" ITREALMS: June 2014

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Security: See something, say something

Since 2009 when the public attack on the Nigerian populace began its terrorism offensives, industry watchers estimates that some 6,000 victims have been killed and over 20 per cent of that figure have been defamed for life, yet another 20 per cent going in and out of the hospitals, writes ITRealms.

Today, a lot of concerns have been placed on the menace caused by the member of Boko Haram insurgent group, which has severally ascribed as “Western Education is Sin,” necessitating the slogan among most concern Nigerians for people to say something to appropriate authorities, including community leaders, once they spot something unusual, tagged in Nigeria parlance to be “see something, say something.”

It was not surprising that a few days ago, on my way from foreign assignment, a woman after standing to pick her language piece at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja-Lagos, could not identify a white cellophane bag and has no option than to raise an alarm with the officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), who promptly condoned the space and invited the experts, especially on bombs to screen the bag.

Recently also, a man spotted an unknown face parking a car in front of his apartment in Jos and was quick in stepping out to confront the fellow who after much insistence had no option than to move the vehicle away and on attempting to start the car engine, the vehicle instantly blow-up, killing the man and his little daughter who accompanied “daddy” alongside the bomber; who invariably may not be classified as suicide bomber, because he had wanted to abandon the car at that location before its detonation time, remotely.

And it seems this campaign of “see something, say something” linked to some group of concerned Nigerians, may have continued to gain momentum and led to a young boy of 12-year old recently alerting his community of Muslim in a Kano mosque of a suspected parked rickety Toyota Tercel car nearby.

His alarm led to the discovery of what terrorism and security experts called ‘high-caliber’ Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in the car and people where quickly evacuated, as the security agents made up of a team of police personnel immediately went to work to defuse the IED.

Confirming this, the police spokesperson in Kano, Mr Magaji Majiya, told newsmen “The bomb targeting worshippers was placed inside a Toyota Tercel car near a Mosque in Sauna Pfanuga area of Nasarawa Local Government, Kano metropolis.”

Majiya noted that the boy whose identity was kept sealed for security reasons became apprehensive when he saw the car laden heavy with what looked suspicious. Hence, the car was taken to Police Headquarters afterwards for further investigations and analysis.

Further, the Kano Commissioner of Police, Mr. Aderenle Shinaba, soon after displayed the devices to newsmen in Kano.

“The explosives were primed to explode when the Juma’at prayer is going on and they can destroy a whole neighbourhood because they are of high caliber,” Shinaba said.

ITRealms recalls that this development came at the wake of a bomb explosion, which claimed eight lives that took place on Monday at the School of Hygiene in Kano, leaving behind scores of death, even though the Police said they have arrested a suspect in connection with the school attack.

The exploit by this young boy tend to show the concern of the populace because people especially experts are talking about the insurgence at all levels of communication channels including but not limited to local radio and television stations and even among peers and relatives.

As we look forward to more breakthroughs, let us keep talking about what we see mostly if they are unusual objects at unusual locations, because the issues of security cannot be left in the hands of security agencies alone.

So, when next you see something, kindly say something as you may be saving lives with that alert including yours.

by: Remmy Nweke
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Pix: President Jonathan on visit to recent bombblast.

NCC ready to license InfraCos, sets August deadline for bids


Apex telecommunication regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has expressed its readiness to license the Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) with final date for bid submission set for August 4, 2014, reports ITRealms.

The infracos, ITRealms gathered are expected to deploy metropolitan optic fibre infrastructure and associated equipment in Lagos State and North Central (Abuja) Areas on an open access, non discriminatory, price regulated model.

In a widely advertised Public Notice endorsed by the Public Affairs Department of NCC, made available to ITRealms, the Commission invited competent companies to submit tenders for its consideration in the Phase 1 step.

Also, the Commission informed it has examined and considered the open access model as the preferred strategic means for the deployment of optic fibre backbone infrastructure that will bridge the current broadband gaps, enhance development of local content and deliver cost effective services to Nigerian households and businesses.

NCC told ITRealms that potential applicants have until August 4, 2014 to purchase tender documents and submit bids for them to qualify in the process.

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Pix: EVC, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah

Monday, June 23, 2014

ICANN50 draws 3,343 participants, affirms multistakeholder model for Internet Governance



About 3,343 participants have registered on site at the Hilton Metropole venue of the fifty public meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in London, reports ITRealms.

President and CEO of ICANN, Mr. Fadi ChehadĂ©, told ITRealms at the opening session on Monday that today is a great day for advancement of the multistakeholder model and its inclusivity.

He stressed that ICANN 50 is a milestone meeting for many reasons, not the least of which is the remarkable affirmations of the multistakeholder model it has brought and participation of 3,343 as this morning."

He also commended the Chinese government's adoption of the Domain Name System Security (DNSSEC) deployment and the expansion of the Internet Protocol (IPv6) protocol, which would ensure the expansion of the continued global expansion of the Internet.

