The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has opened a public comment on the proposed renewal of the .COM Registry Agreement (RA), reports ITREALMS.
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Showing posts with label Comment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comment. Show all posts
Monday, September 30, 2024
ICANN proposes updates on .COM registry agreement renewal, opens comments - ITREALMS
ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has opened a public comment on the proposed renewal of the .COM Registry Agreement (RA), reports ITREALMS.
Disclosing this, the Senior Vice President, Global Domains & Strategy at ICANN, Theresa Swinehart said there are some updates on the process.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has opened a public comment on the proposed renewal of the .COM Registry Agreement (RA), reports ITREALMS.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
ICANN extends comment period for Short-term options - ITREALMS
The
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has extended both
the Public Comments on Short-term Options to Adjust the Timeline for Specific
Reviews and the Long-term Options to Adjust the Timeline of Reviews in response
to community requests for additional time to prepare comments, reports ITRealms.
The
Public Comment periods on both the Short-term Options and Long-term Options
remain open and will encourage all stakeholders to contribute.
Also,
ITRealms reports that the public comment
period on Short-term Options to adjust the
Timeline for Specific Reviews and the public comment period
on Long-term Options to Adjust the
Timeline of Reviews will close on 31 July 2018 at 23:59 UTC.
ITRealms recalls that ICANN's mission is
to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another
person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into
your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where
to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers
across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit
corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wanted! Business model for public Tv stations
Rising from a three-day Africast event penultimate week the global community would actually have left Nigeria with a great sense of satisfaction that something tangible is being done in the broadcast sector to migrate Nigerian broadcasters from analogue to digital.
The International Telecommunications Union, ITU, put a 2015 window but Nigeria has set 2012 for the migration.
Africast is a biennial programme of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), which brings together broadcast experts from different parts of the world, to brainstorm on broadcast issues and chart a way forward.
This year’s event explored the theme: Digitization and the Challenges of Broadcasting; a theme most apt because the world is at the verge of a major broadcast shift and Nigeria provided the much needed platform for a major discourse.
Information and Communications Minister, Mr. John Ogar Odey made the best of the moment by informing the international community how prepared Nigeria was for the digital shift, explaining that he had just set up a Presidential Committee to prepare the country’s position and suggest things that were possible and could help the government of Nigeria in taking a crucial step that could impact positively on the people.
However, Africast 2008 happened at a time there are very great and positive developments in the country’s broadcast market. This was demonstrated at the robust exhibition which held at the Ladi Kwali Hall of the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja. Big Nigerian broadcasters were all present including the African Independent Television (AIT), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Voice of Nigeria (VON), Radio Nigeria, Multichoice and a host of others as well as hardware manufacturers and marketers.
Most of them were broadcasting live. In fact, AIT, actually took some of its programmes from their exhibition standard.
Africast came up at time that the country’s Digital Satellite Television (DSTv), sub-sector of broadcasting, is getting fully deregulated. After a period of protracted monopoly enjoyed by Multichoice, the NBC has breathed some fresh air into the DSTV sector immediately giving birth to HiTV and lately DaarSat.
At the moment HiTV is hitting over 150, 000 subscribers and DaarSat recently launched services in a major outing demonstrating to the rest of the world that it was ready to do business in that globally competitive sector.
For a start, all the signals coming into DaarSat will be received and turned around at the Kpaduma Hills, headquarters of the organisation. Even now quite a number of other operators are warming up for services. This was something very positive that the international community saw in Abuja.
However, when the special guest at the occasion, Senate President, represented by Senator Ayogu Eze was being taken round the stands, some remarks made by some people in government suddenly prompted the question: how prepared are Nigerian broadcasters to compete globally?
Asked to visit the VON and the NTA facilities, somebody suddenly asked, I hope they are not going to show us those things they have always shown us? The simple explanation is that in terms of technology those organisations may not be ready to compete globally.
But this issue quickly gave rise to another one: the deregulation of the Broadcast industry and the readiness of the public broadcaster, the NTA, to compete globally. Pursuing this position, somebody close by quickly remarked that in spite of previous efforts by government to dress up the station, it doesn’t seem to be in a position to compete. That on its own is a problem. The other problem, according to his submission is that as an international broadcaster, the station also engages in activities that will stifle the competition or the voice that NBC is trying to create in the sector.
Unable to understand his line of thought, one could only ask for some explanations. Readily obliging, the gentleman who looked versed in broadcasting traced some recent developments in the broadcast industry and juxtaposed them with the position of the government broadcast stations in international broadcasting.
