is betting it’s future as its cloud offerings, as is Microsoft. Google’s Adsense extends the reach of their successful Ad-based revenue model by enabling site publishers to make money from Google’s adverts. Their newly acquired AdMob technology will enable mobile app developers better monetise while helping Google get more entrenched. WordPress host’s the world’s biggest and most successful blogs. Ushahidi, though free and open source, is a platform that has put Africa on the map in a way that no other technology offering out of the continent has. More important than earning revenue, it has been used to save lives from Haiti to Chile.</p> <p>There are all sorts of platforms. It doesn’t have to be very complex. A hosting service is a fairly common type of platform. In this internet age, we all need inexpensive, powerful and reliable hosts that can support varying workloads. The more exciting platforms are those that make software capabilities available to third parties. Something as simple as <a href="http://Yrn.me">Yrn.me’s</a> API puts the URL shortening service on the way to being a platform. It will be interesting to see what more the developer can build into the core product and expose to other developers. </p> <p>The most popular revenue model on the internet today is the advertising model. There are opportunities for a locally developed advertising platform to use the peculiarities of the Nigerian environment to bring rich revenue generating opportunities to Nigerian web businesses. Waiting on a heavily taxed cheque to come in from Europe, a la Google Adsense, cannot be the best we can get in Nigeria.</p> <p>I should note that while a platform has a great deal of potential, it is also fraught with difficulties. Building up infrastructure is capital intensive, especially if the platform includes hardware investment. Maintaining availability becomes more complex and more important the more people and systems use the platform. The world goes ballistics when Google are offline for 5 minutes and while we have all been extremely forgiving of Twitter’s hiccups, I would imagine that those who build their businesses on it have their blood pressures elevated when it goes offline. </p> <p>Still, a platform that is well executed is one way to success and longevity in the rapidly changing internet ecosystem. To get your creative juices flowing, take a look at <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/">Programmable Web</a>, a site that is focused on APIs and how they are used. Not only will you get ideas about platforms you can build, but you’ll also discover platforms and tools you can build into your own apps.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://www.twitter.com/the_dej">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>The Clone Wars continue…</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><font size="1"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/211239773/">The absolutely beautiful photo of Milan Train Station at Midnight is courtesy of “Stuck in Customs” on Twitter</a></font></em></strong></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 350px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F06%2Fclone-wars-part-3-platforms.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=350&action=like&font=trebuchet+ms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-51730915528629542592010-06-15T19:50:00.000+01:002010-06-16T19:38:34.424+01:00Clone Wars Part 2: Pros and Pitfalls<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesec/100425518/"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="100425518_97523445be" border="0" alt="100425518_97523445be" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TBfh-fcay3I/AAAAAAAAASI/FGuu8NlAW5c/100425518_97523445be%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="236" height="244"></a> My last post was the first in my <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/06/clone-wars-part-one.html">Clone Wars</a> series. Clone, in this context, is a web enterprise that is pretty much a copycat of another existing one. I suggested that that is not necessarily a bad thing and there is a history of highly successful enterprises that started as a clone of a predecessor. Creating an enterprise that is a copy of an existing one has its benefits, but I think the pitfalls exceed the benefits.</p><a name='more'></a> <p>First the benefits. It doesn’t take a lot of work to create a clone. Not as much work as when you conceptualise, research, stretch the borders of know computer and internet use and have to introduce a new paradigm of doing things. With cloning, the concept is already out there. The hard engineering has been done. There may even be open source code or toolkits that help you create your clone. Consequently you can have your solution up and running with a lot less effort than if you had to create something unique. You end up getting to market a lot more quickly. </p> <p>When you are copying a well-known product, people are already familiar with the concepts behind your product. So if you have used the iPhone or the iPod Touch, then using Android is very familiar already. Almost every search engine is used exactly the same way. This benefit means people can begin using your product very quickly.