He also called for the implementation of the NetMundial for the Internet community to make progress. While acknowledged the announcements by both Lebanon and China, "Both are a testament to the world's growing commitment to an inclusive multistakeholder Internet governance model, as is the remarkably high participation from so many people from every region of the world."

Equally speaking, Minister Lu Wei of China's Cyberspace Affairs Administration told attendees, noted that they all hold one single aspiration, that is, to improve the governance of the Internet. This is in line with ICANN's vision of 'One World, One Internet'.

He expressed appreciation and support for the advancements of the multistakeholder model that framed the NETmundial meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil in April.

Minister Lu's comments followed the recognition of the newly formed Lebanon Internet Center or LINC.

Dr. Imad Hoballah, a member of the LINC Board, said, "The multistakeholder approach draws its strength from the ability to bring together diverse views, and align them to a common goal of a global, interoperable Internet."

The U.K.'s Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Edward Vaizey told participants, "The Internet, as it has been governed, has to be seen as an unqualified success story. It's created the opportunity for massive economic growth and for greater intellectual freedom. So if we're going to look at the governance of the Internet, it's important that we preserve those principles."

Board Chair, Dr. Stephen Crocker, embraced ICANN's maturation to meet the needs of an expanding online world.  "Our world, - the Internet world… is constantly evolving, changing to meet the ever-expanding number of global Internet users."

The Board Chair for the UK Internet registry Nominet, Baroness Rennie Fritchie said, "We approach the challenge of Internet governance with the same appetite, finding better ways of doing our bit, working together and a desire to make real progress."

The First Minister of Wales, the Rt Hon Carwyn James told participants that in an increasingly globalized world, having a sense of identity, of course, becomes ever more important.


"The Internet allows us to make connections that go beyond our local neighborhoods and even beyond our country's borders, allowing individuals to develop their personal identity in whatever manner they see fit," James said.

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Photo: ICANN president, Fadi Chehade.

Avri Doria is ICANN multistakeholder ethos pioneer awardee

The Evaluation Committee for the pioneer ICANN Multistakeholder Ethos Award Programme  2014, has selected a longtime community member, Avri Doria, as the first-ever recipient, reports ITRealms.

Avri's nomination ITRealms learnt, received the highest vote out of the 22 other nominees to win the award in recognition of her multiple roles in ICANN, cutting across the Accountability and Transparency Review Team-2 (ATRT2), the ICANN academy and being an active participant in many working groups.

ITRealms also gathered that the Ethos award noted her active and constructive engagement in other Internet fora such as the United Nation’s (UN) Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG), the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the UN Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation (WGEC), the Internet Society (ISOC), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), and others.

Avri Doria, ITRealms recalled was a Nominating Committee appointee to ICANN's GNSO Council from 2005-2009, and elected from the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) from 2013 to now, Avri also chaired the GNSO and its council from 2007-2009. She has served in multiple GNSO working groups, as a key participant on the Joint Applicant Support Program Cross Community Working Group, and within several At-Large working groups. A resident of Rhode Island, US, she is currently a policy and governance advisor to dotgay LLC, on the research staff of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and a member of the faculty of the International School for Internet Governance.

Overall, the evaluation panel selected her as having demonstrated the best spirit of collaboration as shown through empathy and a sincere desire to engage with people from other backgrounds, cultures and interests.

Further, she was reported according to available evaluation process to  ITRealms as having demonstrated willingness to reach out to new people, to listen and really engage with others who do not necessarily share her viewpoints or interests. She is well known beyond any one constituency or stakeholder group as someone willing to have a true dialogue and work toward consensus. She is a real steward of the multistakeholder model.

The community evaluation panel was: Carolina Aguerre, John Berard, David Conrad, Olivier Crépin-Leblond, Robert Guerra, Roelof Meijer, Jonathan Robinson and Stefano Trumpy. Nominees and nominators are confidential.

Working over a period of four weeks, they evaluated nominations sent in from the community and carefully deliberated each candidate on four criteria, namely demonstrated multistakeholder volunteer service via working groups or committees; Demonstrated spirit of collaboration through engagement with other community members with the aim of consensus building; Demonstrated facilitator of dialogue and open discussion in a fair, cordial and collegial manner.; demonstrated additional devotional factors exhibited by time spent supporting ICANN's multistakeholder model and its overall effectiveness.

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Pix: Avri Doria

Westlake Governance to conduct GNSO independent review



The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Monday named Westlake Governance Limited to conduct an independent review of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), reports ITRealms.

This review, ITRealms gathered is part of ICANN's commitment to continuous improvement, accountability and transparency.

ITRealms notes that GNSO serves an important function as an organisation within the ICANN community responsible for developing and recommending to the ICANN Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains (gTLDs).

ITRealms recalled that the purpose of the review is to evaluate organizational effectiveness of the GNSO, acknowledge areas that are working well, identify areas that need improvement and propose needed changes. This review, like reviews of other structures within ICANN, is mandated by ICANN's Bylaws.

