NCS versus convergence

Recent objection by the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) over proposed merger of the Nigerian Communications Commission, National Broadcasting Commission and National Information Technology Development Agency to boost convergence in the forthcoming unified licensing regime. REMMY NWEKE reports it’s indication that more education is required for industry players.

JUST few months to the February 2006 date proposed for the introduction of the unified licensing regime into the nation’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), disparity in terms of understanding the concept still pervades the industry.
Unified license would culminate in the convergence of the industry segments; be it pure telecom, information technology and core Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Content Service Providers (CSPs) consisting of broadcasting organizations and other ICT industry entities.
In other words, unified license for a layman’s understanding is the joining of the several currently existing licenses in the industry into one, while the convergence serves as the meeting point for the industry service providers. With this, the industry would definitely need ‘unified’ overseeing body as a regulator.

Regulatory organs in the industry
Current situation shows that NCC regulates the nation’s telecommunications sector, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is in-charge of the broadcasting industry in the country, whereas the National IT Development Agency, a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST) caters for the implementation of the National Information Technology (IT) Policy and to coordinate and regulate the development and regulation of the Information Technology sector.
But there is bickering on the faces of some experts based on the contentions that the proposed unified licensing would spell doom for the industry and if care is not taken, may destabilize the gains made in the last five years, following the liberalization of the telecommunications sector and advent of Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) revolution, which has placed Nigeria as the fastest growing nation in tele-density.

NCS aghast with convergence
One of the proponents of this idea is the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), the umbrella body of about five industry interest groups, namely the Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON)/Software Developers Group (SDG), Information Technology Industry Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Nigerian IT Professionals in the Americas (NITPA) and the National Association of Computer Science Students (NACOSS).
The stand of NCS was made known recently at the reception of three government officials - Director General of NITDA, Prof. Cleopas Officer Angaye, Special Adviser to the President on ICT, Mr. Emmanuel Arinze and his counterpart at the FMST, Mr. Onyeka Uche Ofili, by the body in Lagos.
President of NCS, Dr. Chris Nwannenna, in his address on the occasion, noted that there has been merger talks being proposed by some people at the recently held Telecom Summit for the trio; NCC, NBC and NITDA, in the spirit of convergence, which dictates that this should be the way forward.
Proponents of convergence at the summit were also reported to believe that the merger will bring about unified licensing whereby, according to them, “under a unified licensing regime, multiple services such as mobile telephony, fixed telephony, internet, broadband, long distance services, etc, could be made available by a single service provider”.
NCS, however, raised a question; which of the above services comes under NITDA licensing regime? “None of these. It is therefore possible that the telecoms summit is not well informed about the objectives and functions of NITDA,” he retorted.
NITDA, he said, was set up to research on, and develop IT products and services, which main focus has been in the area of computer hardware and software systems and services.
Apart that NCS probably has a different version of reference or definition of what NITDA should do, NITDA’s interaction with data communications in the course of its research and development efforts, according to NCS within IT framework will have nothing to do with ‘licensing’, NCS postulated.
NITDA, Dr. Nwannenna, who also is the chief executive of Condata Systems Limited, pointed out should therefore be left alone to pursue its objectives and not be bothered in anyway with merger talks especially now that NITDA has come out with a more focused programme for the development of IT in the country.

Contrary position
This position is contrary to what the federal government’s definition or reference to the agency aforementioned should be.
Also for the chief executive of NCC, Dr. Ndukwe, there is hope that unified licensing will help to streamline the competition in the industry, whereas the ISPs, for instance, are currently being undermined by the fact that they are members of NCS and most telecom companies are deploying their main trade; providing Internet access, as Value Added Service (VAS) on telcos’ networks.
It becomes confusing about the level of structure in NCS membership, which obviously cut across the segment of the larger ICT industry.
In some quarters, it was observed that the more fact about ICT stipulates that visitors’ to other people’s website in terms of research and developing programme through learning from experience is communication.
This group of proponents argued that if one has information without passing it on by communicating to another, especially at this era of Information Society, it becomes invalid. Therefore, they said that information and technology deployed thereof to facilitate the goals of exchanging information is nothing if not communicated.
Although NCS may have disputed the above argument, its own position or what some industry watchers tagged as ‘palpable’ fear of extinction, the fact remains that those agitating for unified license cum convergence at this stage of ICT industry in Nigeria must be cautious.

NATCOMS’ stand
On the other hand, optimistic National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has urged Ministry of Communications through NCC to commence the issuance of the unified licensing to existing GSM and Fixed Wireless Operators and also to new applicants as it may deem necessary. This NATCOMS said, is because the current situation is “almost a monopoly”.
The subscribers’ rights group through its national president, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, said that with the nation’s population nearing 150 million, “we will need more effective operators of unified licences which would allow each licensee, operate GSM, Fixed wireless and other telecoms services, all under one roof.”
This, NATCOMS further said, would usher in healthy competition, lower tariffs as well as create more jobs.

Caution must apply
According to technology research expert and chief executive, eShekels Limited, Mr. Fola Odufuwa, the idea for unified licensing is good, but care must be taken to avoid Nigeria serving as a guinea pig, in terms of experimentation of the policy.
He is also worried that if not well handled, it could spell doom for the bourgeoning telecommunications industry in the country.