</p> <p>Another benefit is that cloning gives you a point of reference to work with in applying the same solution to different problems. So Yammer uses Twitter as a point of reference and built a Twitter clone that is used within organisations. What they did was clone an existing product set and target it at an a different demographic. Similarly, because no product is perfect, you can take the basic feature set and tack on something that addresses the weaknesses. So when Facebook created universal “Like” and the “Open Graph” protocol, there was a backlash against the perceived privacy issues and annexing the Internet. This resulted in the launching of an initiative called the “Open Like” project <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/04/23/why-we-need-an-open-like-standard/">with a goal to create the best features of Facebook’s new system without any of the baggage.</a></p> <p>Now for the pitfalls. The problem with cloning is when there is a dominant player whose features you are emulating you have a lot more work to do in convincing people that they should use yours instead of the “incumbent”. I have had debates in these pages and on other sites on why it is hard for me to switch from Twitter, Facebook and Bit.ly to similar local products that emulate their features. My argument at core is that I don’t see anything attractive enough in the alternatives to switch. You will always have that problem with a copycat product. What makes it more difficult is that sometimes you do add a feature that is compelling and different and just when people are thinking of actually moving over to your offering, Google implements something that suddenly moves it even further ahead of your offering.</p> <p>Another problem of doing this is that you run the risk of your product being defined only in the context of the product you cloned. Like in secondary school where younger siblings with popular brothers or sisters are only known as so and so’s younger brother, you may only be known as the iPhone wannabe. That is not somewhere you want to be. It becomes a lot tougher to differentiate yourself and differentiate is what you absolutely have to do. Mind you, this could play in your favour especially where, like the aforementioned iPhone, the other product is more expensive or less accessible to your target audience. </p> <p>Lastly, and I think this is the most important pitfall, by cloning an existing product you run the risk of solving a problem that doesn’t exist in your environment while ignoring rich opportunities that you could be addressing. Do we need Twitter clones? Facebook Clones? Nigerian search engines? A local YouTube? A Nigerian Yahoo? Maybe we do and maybe we don’t. However I can list a whole bunch of other things that we definitely do need that our brightest and best are not bending their considerable talents to because they are solving problems that don’t exist. Why clone eBay when you can bulid a Web of Trust platform can be used as the backbone for a thousand services that need authentication and validation in a society the western systems for identity documentation (drivers licenses, passport and social security numbers) are unreliable at best?</p> <p>Cloning may be what your do and you stand a chance of creating a successful product, but I would suggest you aim higher and put your creativity to work conquering problems that surround you that no one else has solved.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://www.twitter.com/the_dej">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>The Clone Wars continue…</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><font size="1"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesec/100425518/">Very eerie image taken from Flickr courtesy of Imapix</a></font></em></strong></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 350px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F06%2Fclone-wars-part-2-pros-and-pitfalls.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=350&action=like&font=trebuchet+ms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-72673775982577889952010-06-08T16:41:00.000+01:002010-06-08T21:29:01.384+01:00Clone Wars: Part One<p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TA6k-C85xfI/AAAAAAAAASA/SUimHnTmS2U/s1600-h/star_wars__clone_wars_poster%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 5px 10px 5px 5px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="star_wars__clone_wars_poster" border="0" alt="star_wars__clone_wars_poster" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TA6lAMRuVCI/AAAAAAAAASE/nFz0zGeku18/star_wars__clone_wars_poster_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="254" height="378"></a> For some time I have been planning to do a series of articles called, euphemistically, “the Clone Wars” because the jump-off point was the large number of web enterprises that seem to be copies or clones of other better known web enterprises. The idea for this series has percolated in my mind for some time, shifting and taking form being shaped by new information, events and perspectives. </p> <p>Most recently, I was at <a href="http://www.barcampnigeria.com/">BarCamp Nigeria 2010</a>. The theme was “Creating Local Content for Nigerian Web Market”. I was meant to moderate a panel on the subject of “Business Models”. This meant that there would be a panel of experienced internet entrepreneurs to answer questions that I would put to them on behalf of the audience. Unfortunately due to time overruns, that panel couldn’t take place which was unfortunate because it would have been a valuable discussion. I bring that up because the whole issue of clones is an issue of business models. So the Clone Wars series will ultimately be an exploration of some of the possible business models available in the Nigerian business space, and the pros and cons of each of them.