The GNSO Review, ICANN officials confirm would address the new, improved approach to conducting reviews. Stressing that the GNSO will be a protagonist in this inclusive process: in keeping with ICANN's bottom-up, multistakeholder approach, this review process will incorporate a "self-review" by the GNSO community and its direct involvement.

“An online survey will collect feedback from other ICANN structures and community members, the Board and staff. Westlake will collect both quantitative and qualitative data through various work methods to develop a sufficient basis for formulating findings and recommendations. The review will begin immediately and is expected to conclude in January 2015,” ICANN official told ITRealms.

The selection of an independent examiner was done in accordance with the process defined in SIC Systematization of Organizational Reviews Processes and involves organizational review staff and the Structural Improvements Committee of the Board.

“Seven proposals were carefully evaluated and the evaluation results and scores were presented for consideration and action by the ICANN Board Structural Improvements Committee. The selection criteria included: Knowledge and Expertise (including knowledge of ICANN), Qualifications of the Professional Team Assigned (including ability to act independently, without conflict of interest); Proposed Methodology; Ability to Deliver High Quality, Useful Report and Recommendations; and Costs.


Westlake Governance is a globally-focused, New Zealand-based consulting firm, serving clients from a wide cross-section of not-for-profit, commercial and government-owned sectors. The firm has performed reviews of ICANN's At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and the Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC).

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Sunday, June 22, 2014

ICANN board on new gTLD writes NCSG on INGO protection

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN) board on new Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) Programme Committee (NGPC) has written the Non-Commercial Users Stakeholder Group (NCSG) on the need for the protection of the International Non-Government Organisation (INGO) identifiers in all gTLDs, reports ITRealms.

The letter from the NGPC regarding protection of IGO-INGO identifiers in all gTLDs, sighted by ITRealms dated June 16, 2014 and addressed to Jonathan by the chairperson of the Board New Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) Programme Committee, Cherine Chalaby, dated June 16, 2014, said it was to provide an update on the ongoing work in response to the GNSO policy recommendations regarding Protection of IGO-INGO Identifiers in all gTLDs and the advice from the Government Advisory Council (GAC) in its Buenos Aires Communiqué addressing the same topic.

ITRealms reports that on 30 April 2014, the ICANN board adopted the GNSO Council’s policy recommendations on IGO-INGO protections that were not inconsistent with the GAC’s advice, and requested additional time to consider the remaining policy recommendations that are inconsistent with the GAC’s advice on the same topic.


“The Board committed to facilitate discussions among the relevant parties to reconcile any remaining differences between the policy recommendations and the GAC advice on the topic, and previously tasked the NGPC to help with this process,” Chalaby said.

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Pix: Cherine Chalaby, NGPC chairman

Anne-Rachel, Conrad rejoin ICANN to support global engagement, technical excellence

ITRealms:


The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has named David Conrad to the newly created position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and Anne-Rachel InnĂ© to the role of VP, Government Engagement – Geneva, reports ITRealms.

As CTO, ITRealms reports that Conrad would work closely with internal and external stakeholders to develop a technology roadmap for the Internet identifiers system and coordinate with community. Conrad will assume the role of CTO on 4 August and report to Akram Atallah, president of ICANN's Global Domains Division.
"David's extensive experience with domain name system operations, Internet identifier technology, cybersecurity, and IT, coupled with his familiarity with ICANN, makes him the ideal person for this new role," said Atallah. "I am confident that David will quickly make an impact as we continue to focus on improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and security of our business operations."
Anne-Rachel InnĂ© will assume the role on 15 July and report to ICANN's Senior Advisor to the President on Government Engagement, Tarek Kamel.
Based in ICANN's Geneva Engagement Center, Anne-Rachel will be responsible for designing a full engagement plan for ICANN's outreach work with the country missions to the UN in Geneva.
"The VP Government Engagement role- Geneva is critical in expanding our engagement efforts with governments, intergovernmental organizations and the UN in Geneva," said Kamel. "We are pleased to welcome back Anne-Rachel to ICANN, and are confident she'll bring a lot to the role based on her extensive experience in the ICANN community."
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Thursday, June 19, 2014

World Cup 2014: 17.5m Nigerians watch Nigeria v. Iran on TV



The world’s largest real-time mobile survey platform, GeoPoll announced initial findings on Television (TV) ratings, audience size and demographics following the first games of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, saying that 17.5 million Nigerians watched between Nigeria and Iran, reports ITRealms.

The data, gathered via mobile surveys in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda provides a first-ever glimpse of the fans who are tuning into the World Cup in these countries, and represents ratings from more than 300 million African citizens. 

According to the GeoPoll founder, Mr. James Eberhard, the game between Nigeria and Iran, played during prime time in Nigeria, drew 17.5 million Nigerian adult viewers.

This he also said, amounts to 20 per cent of the Nigerian adult population, even as over 25 million adults from all the surveyed African nations watched the Nigeria game, making it the most watched game in these markets over the first 5 days of play.