Educating stakeholders
NCC as the chief prosecuting officer and the likely agency to subsume the others, had since this proposal sounded the industry out since, yet addressing the fears associated with new things would always be there, as much caution must be applied optimally to ensure the hope people have on the commission.As it were, more education is required to be done among the industry players to make the methodology sink very well in the minds of those anticipated to be active players in the proposed new regime, even as they themselves should also endeavour to close the mile-gap by not being self-exonerated. This would in no little way assist stakeholders to come into terms with what convergence is all about.

SAT-3 is underutilised – OSIWA boss

Executive Director, Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), Mrs. Nana Tanko, has expressed dismay over the underutilization of the SAT-3 sub-marine cable.

Established on May 27, 2002 by the Senegalise president, Mr. Abdoulaye Wade, SAT 3 is portrayed as the world’s first undersea optic fibre cable system around Africa onto Europe and Asia.

The SAT3/WASC/SAFE cable system is certainly a technology and commercial breakthrough of unparalleled significance for the continent. It is proposed to offer a faster, more efficient trading channel between the continent and international markets.

The executive director in an address to recent workshop on “Achieving Affordable Bandwidth in West and Central Africa” organized by her office in Senegal, noted that it is a fact that over $600 million has exchanged hands in terms of repatriation done annually to telcos outside the continent whereas these funds could be used to revive some basic connectivity issues in the regions.

She had invited participants at the three-day event to deliberate on one of the key issues and challenges of today’s information society – access and connectivity to the people on the continent.

“It is true that the SAT-3/WASC infrastructure is nearing its mid-life but is yet underutilized,” she said.

Stressing that the tele-density, which is the ratio of telephone per 100 persons on the continent is still far lower than in most states in the United States (US).

She pointed out that given that access to the internet and to information for instance, would ameliorate the poverty situation that most Africans are faced with, “it has not yet become real to most of our country men in the rural areas. How then do we ensure that poverty is aligned to lack of information?”

Mrs. Tanko who spoke at the event held in Le Palm Beach at Sally,
Senegal, further enjoined the workshop on “how do we ensure that increase in
knowledge will lead to a reduction in poverty? Is the mathematical correlation
feasible in today’s poverty stricken continent? How do we take these issues to
the man at the grassroots? and how does increased knowledge lead to transparent
and good governance?”

She recalled that at the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the issues of Internet Governance (IG) were raised with Africa again taking the sidelines in deliberations or not being considered at all in the final outcomes of the summit.

“We see ourselves and our governments increasingly involving in global politics that should be seen to be transparent and inclusive but the outcomes generally favor certain organizations, countries, cartels or groups,” she observed.

Such is the situation the continent is currently faced with, she said, noting that the workshop on “Achieving affordable Bandwidth” was a tall order by itself.

Mrs. Tanko also “wondered what is affordable, how is affordability
judged in relation to the poverty situation in the West African region and to
the continent as a whole.”

The OSIWA boss underscored that these issues are disturbing and the fact that there may be existing solutions to the questions of connectivity, access to information and the rights of access of an average citizen to information.“

At least not within the context of human thoughts especially considering the complex nature of technology and the weave that this has with country specific and global economics as a whole” she said.

Nigeria missing @ affordable bandwidth

Given the position Nigeria occupies in the burgeoning SAT 3, the issue of achieving affordable bandwidth for her citizens should be upper most in the minds of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) among government agencies clamouring for reduction of poverty and digital divide:

Bandwidth is a measurement of frequency ranges that is central concept to many fields including information theory, radio communications, signal processing, and spectroscopy.

It is closely related to two capacities of a communications channel namely radio and optics.

In radio communications, bandwidth is the range of frequencies occupied by a modulated carrier wave, while in optics it is the width of a spectral line or spectral range.

On the other hand, SAT 3 is the marine fibre optics laid across West African countries onto South Africa to enable the availability to the citizenry.

But reverse was the case at the first ever workshop organised by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa on affordable bandwidth, which ended recently in the city of Sally, Senegal.

Tagged, “Achieving affordable bandwidth” the workshop aimed at the development and opening up of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure in West and Central Africa.

ICT programme officer at OSIWA, Mr Ben Akoh informed that Nigeria is not participating because his office did not get responses from, NCC.

This is despite all the entreaties and overtures, made to the organisation through telephone calls and electronic mails.

“I don’t know why they refused to respond to our mails or even return calls,” he declared.

OSIWA is part of the global network of autonomous Soros Foundations and serves all Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), members as well as Cameroon, Chad and Mauritania.

Meanwhile, representatives from other African nations like Mauritania and Ghana, he said, came with not less than two with some coming from either regulatory organs or the national telecom operator with substantial share residing with the government.

Oba Akinolu unveils WCLD-05

OBA of Lagos, Alaiyeluwa Riliwanu Babatunde Akinolu, has unveiled this year NIIT’s World Computer Literacy Day (WCLD) movement in the country.WCLD is a campaign launched in December 2001 in support of the agitation to declare December 2, a World Computer Literacy Day.

This is championed by an Indian international computer institute,
NIIT.The institute uses the annual launch of the campaign to offer special
training discounts to citizens in over 31 countries globally, which usually last
for month.

Declaring the event open, Oba Akinolu told newsmen at his palace in Lagos that he accepted to endorse this programme because of its immense benefit to the populace, especially Lagosians.

He also said that the decision was accelerated by the long time standing conviction that Indian NIIT is one of the best Information Technology (IT) training organization.

He enjoined Nigerians to embrace the programme so as to acquire relevant knowledge needed at this era.“I hope the initiative inspires Nigerians from all walks of life to cross the digital divide by taking advantage of the computer learning being provided by NIIT,” he said.