He remarked that watching the DaarSat launch on television, the chairman of the organization, Chief Raymond Dokpesi had bragged that his station would serve Nigerian news and Nigerian type programming to the international community. This, the organization hopes to achieve because of heavy investment in satellite space and downlink facilities. What could be very encouraging, he continued, is that if the station succeeds others would follow. Nigeria would have a very strong voice at the international community, having joined the prestigious pay TV business.
In the past few years, NTA has been hitting the international community with Nigerian contents. What cannot be guaranteed, according to this young man who wished to remain anonymous, is the quality of content being dished out. However, one certain thing is that the contents are taken on Intelsat 907 as the main vehicle into the United Kingdom (UK) and gets into the United States through Globecast, a major platform for international broadcasters. While the other channels are paid for and have received equipment, NTA signals are free.
Meanwhile, the station pays at least $3m dollars to satellite owners every year. The reason for this kind of attitude is that as a public broadcaster, the station has not attached a business edge to its operation. Buttressing his position, he pointed out that when South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) came into Nigeria, it was through a pay TV platform. When British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television also came into Nigeria it was through a pay TV platform. But the locals receive free signals on their TV back home.
Since payments were made for those services, it then means the national broadcaster is able to send quality signals to its international arm and be able to make some money from subscription to upset the cost of programming and satellite space. This is not the practice at the NTA presently.
For this gentleman, the position of the NTA is quite ironical. With a devastating global financial crisis, organisations should be looking at more avenues through which to make money and survive, and not waste the tax payers’ funds.
Why not discounting that there is always a mutual distrust between public and private broadcasters, he noted that such mistrust is always addressed by the regulator through appropriate regulations. He pointed to the case of Public-service TVs and Private broadcasters in Europe who are on each other’s neck over sports rights which the public broadcasters are buying with tax payers’ money but are being given out to subscribers cheaply. The private broadcasters are accusing the public broadcasters of exorbitant right fees by tapping into the triple source of revenue – public subsidy, advertising, and the ability to generate huge deficits.
The European Commission is addressing the situation by revisiting the 2001 Broadcasting Communication, although there seems to be a consensus that “a state channel’s output should be predominantly public-service, but it needs to be viable service too.
His position is that at least the European public broadcasters are making efforts to do modern business but not the NTA which is giving out signals free in prime markets. Just as the European Commission is addressing the case between the Public-service and Private broadcasters in Europe, he urged the Nigerian government through the NBC to, as a matter of urgency, do something about the NTA situation.
What does he therefore suggest? He advocated a regulation that could create better business models for Nigerian broadcasters. Granted that any station has liberty to decide what it does with its signals, whether to give it free or not, he is of the opinion that properly licensing NTA and bringing it in line with the regulations of the NBC may go a long way into putting the station in a position to know that it has to make money apart from the subventions by government, and decide on reasonable channels through which to spend the money.
Broadcast contents coming out of Nigeria must be made competitive both in quality and in terms of cost and only competition and fair trade practices can guarantee survival and success of the various organisations rushing to give the country a voice at the international level.
•Funtua Ahmed, broadcast analyst, writes from Kaduna.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
The International Telecommunications Union, ITU, put a 2015 window but Nigeria has set 2012 for the migration.
Africast is a biennial programme of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), which brings together broadcast experts from different parts of the world, to brainstorm on broadcast issues and chart a way forward.
This year’s event explored the theme: Digitization and the Challenges of Broadcasting; a theme most apt because the world is at the verge of a major broadcast shift and Nigeria provided the much needed platform for a major discourse.
Information and Communications Minister, Mr. John Ogar Odey made the best of the moment by informing the international community how prepared Nigeria was for the digital shift, explaining that he had just set up a Presidential Committee to prepare the country’s position and suggest things that were possible and could help the government of Nigeria in taking a crucial step that could impact positively on the people.
However, Africast 2008 happened at a time there are very great and positive developments in the country’s broadcast market. This was demonstrated at the robust exhibition which held at the Ladi Kwali Hall of the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja. Big Nigerian broadcasters were all present including the African Independent Television (AIT), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Voice of Nigeria (VON), Radio Nigeria, Multichoice and a host of others as well as hardware manufacturers and marketers.
Most of them were broadcasting live. In fact, AIT, actually took some of its programmes from their exhibition standard.