Mr. Eberhard said that Ghana’s World Cup viewership stays high across games - Ghana viewership has remained high across all games: 3.5 million watched the opening game between Brazil and Croatia, and the gripping match between Ghana and the United States on Monday attracted 2.4 million adult Ghanaian viewers.

The U.S./Ghana game aired at 10pm Ghana time, the report revealed might explain the drop in viewership numbers in the country, compared to the earlier Monday games which saw 3.1 million Ghanaian viewers.


“On average across the first 5 days of games, 2.2 million Ghanaians have tuned in to every hour of play,” he said. 

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Pix: GeoPoll founder, Mr. James Eberhard

Monday, June 16, 2014

Leverage internet benefits says Angaye to Nigerian youths


Immediate past Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Cyber security expert, Prof. Cleopas Angaye has tasked Nigerian youths to tap on the benefits of the internet, reports ITRealms.

Angaye who made this call at the third session of the youth workshop organized as pre-event for the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum (NIGF) 2014 at the Muson Center, Onikan, Lagos, recently, described the internet as the global information technology network which has developed more quickly than any other technology.

ITRealms also reports that he told the youths that benefits of the Internet, entails that Nigeria is rated the highest internet accessing country on the continent, noting that Nigeria has the seventh highest number of mobile phones and the third highest users of Facebook.

“There are several developmental opportunities for the youths in Nigeria,” he declared and listed some of these benefits to include venturing into online games, entertainment, social networking, travel, productivity cum education, utilities, weather, mobile technology hardware, software; management solutions.

Others, he said are Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking solutions, device manufacturing, mobile resellers, app developers, equipment vendors, content providers, mobile network carriers, mobile web.

The aforementioned, he said, are in addition to mobile commerce and mobile payments, and mobile retailers.


However, Prof. Angaye pointed out that alongside all these benefits, there is Internet fraud. He maintained that there are many opportunities for cyber crime, which come as risk of connectivity.

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Pix: Prof. Angaye.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Johnson elected chairperson of UNCSTD

ITRealms:

The Minister of Communication Technology and Supervising Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr (Mrs.) Omobola Johnson has been elected as the Chairperson of the United Nations’ Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) reports ITRealms.

The election of Dr Johnson, according to the special assistant on media to the minister, Mrs Efem Nkanga, took place at the end of the 17th Session of the Commission that was held from May 12-16, 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland.

ITRealms also gathered that the position of Chairperson is for a period of one year and presents an opportunity for Nigeria to play a role in discussions that will shape the role of science and technology in development.

These discussions,  ITRealms reports also included deliberations on the manner in which the internet could be governed globally.

The CSTD is a subsidiary body of the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and plays an advisory role to the UN General Assembly and ECOSOC on a range of relevant issues.

These issues pertain to the contributions of science and technology to development, particularly in developing countries. Furthermore, since 2006, CSTD has also advised ECOSOC on the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The CSTD is composed of forty-three Members States that are elected by ECOSOC for a term of four years, and who meet annually for a period of one week. Nigeria is one of the eleven African States that are Members of the Commission, and its tenure on the Commission ends in 2016.
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Thursday, June 12, 2014

‘No more IPv4 addresses in Latin America, Caribbean’ says LACNIC


The Latin America and the Caribbean region have entered the IPv4 exhaustion phase, just as the slow in deploying Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6) in the region has become a cause for concern, reports ITRealms.

The Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNIC), the organization responsible for assigning Internet resources in the region, announced the exhaustion of its IPv4 address pool and expressed its concern regarding the fact that operators and governments throughout the region are delaying the deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

ITRealms reports that LACNIC disclosed that its pool of available IPv4 addresses reached the 4.194.302 mark, which triggered stricter Internet resource assignment policies for the continent.

In practice, ITRealms gathered, this means that IPv4 addresses are now exhausted for Latin American and Caribbean operators.

"This is an historic event; the fact that it was anticipated and announced doesn't make it any less significant," said RaĂşl EcheberrĂ­a, LACNIC's CEO, stressing that from now on, LACNIC and its National Registries will only be able to assign very small numbers of IPv4 addresses, and these will not be enough to satisfy the region's needs.

Since it began operating in 2002, ITRealms reports that the organization has assigned more than 182 million IPv4 addresses throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

As agreed by the regional community, now that only 4,194,302 available IPv4 addresses (/10) remain, LACNIC's pool of IPv4 addresses is considered officially exhausted and the Gradual Exhaustion and New Entrants policies have come into effect, introducing new procedures and requirements for those requesting resources.

The policy on Transfers of IPv4 Blocks within the LACNIC Region, which allows and governs the transfer of resources among different organizations within the region, is now also in effect.

"Today, the need to deploy IPv6 is now more pressing than ever. It cannot be delayed any longer if connectivity providers still wish to meet the demands of their customers and those of new users. LACNIC and the Internet community have been working for years in preparation for this very moment," said EcheberrĂ­a.