Statistics available to him, he said, shows that estimated 130,000
Nigerians have either completed the programme, or registered for it since the
inception of WCLD in 2002.

He emphasised that the 2005 edition, which began since October this year would close by the end of this year.

He described the unveiling as an epoch making and a day to remember.Chief executive, International Data Management (IDM) Services Limited, Dr. Chris Bolu, whose office manages the NIIT Nigeria franchise, said that the target before the end of this year is 10,000 Nigerians to be migrated into the IT fold.

“We hope to make this into the most powerful computer literacy movement in the country,” he said.

NATCOMS battle ready with AMOPHTI, lauds MTN, Vmobile

National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has resolved to fight the increasing mobile phone theft in the country with a new scheme, called Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Initiative (AMOPHTI).

The association also lauded MTN Nigeria and Vmobile Nigeria for the recent introduction of N100 and N200 virtual charge system.

National President of NATCOMS, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, disclosed this at the joint October, November and December sitting of the Telecom Consumers Parliament held in Lagos.

He said that since the introduction of commercial operations of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) products and services in the country in 2001, which eventually turned out to be the fastest growing mobile communications market in the world, that theft of mobile phones, have constituted a big problem for the subscribers.

“Regularly, thieves steal and rob subscribers of their mobile
phones,” he decried.

Chief Ogunbanjo estimated that mobile phones are involved in about 80 per cent of robbery cases in the country as of today, of which in some cases lives have been lost.

It was against that backdrop that NATCOMS has volunteered to consult with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the GSM service operators on the new scheme, AMOPHTI.

He explained that the initiative would not only try to control and eventually stop the stealing of mobile phones, “it would also make the stealing of mobile phones worthless and unattractive to the thieves”.

The NATCOMS president also said that the scheme would ensure that 100 per cent cost of the stolen mobile phone is given to the owner.

Other complaints NATCOMS took to the floor of the parliament includes the call on all GSM operators to rescind from recent increases in tariffs and related cost of other products and services.

He said, this step has dealt a very, very serious blow to consumerism in the country and all telecom subscribers to the extent that it is done with impunity without any reason or explanation to consumers.

“What is the justification of any increase in tariffs when the
subscriber base of the four GSM operators keep increasing by the day. From about 1 million in 2001 to the phenomenal growth of over 10 million in 2005,” he questioned.

He argued that if the operators are getting the volume as it were, why not the subscribers, stressing that consumers should also get the value and pocket-friendly tariffs.

Warning that in no distance time, subscribers and consumers of GSM
services in the country particularly, would be reacting against these
unfriendly, pocket-leaking and anti-consumer tariffs early next
year.

NATCOMS also lauded MTN Nigeria and Vmobile Nigeria for the recent introduction of N100 and N200 virtual charge system, just as it expressed dismay over the access or validity days, saying that the least is too short.

“We would appreciate a one week validity period for the minimum of V-charge,” Chief Ogunbanjo asserted as he wished parliamentarians a merry Christmas and prosperous New Year.

MTS increases validity days, waives dormancy

PIONEER private wireless operator,MTS First Wireless, weekend announced offer of additional validity days for all its customers.

With this, subscribers on MTS network whose services have expired or have entered dormancy periods, would also enjoy a blanket waiver.

With this development, subscribers who recharge their phones with N500 recharge cards will continue to receive calls for up to 120 days while subscribers whose services have expired can simply recharge their phones and begin to make calls.

New Chief Marketing Officer of MTS, Ms. Uche Ofodile, said this gesture is to further make MTS services friendlier and more affordable.

“As we refocus and expand our services, we shall continue to offer
more incentives to our customers. This offer is one of the many offers that will be coming the way of our subscribers”, she said.

Ms. Ofodile also said this would be good news for subscribers on the newly launched Abeokuta network who could now enjoy a long validity on their MTS phones.

She said the gesture was in line with the new aspiration of the company to make MTS customers the centre-point of all its operations.

ITREALMS recalls that MTS First Wireless is a multi-services national telecoms operator in Nigeria was licensed in Nigeria to provide wireless telephony services, National Long Distance Communications Services, International Data Gateway services and Internet Services.

3GSM congress moves to Barcelona

For the first time in the his-tory of 3GSM World Congress organized by the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Association, the congress would next year move to the city of Barcelona, Spain, from its usual host Cannes in France.

A press statement from the organizers said that another world class line-up of keynote speakers including the chief executive of LG Electronics Mobile Communications, Mr. Mun Hwa Park, would take the stage at the congress, holding February 13 through 16, 2006.

Other confirmed CEOs, the association said, consists of Arun Sarin
of Vodafone Group, Antonio Viana-Baptista of Telefónica Móviles, Sanjiv Ahuja of Orange, Peter Erskine of 02, Steve Ballmer from Microsoft and Mr. Bill Roedy from MTV.

Also confirmed participant are Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo of Nokia, Carl-Henric Svanberg, Ericsson
Ed Zander of Motorola, Wang Jianzhou from China Mobile and Steve Tiley of McDonalds.

The organizers also noted that the outstanding key speaker line up for next year covers the full spectrum of the mobile ecosystem.

Mobile Innovation Forum, the association said, has grown in importance for the year ending 2005, and brings together small start up companies with the investment community, mobile operators and vendors.

