Digital Footprint goes to Dublin Science Gallery

ITRealms:

The ADAPT Centre, formerly known as CNGL has confirmed to ITRealms that its weeklong Lifelogging is headed to the city of Dublin Science Gallery.

ITRealms reports that Lifelogging week has splited into lab, big foot and exhibition.

According to a press statement made available to ITRealms, these three upcoming events were designed to help participants understand how much of their data is "out there" and learn strategies to make them a little more secure.

Equally, the outlined includes that the exhibition, for instance, which commenced Friday, February 13, 2015 would last till April 12, this year.

As for the Lifelogging Lab week, ITRealms gathered it will last for a week between Tuesday 17th February and Sunday 22nd February, 2015.

 
Also, there would be a 45 minutes Bigfoot workshop to afford participnts to know how big is their digital footprint.

The researchers, led by Dr. Kevin Koidl, ADAPT Centre, Trinity College Dublin will be featured alongside participants who will be exploring the LIFELOGGING LAB by taking part in psychometric testing and contributing to real research on social media, online personalities, and data exhaustion.

ADAPT, ITRealms gathered has teamed up with AYLIEN, Dublin based experts in Text and Sentiment Analysis, to create BigFoot - a system that captures your online persona and determines how much of your data is out there. 

This is coming as the workshop on BigFoot: Keeping your data to yourself tends to consider if the social media is the death of privacy, or just an evolution of what currently would be understood as ‘private life’?

However, the BigFoot predicts that in the future data about the individual will become richer and more intrusive. Who owns this data? How it can be used?

@ITRealms

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Egypt, MasterCard sign MoU on financial inclusion

ITRealms:

The Government of Egypt, and MasterCard has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to drive financial inclusion in the country, reports ITRealms.

The Egyptian government, ITRealms reports was represented at the occasion by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, while the MoU would boost the establishment of a strategic collaboration to help drive financial inclusion and maximize government efficiency.

 ITRealms reports that the MoU was signed by H.E. Atef Helmy, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and Ajay Banga, Chief Executive Officer at MasterCard, in the presence of H.E. Ibrahim Mahlab, Prime Minister of Egypt, and Richard Haythornthwaite, Chairman of MasterCard’s Board of Directors.

The partnership, ITRealms gathered would see MasterCard bringing latest payment technology innovations to market. 

In addition, ITRealms reports that the company, MasterCard will leverage its global experience working with governments across the world, to help the Egyptian government increase engagement with citizens.

For  Atef Helmy, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, he noted that “Under the leadership of H.E. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Egypt has been undergoing a period of positive change. The President and Government of Egypt believe that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) plays a vital role in supporting this change and in helping us better serve our citizens. This collaboration with MasterCard will help the Government bring innovative new solutions to the Egyptian population.”

Ass said by the Minister, knowledge transfer will play an important role in the partnership and MasterCard’s expertise will be leveraged to boost innovation efforts and enhance citizen engagement. A number of innovative programs will be implemented in the near future to help achieve these goals.

Ajay Banga, Chief Executive Officer, MasterCard said: “This partnership highlights our commitment to Egypt and its people. It is crucial for us to join forces with governments around the world to accelerate positive change for citizens. We have a long and rich history in Egypt, and we are excited about the opportunity to provide more Egyptians with access to financial services.”

As part of the agreement, MasterCard will also be working alongside Egypt Post to fully digitalize its customer base, and enable its 4000 branches to offer electronic value-added-services, employee trainings and expert driven workshops. This will help Egypt Post transition towards cashless payment solutions through the use of mobile phones and credit cards, ultimately improving its services and enhancing convenience. 

@ITRealms @MasterCard @Egypt

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Broadband Council demands boosts of NIRA funding to increase .NG uptake

ITRealms:

The Nigeria Broadband Council as urged the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to close the funding gap in the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) to enable it meet up with high levels of uptake, reports ITRealms.

The Council at the end of its quarterly meeting in Abuja, the nation’s capital recently made this call for adequate funding for NIRA.

They adduced to ITRealms that NIRA must reduce the cost of .NG to be globally competitive, stressing that in order to accelerate .NG domain uptake, NITDA, its supervisory agency, must step in with relevant funds to close gaps evident in pent up demands.

Also, ITRealms gathered that in recognition of the crucial role broadband plays in inclusive development and in a bid to increase awareness and drive demand, the Council acknowledged the work of online market spaces in encouraging Small, Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to bring their products and services online and urged the SME Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to fund or drive an awareness campaign that will get many more SMEs online.