Accordingly, ITRealms gathered some 67 per cent of LACNIC member organizations have already been assigned IPv6 addresses by LACNIC and National Registries, NIC.br and NIC.MX.

LACNIC's CEO, however, expressed his concern that "10 years after LACNIC and National Registries, NIC.br and NIC.MX.  began promoting IPv6 deployment, many operators and companies still haven't taken the steps needed to duly address this circumstance."

2,097,150 of the remaining 4,194,302 addresses may be assigned during this phase, in blocks of limited sizes (assignments) comprising between 256 and 1,024 IP addresses. Likewise, an organization may only request additional resources six months after receiving a prior assignment. Once these 2 million IPv4 addresses are exhausted, LACNIC members will no longer be able to receive any IPv4 assignments.


At that point, the reserve for new members (/11) will be activated, thus triggering Phase 3 of the IPv4 exhaustion plan designed by LACNIC and the National Registries. According to the policies in force, during this final phase only new members will be able to request IPv4 addresses, which will be assigned in blocks of between 256 (/24) and 1,024 (/22) addresses. Each new member will only be able to receive one assignment from this space.

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Wednesday, June 11, 2014

ICANN releases final report on 'Mitigating the Risk of DNS Namespace Collisions Phase One'

ITRealms:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Wednesday announced the publication of the final "Mitigating the Risk of DNS Namespace Collisions Phase One" report by JAS Global Advisors ("JAS").
The JAS study, which was commissioned by ICANN, provides a set of recommendations that describe a comprehensive approach to reducing current and future DNS namespace collisions, alerting operators of potential DNS namespace related issues, and providing emergency response capabilities in the event that critical, for instance life safety, systems are adversely impacted. 

ITRealms gathered that the final Phase One report takes into consideration feedback received during the public comment period that closed on 21 April 2014.

The JAS report, along with additional community feedback and other pertinent data, will be considered prior to providing the ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee with a proposal to address name collisions for new gTLDs as part of the New gTLD Collision Occurrence Management Plan adopted on 7 October 2013.

ITRealms recalls that a session to discuss this proposal and collect feedback from the community will be held at the ICANN meeting in London on 23 June 2015 at 17:00-18:30 local time.

The report could be download here.
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CPN ready for IT Assembly 2014, Prof. Bacon leads keynote


The Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) has advanced plans for the hosting of its 2014 edition of the Information Technology (IT) Assembly slated to hold between June 18 and 19 at Nicon Luxury, Abuja, ITRealms reports.

Confirming this, the chairman in council of CPN, Hajia Sekinat Olusola Yusuf, told ITRealms the assembly is an exclusive networking event for senior and upcoming IT decision makers, consultants, entrepreneurs, practitioners, teachers, students, systems administrators and other interested members of the public, on the theme: Harnessing the potentials of IT professionals for national development.

She disclosed ITRealms that President, British Computer Society, Prof. Liz Bacon, would give the keynote at this year’s IT Assembly.

Mrs. Yusuf also told ITRealms that the rationale for the assembly is based on the fact that development of any nation is usually measured by the degree and extent of the socio-cultural, economic and political improvements that are brought to bear through the enterprises of IT.

“There is no gainsaying that the present world order is one strictly ruled by the power of information,” she declared, adding that there is a direct link between a nation’s material prosperity and that of her information-wealth, hence, IT is the vital resource which provides impetus for a nation’s technological advancement.

She described this year’s IT Assembly as unique in many ways including that it’s issue-based and topic focused.

“We’re doing so many things differently this year. There will be no parallel sessions this year. This is to enable all attendees participate fully in all the plenary sessions,” she said, pointing out that this would enable all attendees to participate fully in all the plenary sessions.

Mrs. Yusuf accompanied by the CPN registrar, Mr. Shehu Sekiru, Head, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Idowu Olusile and Head, Technical, Mr. Ibrahim, emphasised that IT Assembly believes that it is time Nigeria begins to take advantage of its vast resources and enormous potentials in IT to address daunting national challenges.

In furtherance of achieving its theme, CPN, she said, would be comparing notes with the keynote address to be delivered by the President, British Computer Society, Prof. Liz Bacon, to ensure that CPN approach is in tandem with the global best practices.

Equally, the Assembly, she said, would provide a platform for some industry innovative showcase of products and services, thus offering participants the opportunity to appreciate emerging technologies, trends and risks associated with transformation of various industries using IT.