Directly allied to this event is the new Mobile Innovation Award, a unique and prestigious addition to the GSM Association’s Awards categories.

Further, the Mobile Entertainment Summit (MES) it noted has become the global forum for entertainment and content brands to assemble with the mobile industry as the two worlds converge at breakneck speed.

Featuring some of the world’s most recognisable brands and addressing the key issues, an unprecedented line up of experts speakers would include Mr. Thomas Hesse of SonyBMG, Cedric Ponsot of Universal Mobile International, Attila Gazdag from Walt Disney, Eric Mika of Variety, Angel Gambino from MTV, Justin Richardson from Warner Bros Online and Ted Cohen of EMI Music as well as Stephen Nutall of BSkyB and Frank Sagnier of Electronic Arts.

The congress organizing team also said that next year’s event promises the biggest and best ever, bringing together industry leaders and visionaries from around the world and across the mobile value chain to explore the top strategic, commercial and technology challenges ahead of the global industry.

Closing the divide in media

Features of the week:

The desire to cut the gap between media practice in developed countries and its counterparts in developing nations may have motivated the International Institute for Journalism, Berlin, to introduce Multimedia Online Journalism course in its fold. REMMY NWEKE, who was part of the third session recently, reports that media in developing countries have to brace up.

WHETHER we believe it or not, digital divide exists, and moreso it exists at various levels of the society which we all live in. From poverty to knowledge down to information disparity, the divide in the society has continued to widen day after day.

The role of the media in building a reliable bridge across all these spheres of the society could not be over-looked, as the media has since acknowledged the ‘fourth estate of the realm’ position.

This position enables the media to act as intermediary between the government and the governed, the rich and poor, advanced and the less advanced nations among other social strata.

Recognising import of multimedia
Obviously in recognition of this fact and role of the media, the German government through InWent Capacity Building International, an agency of the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) assembled a group of 15 young media professionals from basically developing countries in Berlin for Multimedia and Online course.

The group made up of journalists selected from nine countries including Nigeria 1, Ghana 3, Kenya 1, Zimbabwe 1, India 1, Laos 1, Moldova 3, Tanzania 1 and Vietnam 3; put into gender equation of seven males to eight females.

Titled ‘Multimedia and Online Journalism III’ the course brought
together in Berlin, Germany people from various backgrounds in the practice of journalism, radio, print and prospective online editors.

The third session organized by InWent Germany through its subsidiary, the International Institute for Journalism (IIJ) Berlin, had lasted between September 8 through November 12, one week internship was also put together for the team at the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2005, which held in Tunisia, between November 16 – 18.

Prufert’s message
Welcoming this set of students, Head IIJ division, Mr. Peter Prufert, said in a message that the institute has trained over 600 journalists in 30 selected courses since the beginning of last year alone.

He declared, “They are now part of a worldwide network of some 6,000 alumni of IIJ in more than 230 countries.”

Mr. Prufert who was represented by the Course Director, Mr. Warner Eggert, said that for over 40 years, IIJ has been active in the training of newspaper and news agency journalists from developing and nations in transition.

The most recent of these courses, Mr. Prufert pointed out was the introduction of Multimedia and Online Journalists, stressing that with this, “the institute is adapting to the needs of a rapidly changing media world and the growing importance of the Internet”.

He emphasised that although independent and critical reporting helps to democratically monitor the state but only well groomed journalists working to the highest core value of professional standards could facilitate this critical role of ‘watch dog’, in order to assist in creating transparency by holding government and business accountable.

In addition, Mr. Prufert said this basic philosophy fits seamlessly into the media development concept of the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ), the main stakeholder of InWent.

“Together with other international organizations the BMZ considers democracy, good governance and an active civil society as a precondition for development,” he said. All programmes organized by IIJ, whether in Berlin or abroad, he said, are geared towards the practical requirements of journalism.

“We hope that you would find the working conditions conducive, the learning atmosphere and the exchange of experiences stimulating,” he urged.

Top staff of IIJ who were present at the brief ceremony includes the administrator, Mrs. Melanie Bolik, lead facilitator, Mr. Peter Berger and his assistant, Ms Birgit Heitfeld, as well as seminar assistants led by Mrs. Sabine Lager, and made up of Mrs. Rita Kurzbach, Ms. Carol Starr and Ms. Larissa Klatt.

Back to classroom
Afterwards, the outline of the course was reeled out for the participants with a copy deposited beside their name tags at the class room and soon after the welcome dinner, Mr. Berger and Ms Heitfeld took charge by explaining the mission, readers and future of the media to the students.

Then come the time for participants to introduce their publications; analysis and outlook as well as participants country presentations.

The class took off with two-day lectures on ‘photos for the web’ presided over by Mr. Ulf Dahl who made the introduction of software for photo production, students workshop before the recap and evaluation of exercises by the instructor.

Usability of the contents for the online medium was soon unveiled by Mr. Jan Persiel, who took the class on ‘How to design the perfect website’, its usability comprising introduction, graphic design, technical questions, analysis of sites of participant’s publications.

For the web
Later it was on how to improve on these websites and usability sum up, followed by ‘Graphics for the web’ broken into introduction, software pro and cons, as well as how to produce graphics such as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), and Shockwave Flash (SWF) formats among others.

GIF format is the most popular on the Internet, mainly because of its small file size, JPEG is a lossy compression method regularised by International Standards Organisation (ISO). SWF format which is pronounced ‘swiff’ is ideal for presenting vector-based interactive and animated graphics with sound for the web, among others.