</p> <a name='more'></a> <p>To be absolutely clear, what I call a clone is not necessarily a duplicate of an existing web enterprise. That would be bordering on copyright infringement. That’s not what we are talking about here. For our purposes, a clone is a web enterprise that has similar features to another one. It usually tries to solve the same problem the other “original” site is solving, usually with the same approach. Sometimes, even the name lets you know that the that the site is doing that. So “Twitter”, a sound a bird makes. “Kukurooku”, a sound a bird (rooster) makes. <a href="http://www.kukurooku.com/">Kukurooku</a> imitates the micro-blogging phenomenon called <a href="http://www.Twitter.com">Twitter</a>.</p> <p><em><strong>And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.</strong></em></p> <p>Everything we celebrate now as new and fresh found its existence in some previous iteration. It would be hard to believe that before Zuckerberg built the first version of Facebook in his dorm he wasn’t already aware, and maybe even a member, of such sites as MySpace, Friendster and Hi5. The graphic below shows the timeline of the <a href="http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html">creation of social networking sites</a> both familiar and obscure. </p> <p align="center"><img alt="Figure 1. Distribution of work task interruption" src="http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.fig1.jpg" width="450" height="718"></p> <p>The original Facebook might well have been envisioned from using one of these sites. Zuckerberg may have reasoned that he could do it better than they were doing it. Maybe he decided that he could build a Friendster that would serve his college community better than the big site (local content anyone?). Maybe there was some massively irritating thing he kept running to in the sites of the day which everyone he know also hated that he wanted to fix. Facebook created in isolation? Highly unlikely. Even today, until they bought <a href="http://www.FriendFeed.com">FriendFeed</a>, Facebook was notorious for cloning their features.</p> <p>So the social networking clones of today are following in the footsteps of others that went before. One of the things that has always happened in the business world is that people emulate those who have been successful in the same enterprise. So if Twitter is hot right now and people are flocking to it in droves, it makes sense that if there is something about Twitter that draws customers in their millions, we can build something similar that draws customers at least in their hundreds of thousands. We may even reach and exceed the millions that the original had. When Google shot to number one, there were incumbents like Ask Jeeves, Lycos and AltaVista . Yammer, a Twitter clone for business is certainly making a go of it. Surely either Pepsi Cola or Coca Cola is a clone of the other. Both are very large businesses today.</p> <p>However, there are both benefits and risks to cloning and we will explore them in our next instalment.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://www.twitter.com/the_dej">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><font size="2">Timeline Image courtesy of Danah M. Boyd and Nicole B. Ellison’s Article on </font><a href="http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html"><font size="2">“Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship”.</font></a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><font size="2">Clone Wars poster courtesy of </font></em></strong><a href="http://www.fantascienza.com"><strong><em><font size="2">www.fantascienza.com</font></em></strong></a><strong><em><font size="2"> and is almost certainly the property of LucasFilm.</font></em></strong></p> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F06%2Fclone-wars-part-one.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&font=trebuchet+ms&colorscheme=light&height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-16610932625435752722010-06-01T20:28:00.000+01:002010-06-01T22:29:00.602+01:00Nigeria Needs A CIO<p><a href="http://news.onlinenigeria.com/?a=1640"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="goodluck" border="0" alt="goodluck" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/TAV5ZRsxLLI/AAAAAAAAAR8/FVmL9iqdqjA/goodluck%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="187" height="244"></a> First it was word that the President was going to use <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/05/does-president-know-what-he-in-for.html">Facebook to communicate with the people</a>. Then it was the announcement about a plan to spend a significant amount of money making <a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/05/dear-dora-dont-do-it.htmlhttp://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/2010/05/dear-dora-dont-do-it.html">internet infrastructure available to schools across the country</a>. Now I hear the government is also going to be using Youtube (unfortunately, I can’t seem to find the link to the news item).It seems someone in Abuja woke up and discovered all these tools of the 21st Century.