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Monday, June 09, 2014

Johnson, Juwah commend DigitalSENSE Africa on IG4D, IPv6 2014

ITRealms:

The Honourable Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson and the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, have commended the management of DigitalSENSE Africa Media Limited, for consistency in hosting the Internet Governance for Development (IG4D) and the Nigeria IPv6 Roundtable to educate Nigerians on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry issues.
Both spoke at the two-day 2014 edition of the Nigeria DigitalSENSE forum series held at Welcome Centre Hotels in Lagos with the theme “Internet Governance, eBiz and Open Access in Nigeria and IPv6 and Broadband Penetration.”
Mrs. Johnson who was represented by the Assistant Director, Computer Services at the ministry, Engr. Olufeko Olufemi, applauded DigitalSENSE Africa for the role it has played over the years, especially in the last six years.
She urged other reputed organizations to emulate DigitalSENSE Africa and encouraged industry stakeholders support for such a forum as Nigeria DigitalSENSE, because government and her agencies cannot do the job of public awareness for instance, along, more so on Internet Governance as part of the bottom-up process.
Also speaking at the event presided over by the Head, Computer Sciences, University of Lagos, Prof. Charles Uwadia, the EVC of NCC ably represented by the Deputy Director, Projects at NCC, Mr. Bashir Idris, in his keynote commended DigitalSENSE Africa for providing the relevant platform to address very topical issues such as the theme of this year’s forum across the many topical issues and developments across the ICT industry in Nigeria in recent times.
“We believe these are healthy for the quest to create the needed awareness among the stakeholders and beneficiaries of the potentials that abound in the industry,” he said.
NCC, he said, has plans to be very present and visible at the international level of discussions on all issues surrounding the ICT industry, stressing that the reason for this is to ensure that NCC impacts on discussions and decisions on global trends and regulations that evolve in the dynamic ICT space.
“This is why we are now paying more attention, and participating in the activities of the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, which is the global regulator of the telecom industry,” he said.
The Internet Governance Forum, he emphasised, is particularly of interest to NCC, which have currently raised a team in the Commission that is taking part on all the Internet Governance Forum discussions taking place around Africa and beyond.
“The reason is to ensure that our interest as a nation is fully represented at these discussions and to also ensure that we have first hand knowledge of how best to exploit the potentials that abound on the Internet,” EVC said.
Pointing out that as is in many issues where the global community has different views and interests in a technology platform, Internet Governance has become an issue of discussion over the years.
“It is yet to be seen if the world would gravitate to accept common laws regarding access and use of the Internet,” he said.
Welcoming participants earlier to 2014 edition of NDSF on IG4D, the Executive Director, Operations at DigitalSENSE Africa, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, said the platform was created and nurtured to date as a think-tank platform where Nigerian internet stakeholders converge annually to raise and address germane issues concerning the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector with particular reference to Computing, Internet Governance-related issues towards helping to further advance Nigeria in the ever-rapidly advancing phenomenon of global ICT.
This year’s forum on  ‘Internet Governance, eBiz and Open Access in Nigeria.’ offers Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telecom operators, value added service providers as well as all other stakeholders, the enabling ground to articulate a stand on Internet governance issues and accurately align NDSF on IG4D position into the national, regional, Africa and global agenda.
“It is pertinent at this juncture, to remind all young internet users particularly, to always be mindful of what they post on the internet because everything posted on the net is traceable to the author. Therefore, you are passionately advised to mind the stuff you post and the language with which such materials are posted on the internet for global consumption,” she asserted, stressing that this is important because the result of what people send or share online for the consummation of the global village remains their permanent signature and model of image which will definitely rub off on such an individual in all their future contacts.

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Day1 - IG4D Forum 2014: L-r Representative of Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah represented by Mr. Bashir Idris, chairman, Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum on Internet Governance for Development (IG4D 2014) Prof. Charles Uwadia, Executive Director, Operations, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson represented by Engr. Olufeko Olufemi taking the nation anthem held at the Welcome Center Hotels, Lagos

Day2 - IPv6 Roundtable 2014: L-r Chairman, Nigeria IPv6 Roundtable 2014, Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu, Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa Media, the organisers, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, guest speaker and chief executive officer, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) Mr. Muhammed Rudman held at the Welcome Center Hotels, Lagos.

Saturday, June 07, 2014

Prof. Akunyili bows to cancer at last, RIP!

ITRealms:
The Immediate past Minister of Information & Communications, Prof. Dora Nkem Akunyili, died this morning in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, losing a two-year battle against cancer. The sad event took place about 10am Nigerian time (3pm Indian time) four weeks after Prof. Akunyili was flown to India for further treatment on Sunday, May 11, 2014, having initially been treated in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

Late Professor Akunyili, it was gathered, died peacefully, surrounded by her husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili, and her brother, Dr. Francis Anayo Edemobi, both of whom travelled to India with her on May 11 and remained by her side until she drew her last breath.

Born on July 14, 1954, Prof. Akunyili would have turned 60 next month. She is survived by her husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili, her siblings, her children, grandchildren and a host of relatives.  

Popularly known as The Amazon, Prof. Dora Akunyili was a first class patriot who deeply loved Nigeria and served the country with all she had, irrespective of whatever risks was involved in doing so. 

She demonstrated this in all her assignments – from the classroom at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), to the Presidential (Special) Task Force (PTF), National Agency for Food & Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC), Ministry of Information & Communications, Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation, and the on-going National Conference in Abuja, of which she was a member until her death.