By Friday of that week, two spokespersons were elected by the class; one from Ghana and another from Moldova, to assist course facilitators by acting as middle men for the group and the school administration.

Then come ‘How to use sound’ by Carsten Behrendt; ‘Online Investigation’ by Messrs Peter Berger and Matthias Spielkamp; ‘Writing for the web’ by Daryl Lindsey from Spiegel de and Ms Sabina Casagrande of Dutch Welle which focused on writing skills and practice.

Apapa Expressway in ‘Hamburg’
By fourth week of the course, Ms Heitfeld came up with the planning of the excursion to Hamburg, the home of media houses in Germany, just like Fleet Street of London and Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and Acme-Ogba in Lagos.

This gave participants the opportunity of exploring the city of Hamburg, its neighbourhood as well as its media savoured with history of individual media houses visited which have at least two in daily schedule.

The visit to Hamburg was saddled with a lot of exposures, publishable research by individuals, interviews and meeting people in the media with differing journalistic backgrounds.

The journey saw members of the class smiling to Hamburg through the ICE high speed train after about three hours trip with attendant ‘culture shock’ for all participants.

Literally described by one of the students, thus, “It was like crying that you don’t have a shoe until you find someone without a foot.” As such captured the culture difference between Berlin and Hamburg.

Transforming media era
From editorial visitation to tagesshau.de which survives only on radio and television taxes to the Media Analyzer, the German news agency known as dpa-info.com (MINDS) and its interesting evolution from traditional news agency to modern and ‘mobile’ news agency. Spiegel.de, Zeit.de (The Tide) and Morning Post, Mopo.de also hosted participants before they jetted out of the city but not without visiting Autobild, an evolving online market place for cars.

One thing worth taking away from Media Analyzer Inc, where the Project Manager, Mr. Sebastian Grandt, took time to give a pass mark to the Champion Newspapers website, www.champion-newspapers.com, after assessment of the site by the global number one media analyzer based in Hamburg.

Website assessment
While evaluating the website ‘unofficially’ at a session with course participants, he said, the www.champion-newspapers.com, is attractive.

He explained that the white spaces in between the categories in the website’s home page and news display, makes champion-newspapers.com online striking.

“I don’t have quarrels with the white spaces,” he declared in response to students’ enquiry, stressing he does not have any problem with the white spaces used in fashioning the website.

This was due to some critic’s view that the white spaces were indication of lack of content.

Although he was uncomfortable with three animations on the website, namely on the motto of the company, stock exchange reports and underlined invitation urging visitors to visit again.

The expert also said these animations should have been reduced to one, especially on the stock report and described the one on the motto and underlining invitation as ‘compounding animation’.

Impacts on readers
He further said websites must be kept simple with big headline points to attract readers to leading page stories, even as images have become imperative in media analysis due to impact it has on readers.

Mr. Grandt pointed out that his organization is concerned with visibility and usability of media online contents.

Warning however, that some media houses allow the online version to be over-loaded with adverts or contents, he pointed out that opening every media website, readers are faced with some questions such as ‘which website is this, what can I do here and what’s the interest’.

“The bigger the image the more time people are attracted to the subject aside,” he asserted.
Disclosing that online readers spend approximated 10 to 25 seconds per media website, stressing that in the actual sense, online visitors to media website do not read immediately, but scan over the page contents first before deciding on what to read.

Making money
Participants also developed ideas, topics for individual projects and worked in groups to evaluate protocols of the excursion, putted and discussed results thereof with presentation at the end of the day by groups usually five, given the number of class members.

Mr. Kornelius Furst’s lead topic on ‘How to make money’ in journalism left participants literally disappointed but thinking inwardly across marketing, advertising, advertorials, cross-media co-operations, development of models for individual websites as well as budget - concepts and solutions for projects from launch to breaking even and putting ideas into practice for individual websites.

Came then, the ‘Future of Online Journalism’ focusing on web logs with Mr. Nils G. Indahl, who marshalled out the state-of-the-art on the ideas behind mobile Internet and how to use it.

Sooner than later, the time for website projects took the stage beginning with collection of topics, presentation and summary, structuring story board to development with software for online editing entrenched in WedEdition.

72 days after
As soon as these projects were over, followed by presentation of certificates to members of the class, it was time to head to the northern African country of Tunisia, where the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS-05) was hosted for three keen days, definitely not as observers but to do justice to our profession of reporting the event, deploying the methodology garnered over the 72 days spent in Berlin and its environ.

Looking back, one conclusion was made by participants that developing countries’ media need to transform their websites or web editions from mere conversion of just contents so as to not only make it viable for business opportunities which are going in roves online but to keep pace as the technologies transform media from its traditional position to multimedia.

Challenges
This is not to forget the challenges the likes of weblog; online relay of thoughts by people with or without journalistic background and iPod, which is online or Internet broadcasting amidst others pose to today’s media.

The earlier media organizations in developing countries begin to rethink about migration to the 21st century medium, by ensuring distinct management structure for their online version, like the Mail & Guardian of South Africa; the better, especially newspapering, due to what experts foresee as increasing online reading generation.

Angaye, Ndukwe for NIG convention-05

CHIEF executives of the National Information Technology Development (NITDA) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Cleopas Angaye and Dr. Ernest Ndukwe respectively, are to speak at the third convention annual general meeting (AGM) of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) slated to hold in Lagos.