</p> <p>All this sudden interest in modern information technology is a good thing and should be applauded. As long as the government’s interest is awoken, let me use the opportunity to make a suggestion. The Federal Republic of Nigeria needs a Chief Information Officer, a Federal CIO.</p><a name='more'></a> <p>I work in a fairly large organisation with thousands of workers and the what keeps the organisation functional and profitable are the information technology tools that the workers use to do their jobs. Providing that technology, helping to develop and implement technology policy and strategy is an IT department headed by an IT Manager otherwise known as a Chief Information Officer. This IT department doesn’t do technology for technology’s sake. The IT function is to provide technology to achieve the organisation’s goal.</p> <p>Nigeria needs an IT department. I know we have a Ministry of Information and a Ministry of Science and Technology, but their portfolios are too broad for this. While it is possible for someone in either of these organisations to fulfil this role, I believe this is a role that belongs in the Presidency, pretty much the same way the Department of Petroleum Resources is in the Presidency.</p> <p>The United States of America has such a role. Vivek Kundra is the Federal CIO and his job is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivek_Kundra">described as follows:</a></p> <blockquote> <p><em>The Federal Chief Information Officer is responsible for directing the policy and strategic planning of federal information technology investments as well as for oversight of federal technology spending. The Federal CIO establishes and oversees enterprise architecture to ensure system interoperability and information sharing and maintains information security and privacy across the federal government. According to President Obama, as Chief Information Officer, Kundra "will play a key role in making sure our government is running in the most secure, open, and efficient way possible."<sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/#cite_note-whitehouse.gov-0">[1]</a></sup> …</em> <p><em>Kundra has made it a priority to focus on the following areas: (1) ensuring openness and transparency, (2) lowering the cost of government, (3) cyber-security, (4) participatory democracy, and (5) innovation.<sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/#cite_note-31">[32]</a></sup> One of Mr. Kundra's first projects was the launch of </em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data.gov"><em>Data.gov</em></a><em>, a site for providing access to raw government data.<sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/#cite_note-radar.oreilly.com-32">[33]</a></sup> Another project launched by Mr. Kundra in June 2009 was the Federal IT Dashboard, which gives an assessment (in terms of Cost, Schedule and CIO ranking) of many large government IT projects.<sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/#cite_note-33">[34]</a></sup></em></p></blockquote> <p>Nigeria’s CIO should have a similar job, specifically, I would recommend the following:</p> <ul> <li>The CIO should be responsible for developing an information technology platform to be used by all tiers of government in running their operations. This platform would specify a standard set of procedures for collecting, creating and storing government information, a set of tools for accessing and transforming that information for actionable intelligence, and security policies to ensure the integrity and availability of that information. <li>The CIO would define a set of standards that would use information technology to enable government operate more efficiently reducing bureaucracy, wastage, duplication of effort, cost of running the nation and time to get things done. These standards would also have make provision for the prevention and detection of fraud and corrupt practices. <li>The job would involve developing a simple mechanism to enable the people of Nigeria engage their governments in any form, shape or fashion using telephony and internet technologies. Similarly this mechanism would enable the government aggregate information about what is happening in the lives of ordinary Nigerians in order to formulate policy and proper deployment of resources. <li>The CIO will serve was a resource to the various ministries and parastatals in the execution of IT projects. Indeed the law establishing the office will require that all projects that have an IT component over a certain naira value to include the CIO’s office as part of the project. <li>The CIO will also guide the Senate and the House on the formulation of laws that regulate and promote information technology, ecommerce and internet privacy and that enable law enforcement agencies battle cybercrime.