Below is the official statement of her death as issued on behalf of her family by immediate past Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, CON:

“PROF. (MRS.) DORA AKUNYILI IS DEAD
“On behalf of the Akunyili's family, I wish to officially confirm the death of Prof. (Mrs.) Dora Nkem Akunyili, OFR, in a Specialist Cancer Hospital in India this morning at 10 am, Nigerian Time, after a two-year battle with cancer.

“In spite her illness, Prof. Akunyili was unwavering in her belief in a better Nigeria. That was why she defied her condition and was part of Anambra State Handover Committee and the National Conference.

“The last time I visited her in India, even when she needed all the prayers herself, she was full of concern for the abducted Chibok girls, security and other challenges facing the country and told me that she remained prayerful for the release of those girls and for God to help President Goodluck Jonathan to overcome all the challenges facing the Nation. She therefore urged all Nigerians to remain prayerful and committed to building a better society for our children. We all prayed together and I promised to be visiting her every month.

“We thank all those who remain fervent in prayers for her recovery and urge them to remain prayerful for the peaceful repose of her soul.”


Outside headline and pix/Courtesy News Express
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•Pix late Prof. Dora Akunyili.

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Different shapes of Cloud hinges on trust by Antony Cook



The Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Middle East and Africa, Antony Cook, who dwelt on Cloud Computing: Privacy and Security, asserting that trust is the key to cloud services, at an event in Lagos, reports ITRealms.

And for Cook, the numbers matters so much, stating that mobility checks has seen 1.1 billion global smartphone subscribers, yet 5 billion non-smartphone users still exist globally.

Cook also said that on mobility, there are over a billion users, Facebook users are now in the hands of 680 million mobile, just as 175 million tweets are generated daily.

On the big data, Cook pointed out that there was 2.4 billion global internet users in 2012, whereas total amount of digital information in the world is increasing 10x every 5 years, with the Cloud being the enabling force for all these trends.

Thus, for Cook, clouds come in different shapes, namely the public, private and public cum private clouds.
For the public clouds, Cook said this manages data centers by service provides within agile, cost effective and scalable.

Private clouds, the counsel said is on-premises or hosted by a third party which could be more secured, more customizable, greater control and more overhead.

Accordingly, the AGM at Microsoft says that public and private clouds has reputed for optimal mix of cost and control, while agile, scalable, more secure and cost effectiveness could be outlined as seeming advantages.

Some key benefits of the cloud include cost savings, security and performance.
Precisely, Antony said that for the cost savings, cloud services provide cost savings without compromising on quality.

On the security benefit, Antony said experience and scale enabled cloud service providers are known to offer more robust security.

Even as the performance gains involve cloud services which enable customers to innovate and operate at a faster pace.


However, across security, privacy and compliance, he pointed out that trust is key, stressing that people would like to know how safe are their data in the cloud, where will my data be stored and who can access it for  hat purposes, whilst on compliance, customers will like to know if the cloud will increase their regulatory risk?

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Airtel kick-off Rising Stars Season 4


Airtel Nigeria, Wednesday in Lagos kicked off the 4th edition of Airtel Rising Stars (ARS) U-17 male and female tournament, a grass-root football talent search programme aimed at identifying and nurturing budding soccer talent from the grassroots onto a national stage, reports ITRealms.

This, ITRealms gathered is coming 10 months after a successful hosting of the 3rd edition of the ARS, an Africa-wide grassroots tournament that underscores the company’s avowed commitment to creating excitement for sports lovers as well as providing empowerment opportunities for Nigerian youth.

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, noted that the soccer initiative is the company’s contribution to sports development and youth empowerment in Nigeria.

Ogunsanya who was accompanied by ex Super Eagles and Falcons Stars including Peter Rufai, Ann Chiejine, Chioma Ajunwa, Garba Lawal and Mutiu Adepoju said football in Nigeria elicits passion, creates fun and engenders unity.

“Airtel wants to be an integral part of local communities and our association with football has strong elements of creating positive change and engagement. ARS is our contribution to building and sustaining a rich pool of football talents for the Super Eagles and Falcons,” he said.

While highlighting the success of the Airtel Rising Starts intervention, the Airtel CEO also noted that the initiative has provided strong platforms for empowering exceptionally talented Nigerians.

"It is on record that the Airtel Rising Stars Football programme has produced exceptional talents some of whom are: Musa Mohammed Shehu- Captain Golden Eaglets U17- (ARS 2011); Zahradden Bello- U17- ARS (2012); AL Hassan Ibrahim Abdullahi- U17- ARS (2011); Muri Lawal- Sunshine Stars FC Akure- ARS (2011) and Josephine Mathias- Falconets, Pelican Stars FC Calabar- ARS (2011),” he said.

According to Ogunsanya, the fourth edition of the Airtel Rising Stars programme will be played in different regions across the country, culminating in the National Finals, a three-day soccer fiesta. Thereafter, the successful male and female teams will travel to Gabon to compete for continental glory in Africa’s biggest youth football tournament with participation from 17 countries.