President, NIG and chief executive, Teledom Group International, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, said that the duo would dwell on “A Leapfrogging Strategy to establish an Internet Exchange Point for Nigeria,” and “The Internet Governance as Nigeria sees IT” in that order, would form part of the two-day convention cum AGM.

To hold at Golden Gate Paradise, Ikoyi Lagos, between Friday and Saturday with the theme: “Youth Restiveness: ICT to the rescue”.

Dr. Ekuwem also said that chairman, board of NIG, Chief Olawale Ige,
would give a goodwill message to the occasion.

He also said that there would be two sessions per day, namely morning and afternoon with sub-themes including ‘Youth Empowerment in the digital revolution, becoming employable using Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Job opportunities in ICT- Starting with N15,000 capital, tele-education, tele-training for point-of-need skills acquisition, a click to hope and wealth and ICT for food security and poverty alleviation.

The sub-themes include “Enabling infrastructure, ePayment, human capacity development, legal and regulatory framework, security, Internet content development, .ng ccTLD and Internet Governance”.

On the second day of the convention, he said, that youth empowerment using ICT as tool which is sponsored Zenith International Limited would take place at the morning session while the annual general meeting AGM to follow soon after.

He said, that at the AGM, there would be NIG’s presidential annual
report, financial report by the audit, update of .ng ccTLD, in addition to election of the new executive for 2005-2007, and composition of new board of trustees as well as any other business (AOB).

Interested members willing to serve in the NIG executive, namely president, vice president, publicity secretary and treasurer, should pick their nomination forms which are available at NIG’s new secretariat in Ikeja, Lagos.

NIG is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation promoting internet access and awareness in the country.

VIA’s CN700 chipset on prowl

Leading entrant into the -nation’s Information Technology (IT) market, VIA Technologies Inc of Taiwan has announced its CN700 IGP chipset, featuring leading digital media technologies and advanced low power design to enable system design innovation across a wide range of VIA C7 processor-powered devices.

Some of the processor-powered devices capable of using this include
mini Personal Computers (PCs), fanless embedded commercial systems and stylish,
quiet home entertainment centers for the living room.

Public relations contact at VIA, Mr. Richard Brown, said the integrated S3 Graphics UniChrome Pro IGP core ensures exceptional second and third dimension (2D/3D) graphics performance and a truly High Definition (HD) experience.

This is in addition to its flexible display outputs for Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) and Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), as well as standard definition and High Definition Television (HDTV) up to 1080 pixel resolution with a compatible Digital Visual Interface (DVI) or TV encoder, while the signature hardware The MPEG Home Page.

This is the home page of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG-2) decoding and the intelligent video rendering techniques of the Chromotion CE Video Display Engine deliver smooth video playback.

Supporting the VIA version four bus up to 533 Mega Hertz (MHz), the VIA CN700 IGP chipset leverages support for both DDR2 and DDR memory modules with built-in system and graphics power management, to deliver a highly flexible solution for developers looking to design powerful and feature-rich yet compact and quiet desktop and embedded devices.

“The VIA CN700 chipset was specifically designed to enable the VIA C7 processor platform to deliver great system and digital media performance without compromise,” commented Chewei Lin, Vice President of Product Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc said,“With its integrated S3 Graphics UniChrome Pro core, and featuring support for the latest DDR2 memory and the high bandwidth V4 bus, the CN700 is equipped with all the right tools to enable a new generation of ultra low power, quiet, compact, stylish and ultra reliable devices.”

Combined with the VIA VT8237A South Bridge, the VIA CN700 offers a comprehensive range of integrated storage, multimedia and connectivity options, including native Serial ATA and multiple configuration V-RAID, support for VIA Vinyl High Definition Audio, and high-throughput Gigabit Ethernet with the VIA Velocity controller.

He noted that though pricing of this product is available upon request, the product is expected to be available in volume quantities in first quarter of 2006.

eClemo clicks on the rise

Electronic business-to-consumers (B2C) advertisement portal, www.eclemo.com, has continued to be on the rise, according to the vice president, eClemo Nigeria Limited, Mr. Clement Ekhator.

Speaking in Lagos, Mr. Ekhator said the portal traffic is on a breezy climb as the portal enters its fourth month since it was launched.

“eClemo has continuously seen a steady increase in the number of adverts and visitors on www.eclemo.com. This is great news for eClemo management team,” he said.

To expand its reach further, Mr. Ekhator, said it’s a window to help enterprises and private individuals optimize their businesses.

eClemo banner, he said, are now on display at strategic places all over Lagos, “to allow people to be aware of this opportunity to expand their reach for free,” explained Ekhator.

Mr. Ekhator also said that by design, eClemo has created a meeting point between consumers and providers of services with products.

The portal www.eclemo.com, he said, is a platform between sellers and buyers to either sell or buy legitimate goods on the Internet in Nigeria.

The portal provides an online window for sellers to advertise their goods at no fee to thousands of people across the globe seeking for such products or services.

“We have created a meeting place for sellers and buyers to meet online from the comfort of their offices or homes and make decision to sell or buy products or services advertised online,” said Ekhator.

The site is designed as an automated auction site where buyers or sellers could personally place products for sale online.

Besides creating a platform for free online advertisements, the vice president said, the site also provides a database on tourist site in Nigeria, business opportunities, and a chat room.

“It provides for contacts, advert placement and job search for those in the labour market seeking to get out of the labour queues and adventurous enough to search out job placements and opportunities in and outside of the country,” Mr. Ekhator said.