</li></ul> <p>Nigeria is long past due taking IT seriously as a tool to run the government. While various government agencies have a variety of initiatives, internal and citizen-facing, there needs to be a top-down unified approach to incorporating IT into the fabric of our nation. A federal CIO, who does the job well, will be a potent force in bringing our country into the league of nations making their people’s lives better by using modern technology.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://www.twitter.com/the_dej">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em></em></strong></p> <p></p> <p><em><strong><font size="1">Picture of President Goodluck Jonathan courtesy of </font></strong></em><a href="http://news.onlinenigeria.com/?a=1640"><em><strong><font size="1">OnlineNigeria.com</font></strong></em></a></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 300px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%252F2010%252F06%252Fnigeria-needs-cio.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=300&action=like&font=trebuchet%2Bms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-8878166435751648622010-05-25T18:10:00.000+01:002010-05-25T20:05:52.919+01:00Dear Dora, Don’t Do This.<p><a href="http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11210:fec-approves-n36bn-for-internet-connectivity-in-schools&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="3031357749_3383ed9146" border="0" alt="3031357749_3383ed9146" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/S_wdWlk6k0I/AAAAAAAAAR4/Qh0bizIKy2k/3031357749_3383ed9146%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="354" height="201"> BusinessDay reports</a> that the Federal executive council is planning to spend 3.6 billion Naira on computers and internet connectivity in 260 schools around the nation. Professor Dora Akunyili made the announcement, no doubt because it’s her job to share the word, but also because her ministry would probably be responsible for making it happen.</p> <p>I’m a firm believer that every Nigerian should have internet access for education, commerce, communication and entertainment. Such a plan shows that our leaders are turning their minds to the future and realising the necessity of raising our children on the technologies that will elevate them to prime position among their peers. Nevertheless, I think it is a rotten idea and I’ll tell you why.</p><a name='more'></a> <p>I work in corporate IT and one lesson we learnt over the years is that technology is only a viable investment if it supports a valid business process. An investment in IT infrastructure for schools is only valid if it supports a properly designed educational curriculum with an educated and motivated staff to deliver it using a set of well iterated designed tools and processes. While I am not privy to the FEC’s plans, and with no details so far beyond the press release, it is unclear whether the plan takes this into account.</p> <p>Yes we need to enable the next generation become comfortable with technology, both from the perspective of teaching them the fundamentals of maths, science and from using it in the classroom. First, however, we need to enable <em>the faculty</em> be competent and comfortable with the technology. I don’t mean the teacher tasked with teaching a computer class. I mean all the teachers. The teachers need to be able to prepare their lessons on computers. They need to be able to do research. To be able to use technology tools create, to grade and score tests. To be able to confer with other teaching professionals across the world. There also needs to be incentive to do this. If they’re not well paid and well trained, I fear we may see the next wave of 419 rising from the staff rooms of our nation’s schools (aided by the students) using computers provided by the government.</p> <p>Secondly, the technology tools need to be used to teach the subjects themselves – not just as show pieces for “this is a monitor. This keyboard. This is a mouse.”. The technology should be used to teach English. Maths. Music. Physics. Biology. Elementary science. The curriculum showed be woven around the tools and the tools used to present the subject matter.</p> <p>Lastly, a comprehensive, powerful yet simple educational software stack needs to be developed or purchased. This stack would have the curriculum, the digital forms of the books to be used for all the schools and classes. It would have tools for tracking student progress and for identifying educational deficiencies, exceptional students – as well as malpractice (both among the teachers and the students). This technology would enable customising the appropriate plan for each student’s need. It would be used for testing students as well as aggregating results across the nation. It would be used to define as well as validate educational policy. An example of a platform that can be used and built upon is <a href="http://moodle.org/about/">Moodle</a>.</p> <p>The 3.6 billion is better spent on a whole bunch of things before the idea of internet access and computers for the schools themselves are even considered. And I’m not even going to start on the other infrastructural things that need to be in place to make the FEC’s plan viable (electricity supply, anyone). In short, information technology needs to be used to fix the educational system itself before anything else, otherwise the money will be wasted. Until that is done, I’ll have to say don’t do it, dear Dora. Please, don’t.