With over 50,000 active participants over the last 3 seasons, ARS enjoys the endorsement and support of football bodies such as Lagos State Football Association (LSFA), Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria (YSFON), Arsenal Football Club and Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF). This year, Airtel is partnering ex super eagles and falcons stars to offer technical support and advisory services to the youngsters.

Beginning with Open Screening Camps in five locations, where the participants will be screened for age compliance and given the opportunity to showcase their talents, the selected male and female teams in each camp will proceed to Lagos to challenge for honors at the National Finals.

The Airtel Rising Stars U-17 Tourney, a unique pan African initiative of Airtel Africa, is designed to provide support for the development of football talents across Nigeria. It aims at discovering talented students (male and female) of secondary school age and providing them the opportunity to gain football skills and develop into renowned stars.


The Airtel Rising Stars registration will kick-off from today, June 4th, 2014 to Friday, June 27th, 2014 and is expected to draw thousands of participants across the country. The registration forms will be available at Airtel Express shops nationwide.

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Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Apple’s OS X Yosemite debuts

Apple Tuesday in the city of San Francisco in the United States unveiled its OS X Yosemite, a powerful new version of OS X redesigned and refined with a fresh, modern look, powerful new apps and amazing new continuity features that make working across Mac and iOS devices more fluid than ever, reports ITRealms.

The new Today view in Notification Center, ITRealms gathered, gives users a quick look at everything one needs to know, all in one place; iCloud Drive is located within the Finder and can store files of any type; and Safari has a new streamlined design that puts the most important controls at your fingertips.

While the Mail makes editing and sending attachments easier than ever; Handoff allows an activity on one device and pass it to the other; and Instant Hotspot makes using your iPhone’s hotspot as easy as connecting to a Wi-Fi network. Yosemite even gives you the ability to make iPhone calls on your Mac.

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering  says Yosemite is the future of OS X with its incredible new design and amazing new apps, all engineered to work beautifully with iOS.

 “We engineer our platforms, services and devices together, so we are able to create a seamless experience for our users across all our products that is unparalleled in the industry. It’s something only Apple can deliver.”

With Yosemite, OS X has been redesigned and refined with a fresh modern look where controls are clearer, smarter and easier to understand, and streamlined toolbars put the focus on your content without compromising functionality. Translucent elements reveal additional content in your app window, provide a hint at what’s hidden behind and take on the look of your desktop. App icons have a clean, consistent design and an updated system font improves readability.

The new Today view in Notification Center gives you a quick look at everything you need to know with widgets for Calendar, Weather, Stocks, Reminders, World Clock and social networks. You can even download additional widgets from the Mac App Store to customize your Today view. Spotlight now appears front and center on your desktop and adds new categories of results, so you can view rich suggestions from Wikipedia, Maps, Bing, App Store, iTunes Store, iBooks Store, top websites, news and movie showtimes.

Built right into the Finder, iCloud Drive stores files of any type in iCloud. iCloud Drive works like any other folder on your Mac, so you can drag documents into it, organise them with folders and Tags and search for them using Spotlight. With iCloud Drive, you can access all your files in iCloud from your Mac, iPhone, iPad or even a Windows PC.


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Digital debate: UN assembles ICT regulators in Bahrain


Bahrain on Tuesday welcomed over 650 high-level international delegates to the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) from the world’s information and communication technology (ICT) regulatory authorities, who will spend the week debating the opportunities and challenges of tomorrow’s increasingly interconnected digital environment, reports ITRealms.

The Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) is an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) event aim at stimulating debate, knowledge sharing and exchange of best practice among regulators, industry leaders, government policy analysts and other key ICT stakeholders.

ITRealms gathered that GSR is hosted by the Government of Bahrain under the patronage of Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the event is taking place at the Gulf Hotel Bahrain from 3-5 June.

Discussions, ITRealms also notes will focus around ‘Capitalizing on the Potential of the Digital World’, and feature key topics including Big Data; consumer empowerment; strategies to stimulate ICT market competition and meet growing demand for network capacity; emerging digital business models such as OTT and cloud services; and innovative radio spectrum management trends. 

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Bahrain is partnering with ITU to host the symposium, which is officially chaired by TRA Chairman Dr Mohammed Ahmed Alamer.

The event which opening with distinguished guests, including HH Sheikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Deputy Premier of Bahrain, H.E. Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohamed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Minister of State for Telecommunications Affairs, and ITU Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun I. TourĂ© in attendance.


In his address to GSR-14 delegates, Dr TourĂ© said the digital ecosystem has re-drawn the business boundaries and paved the way for a wealth of fresh and innovative ideas. 

“In this new business landscape, how can we ensure that both consumers and businesses benefit from the opportunities of living in a digital society? How can we respond to their need for a secure, reliable and trustworthy ecosystem, while fostering a positive investment climate that will ensure we can finance tomorrow’s infrastructure rollout?” he asked.

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