172,318 winners emerge @ Vmobile knockout promo

172,318 winners have emerged at the draw of Vmobile knockout promo held in Lagos, Monday, according to the Managing Director, Alexander Forbes Consulting Nigeria (AFCAN) Limited, Dr. Femi Oyetunji

He said that his firm was invited to partner with Vmobile to ensure transparency of the exercise which saw over 8 million subscribers qualifying for the promotion.


Dr. Oyetunji also said that they decided to automate the selection process instead of the traditional manual way which will take years to complete simply because we are in the technology age.

He pointed out that the role of the his company with its international headquarters in the United Kingdom, entails the verification of extraction process of identifying the qualifiers which confirms that the company did work with team of Vmobile.

Explaining the processes in the selection and participation, Dr. Oyetunji said that staff, family members and dealers of Vmobile were excluded form the promo to give room for the transparency.

Any winner who emerged and is found to be a member or relative to the staff of his firm, Vmobile family and dealers would automatically be disqualified.

He mentioned that multiple qualifiers were allowed but no single number will win more one prize and if a number previously selected comes up again, the next number selected takes the prize.

He also said that the star prize will be chosen first so as to give equal chance to every qualifier and more so for multiple entry qualifiers.

Each of the 866,322 qualifiers has been assigned a unique index number to bring the tally to about 434,731 unique numbers.

"Prepaid subscribers who loaded more than N15,000 between June 1 and November 30, 2005, and post-paid subscribers who used more than N15,000 and pay up all outstanding bills till 31st October 2005, as well as voters in first quarter of project ROSE Short Messaging Service ( SMS) competition are qualifiers for the promo," he explained.

Head of Division, Public Relations, Events and Sponsorship, Mr. Obinna Ariwodo said that every plan has been completed to ensure that winners open account and they would be paid in the Naira equivalent for those who won $100,000 prizes.

This, he said, would be after verification has been completed by end of Wednesday while presentation has been slated to hold on Thursday.

Glo presents cars to four winners, another 2 emerge

FOUR subscribers of the Second National Operator, Globacom, were Wednesday in Lagos presented brand new cars as part of the company’s second anniversary promotion entitled "Double Slam".

This came as another two subscribers were also added into the car owners’ list as they emerged in the draw which took place at the same venue.

The four includes Messrs Jimoh Kazeem, Yesiru Taiwo Lawal, Isaac Ero
and Alhaji Mohammed Shittu, who were presented with Kia Rio, Honda City, Kia
Sorento 4 x 4 and E240 Benz in that order.

While the Consulate at the France embassy Lagos, Mr. Erwan de Gouvello presented the Kia Rio to the winner, Erelu of Lagos, Chief Mrs. Abiola Dosumi made the Honda City presentation, Police Commissioner for Lagos, Mr. John Haruna offered the Sorento key to the winner and speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly Chief Jokotola Pelumi, presented the key to the E240 Benz winner.

The latest two Glo subscribers that emerged at the draw are 08055405731 and 08057484959 with winning prizes as Kia Rio and VW Polo. The draws were performed by Mrs Ibidun Alison and Erelu Abiola Dosumi, respectively.

Guest of honour at the occasion, and speaker Lagos State House of Assembly, Chief Pelumi, said he was not surprised that Globacom has taken this step to reward its customers.

"It’s honour to be associated with Glo," he declared.

Stressing that out of all the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) operators in the country, Glo was the last to come to the stage in terms of roll out and within two years has proved it’s reliable.

"Glo is the only line that I have on me that is always working and
has never failed me," he asserted.

Chief Pelumi also said that one other thing that makes him optimistic about Glo’s success is the operator’s belief in the Nigerian experiment.

Welcoming guest at the occasion earlier, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Globacom, Mr. Mohammed Jameel noted that the total cost of the promotion is putted at N350 million, which he said, is just the beginning of good things to come from the SNO.

"It has never been like that in the history of Nigeria. All the winners are not from a particular area as it has been structure to be in zones and to enable every Glo subscriber a chance to win," he said.

Vmobile, Sparnoon console Nigerians over Sosoliso plane crash

Vmobile Nigeria has consoled Nigerians over the weekend plane crash of Sosoliso flight 1145 to Port Harcourt from Abuja. Just as Sparnoon South Africa has also joined in sympathising with Nigerians over the crash.

Acting Head of Division, Public Relations, Events and Sponsorships at Vmobile Nigeria, Mr. Emeka Oparah said in a press statement made available to ITREALMS that the management of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) expressed sympathies, especially to relatives, friends and associates of the victims of the ill-fated flight, which occurred last Saturday, in Port Harcourt.

Also in a short messaging service (SMS) sent on the network, Vmobile said “Our hearts go out in sympathy to all Nigerians, especially those who lost loved ones in the Sosoliso plane crash. May God comfort you”.

Mr. Oparah equally described the crash as “one air mishap too many, coming barely 42 days after the air crash in Lisa Ogun State, which killed all the117 passengers and crew on board”.

While urging Nigerians to pray for the repose of the souls of the deceased, Vmobile pleaded that Almighty God grant eternal repose to the souls of fellow citizens; departed brothers and sisters, including the innocent school children who were going home for the Christmas holiday.

“We also pray that God will give their families and friends the
fortitude to bear the painful loss,” he said.

Vmobile further commiserated with the management of Sosoliso Airlines over the unfortunate incident and wish them courage and God’s guidance in this most difficult time of their operation.