Just as they pointed out to ITRealms in a press statement endorsed by Mrs. Efem Nkanga, the Special Adviser Media to the Honourable Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, that the Broadband Council at its previous meeting pushed for increased Third Generation (3G) coverage to 50 per cent of the Nigerian population by the end of 2015.

The Council commended the efforts of Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) for the timely completion of its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Access Gap Study.

They concluded this study would further help operators to service latent demand, stressing that the significant work by the USPF has given real empirical data to the issue of which areas of the country have connectivity.

The Council further scored overall progress as good but needed acceleration on items such as pricing and metro fibre. 

Following the recent announcement of the Infraco License winners, the NCC’s work on wholesale and cost based pricing to improve the affordability of access to the internet would soon be available.

Council concluded that progress was still too slow and challenged the ICT industry to see to it that the broadband plan targets were met.

ITRealms recalls that Broadband Council was inaugurated on July 16, 2013 and is made up of 19 members chaired by Dr Omobola Johnson. The Council charged with the responsibility of monitoring implementation modalities for the approved Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2013 – 2018 has been working to ensure that Nigeria achieves a five-fold increase in broadband penetration by 2017/2018. 

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +Efem Nkanga +Tony Ojobo
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pix: Mrs Uduma, NIRA president

Johnson launches NigComSAT Ka band

DigitalSENSE Business News:

The honourable Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. (Mrs) Omobola Johnson, has launched NIG-KA-NET on the platform of Ka-band from the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSAT) Limited, reports DigitalSENSE Business News.

This is coming few weeks after the acting Managing Director of NigcomSat, Ms Abimbola Alale was confirmed as substantive Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Speaking at the launch in Abuja, Mrs. Johnson who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Communication Technology, Dr. Tunji Olaopa, told DigitalSENSE Business News that globally, communications technology is setting the pace for the development and expansion of economies in this 21st century.

“Undoubtedly, we are in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) age and the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology has been repositioned to take the frontlines in this new age,” she declare to DigitalSENSE Business News.

With the launch of NigKaNet, Mrs. Johnson told DigitalSENSE Business News that Nigeria has assumed her position as a regional leader in communications technology. 

“As we continually evolve, we shall work assiduously to breast the tape in setting the pace for communications technology solutions globally, bringing on cutting edge future-oriented and market driven products that meet the best standards,” she said.

CommTech, she said, has reinvigorated all the agencies and departments in the Ministry to accelerate efforts at meeting this goal.

“And NIGCOMSAT has made an indelible mark in this quest. Fortunately, with this we make that bold foray for all sectors of our national life to embrace communications technology as the springboard of inclusive growth,” she urged.

The National Broadband Plan and Strategy, she emphasised to DigitalSENSE Business News, aims at increasing broadband penetration and accessibility and today Nigeria has take another bold leap forward.

DigitalSENSE Business News reports, she explained that the Ka-band utilization, is the backbone upon which this financial services inclusion and opportunities scheme is being based.

The synergy between the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) and Nigeria Communications Satellite Ltd, she said, will open endless opportunities for the ease of financial transactions and business growth. 

”To seamlessly deliver this innovative scheme to the public, the Federal Government, through its Public-Private Participation initiative, has modified the composition of NIPOST with the objective of establishing a network of over 300,000 agents all across Nigeria,” Mrs. Johnson said.

The Minister stressed that this was borne out of government’s interest to reach the rural dweller with world-class services since the postal outlets have relatively good presence in the 774 Local Government Areas and consequently can contribute substantially to bringing financial services nearer to the rural populace.

She maintained to DigitalSENSE Business News that this milestone recorded by the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology is in line with President Goodluck Jonathan's Transformation agenda. 

“We shall continually promote such inter-agency partnerships, targeted at making life better for all Nigerian citizens,” she asserted.

Further, she told DigitalSENSE Business News that Communication Technology holds great promises for diversifying the Nigerian economy in the face of dwindling crude oil revenue.

She, expressed delight in presenting to the Nigerian public and business community a key to unlocking the nation’s economic potentials - a financial inclusion opportunity accessible to all.  

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)  +Kc Udemezue  +ABUBAKAR SULEIMAN OHINDASE +ABUBAKAR SULEIMAN OHINDASE +shaibu peter 

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Pix: Managing Director of NigcomSat, Ms Abimbola Alale