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://www.twitter.com/the_dej">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>(Thanks to Loy Okezie for pointing out the Business Day article to me)</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><font size="1">Picture courtesy of flickr.com</font></em></strong></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 300px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%252F2010%252F05%252Fdear-dora-dont-do-it.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=300&action=like&font=trebuchet%2Bms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />tweetmeme_source = 'the_dej';<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-60330891230901405402010-05-19T22:49:00.001+01:002010-05-19T23:19:55.637+01:00BarCamp Nigeria 2010 Takes Place This Saturday<p><a href="http://www.barcampnigeria.com/"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="barcampNG" border="0" alt="barcampNG" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/S_Rc35HxpHI/AAAAAAAAAR0/6XEvdYGY16A/barcampNG%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="504" height="116"></a> </p> <p></p> <p><a href="http://www.barcampnigeria.com/">Barcamp Nigeria 2010</a> takes place this Saturday, the 22nd of May, at CITS, University of Lagos, Akoka, Nigeria. From the event’s website:</p> <blockquote> <p><em><strong>BarCamp is simply an ‘unconference’ - an ad-hoc gathering of people with the simple desire to share and learn in an open environment. Unlike a conference, at a barcamp everyone is both a speaker and a participant. The content is provided by all attendees based on their interests.</strong></em> <p><em><strong>BarCamp Nigeria 2010 will be held at CITS, University of Lagos Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria on 22 May, 2010 as a way to bring people interested in technology, on a variety of levels and topics, together in one place for a day of sharing, learning, networking and brainstorming.</strong></em> <p><em><strong>Barcamp Nigeria 2010 theme is: “Creating local content for Nigerian web market.”</strong></em></p></blockquote> <p align="left">I plan to be there. If you have an interest in creating technology solutions to Nigeria’s problems or using technology to make a living or you just want to hang with a bunch of folks who are excited about the opportunities on the internet, you should be there too. <p align="left"><a href="http://www.barcampnigeria.com/register/">You can register right here.</a> <p align="left"><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6087818429318717280.post-77180750849485536482010-05-19T21:33:00.000+01:002010-05-19T22:36:05.666+01:00My First Interview – Answering Questions About the “Afrislate”<p><a href="http://www.shanzai.com/index.php/market-mayhem/8-op-ed/1033-interview-oladejo-faboludes-afrislate-vision"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_mM1ByNWqzPY/S_RWL16CAPI/AAAAAAAAARw/9EnIPV-jCGA/image%5B6%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="304" height="278"></a> A couple of months ago, I wrote a 3 part series called the “<a href="http://digitalcrossings.blogspot.com/search?q=%22African+iPad%22">African iPad</a>”. In it I described the features of a hypothetical African tablet device based on the design principles of the Apple iPad. After that, I mentally told myself that I was not going to spend anymore time writing about the iPad, slates, or tablets – at least not for a good long while. However, in not-as-far-as-it-once-was China, someone read the series and had a few questions of their own. </p><a name='more'></a> <p><a href="http://www.Shanzai.com">www.Shanzai.com</a>, a Chinese technology site that focuses on the tech culture also called “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai">Shanzai</a>”, contacted me about doing an interview on the subject of what an African tablet would be. The interviewer, Tai-Pan, had previously written his own article about the subject. You can find the interview published <a href="http://www.shanzai.com/index.php/market-mayhem/8-op-ed/1033-interview-oladejo-faboludes-afrislate-vision">right here</a>. I share my thoughts on the hardware and what needs to be in place in Nigeria for such a device to be successful.</p> <p>By the way, you should spend some time on the Shanzai site. They cover a very fascinating technology culture that has sprung up in that part of the world. </p> <p><strong><em><a href="http://myonepage.com/fabolude">Dej.</a></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em></em></strong></p><iframe style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; width: 350px; border-top-style: none; height: 80px; border-left-style: none; overflow: hidden" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcrossings.blogspot.com%252F2010%252F05%252Finterviewed-about-afri-slate.html&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&font=trebuchet%2Bms&colorscheme=light&height=80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="margin:0px; padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;"><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></div> Oladejo Faboludehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04727272222758491174noreply@blogger.com