In a related development, management of Sparnoon South Africa has expressed sympathy over the plane crash which killed over 56 children onboard.

Sales Manager, Sparnoon South Africa, Mr. Scott Martin, said on behalf of the management and staff of Sparnoon, “I would like to express our deepest sympathies to the people of Nigeria. We join with you in mourning the unnecessary loss of over 100 people, especially the children, who perished in the plane crash in Port Harcourt.

“Our deepest condolences, thoughts and sympathies go to families of the lost” he said, adding that light, love and peace go with those who were lost, and may strength, love and support embrace the families of the dearly departed.

Europe, America still ripping off Africa – Don

ADVANCED countries of the world led by Europe and America are still exploiting the African continent, and that is why corruption may persist in Africa, says Professor Joseph McIntyre of the University of Hamburg, Germany.

He made this assertion in a chat in his office recently and said, that apart from these two that even the Chinese are joining gradually.

The professor of Afrikanistick and Athiopistic languages at the university, also said that interest of these advanced nations are not in the best interest of Africa.

According to him, a lot of African nations are rich in minerals among other natural resources, but are poor in the economic sense of it. He stressed that the economic interest of these advanced countries in Africa presently are different from what they have, for instance, in Japan.

"Africa, for instance, is rich - Nigeria is an oil-rich country,
good quality oil and Angola as well. In Zaire you have gold, Ghana is gold all
over and Liberia has diamonds and also in the republic of Congo, that is, Zaire
again, you have corper and they used to have good mineral that is only used in
mobile telephone," he declared.

Emphasising that the flow of money from Africa is quite important to Europe and the flow of goods, raw materials from Africa to Europe and America is quite important, but Africa is still considered poor.

Prof. McIntyre, who has been teaching Hausa language in the past 27 years at the university, noted that why the war on corruption globally seems not to be succeeding was because the advanced countries are harbouring corrupt wealth from poor nations in collaboration with small click of political elites.

"So when you talk about corruption being a massive problem in Africa, yes, it is, but not always an African problem because the other people who are helping to cause corruption are in Europe and America; the monies are coming to Europe and going to America," he decried.

Rich Nigerians, he said, who have lots of money do not invest these funds in their country, rather, "they buy houses outside Africa, send their children to school outside too. So, the money they have made corruptly does not circulate in Nigeria but circulates in Europe and the same with other African countries."

Some of these corrupt elites, the English man said, have Swiss bank accounts, German bank accounts, British and America bank accounts respectively.

"The money corrupt people have in Nigeria and Africa at large
circulates here in Europe and America. Now if all the corrupt people left their
monies in Nigeria, for instance, corruption would not be such a problem," he
said.

Maintaining, this has been a problem because every now and again "we hear about corruption here in German, in England, in France and we are talking about corrupt politicians, and corrupt bank managers".

For him, corruption is much more problem in Europe and America simply because the corrupt money stays here, and circulates here, "so we all benefit from corrupt money".

NCC sets up panel on Vmobile validity, reassures on SAT-3

NIGERIAN Communications Commission (NCC) would soon set up Consumer Negotiating Panel (CNP) to determine the fate of a leading Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operator, Vmobile Nigeria, for unilaterally reducing the duration of validity for its long standing subscribers.

This development is coming as NCC reassured on separation of SAT-3
from the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) proposed privatization
plan, saying it is for the benefit of the populace.

The indication for the panel follows a complaint tendered before the Telecom Consumers Parliament held Wednesday in Lagos by consumer rights organization.

The organization reported that Vmobile had on inception made its validity open entailing that subscribers could accumulate validity as long as they recharge their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM).
But recently, the operator reduced it to about 90 days without any recourse to the feeling of the subscribers.

Reacting to this among other things in his closing remark at the last monthly Parliament for the year 2005, the Executive Vice Chairman and chief executive, NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe decried the decision of the GSM operator, stressing that some of the subscribers must have bought their lines based on that openness of the validity structure before now.

He said that his office would set up a consumer negotiating panel to negotiate with the operator the compensation to be given to the subscribers.

This, he said, could be in the neighbourhood of N5,000 to N10,000
free airtime, depending on the level of validity accumulated by various
customers, order to for Vmobile to bail itself out of the contract
misdemeanor.

He advised Vmobile to warm up for the panel by putting its solicitors in place because NCC would soon assemble a group of solicitors from its side to represent consumers at the panel.

"A contact is a contract. If you want to make a change there are exist plans including buying your way out and giving enough time for them (customers) to adjust," he said.

According to him, he expects Vmobile to explain the worth of the cancelled validity to consumers for backing out of the contract without regards.

NCC boss, also reassured that separation of SAT-3 from the promposed NITEL privatization plan by the Federal Government was in good faith; to save Nigerians from the agony of transforming the structure from public monopoly into private monopoly.

"Private sector monopoly is more dangerous than public sector monopoly," he declared.

Dr. Ndukwe emphasized that those arguing otherwise should look at the long term of the separation, saying that the future would vindicate the government for taking this a positive stand on the issue of SAT-3.

He explained that SAT-3 would continue to carry traffic with or without NITEL, insisting that it is ill-advised to hand it over to a company since it is a national asset, bought through public fund.

"No single company would be allowed to have more than five per cent of the eventual company that would manage SAT Consortium, and it is good to preserve SAT-3," he said.

NCC chief executive further warmed NITEL to desist from charging subscribers on the network when their line is faulty.