Africast came up at time that the country’s Digital Satellite Television (DSTv), sub-sector of broadcasting, is getting fully deregulated. After a period of protracted monopoly enjoyed by Multichoice, the NBC has breathed some fresh air into the DSTV sector immediately giving birth to HiTV and lately DaarSat.
At the moment HiTV is hitting over 150, 000 subscribers and DaarSat recently launched services in a major outing demonstrating to the rest of the world that it was ready to do business in that globally competitive sector.
For a start, all the signals coming into DaarSat will be received and turned around at the Kpaduma Hills, headquarters of the organisation. Even now quite a number of other operators are warming up for services. This was something very positive that the international community saw in Abuja.
However, when the special guest at the occasion, Senate President, represented by Senator Ayogu Eze was being taken round the stands, some remarks made by some people in government suddenly prompted the question: how prepared are Nigerian broadcasters to compete globally?
Asked to visit the VON and the NTA facilities, somebody suddenly asked, I hope they are not going to show us those things they have always shown us? The simple explanation is that in terms of technology those organisations may not be ready to compete globally.
But this issue quickly gave rise to another one: the deregulation of the Broadcast industry and the readiness of the public broadcaster, the NTA, to compete globally. Pursuing this position, somebody close by quickly remarked that in spite of previous efforts by government to dress up the station, it doesn’t seem to be in a position to compete. That on its own is a problem. The other problem, according to his submission is that as an international broadcaster, the station also engages in activities that will stifle the competition or the voice that NBC is trying to create in the sector.
Unable to understand his line of thought, one could only ask for some explanations. Readily obliging, the gentleman who looked versed in broadcasting traced some recent developments in the broadcast industry and juxtaposed them with the position of the government broadcast stations in international broadcasting.
He remarked that watching the DaarSat launch on television, the chairman of the organization, Chief Raymond Dokpesi had bragged that his station would serve Nigerian news and Nigerian type programming to the international community. This, the organization hopes to achieve because of heavy investment in satellite space and downlink facilities. What could be very encouraging, he continued, is that if the station succeeds others would follow. Nigeria would have a very strong voice at the international community, having joined the prestigious pay TV business.
In the past few years, NTA has been hitting the international community with Nigerian contents. What cannot be guaranteed, according to this young man who wished to remain anonymous, is the quality of content being dished out. However, one certain thing is that the contents are taken on Intelsat 907 as the main vehicle into the United Kingdom (UK) and gets into the United States through Globecast, a major platform for international broadcasters. While the other channels are paid for and have received equipment, NTA signals are free.
Meanwhile, the station pays at least $3m dollars to satellite owners every year. The reason for this kind of attitude is that as a public broadcaster, the station has not attached a business edge to its operation. Buttressing his position, he pointed out that when South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) came into Nigeria, it was through a pay TV platform. When British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television also came into Nigeria it was through a pay TV platform. But the locals receive free signals on their TV back home.
Since payments were made for those services, it then means the national broadcaster is able to send quality signals to its international arm and be able to make some money from subscription to upset the cost of programming and satellite space. This is not the practice at the NTA presently.
For this gentleman, the position of the NTA is quite ironical. With a devastating global financial crisis, organisations should be looking at more avenues through which to make money and survive, and not waste the tax payers’ funds.
Why not discounting that there is always a mutual distrust between public and private broadcasters, he noted that such mistrust is always addressed by the regulator through appropriate regulations. He pointed to the case of Public-service TVs and Private broadcasters in Europe who are on each other’s neck over sports rights which the public broadcasters are buying with tax payers’ money but are being given out to subscribers cheaply. The private broadcasters are accusing the public broadcasters of exorbitant right fees by tapping into the triple source of revenue – public subsidy, advertising, and the ability to generate huge deficits.
The European Commission is addressing the situation by revisiting the 2001 Broadcasting Communication, although there seems to be a consensus that “a state channel’s output should be predominantly public-service, but it needs to be viable service too.
His position is that at least the European public broadcasters are making efforts to do modern business but not the NTA which is giving out signals free in prime markets. Just as the European Commission is addressing the case between the Public-service and Private broadcasters in Europe, he urged the Nigerian government through the NBC to, as a matter of urgency, do something about the NTA situation.
What does he therefore suggest? He advocated a regulation that could create better business models for Nigerian broadcasters. Granted that any station has liberty to decide what it does with its signals, whether to give it free or not, he is of the opinion that properly licensing NTA and bringing it in line with the regulations of the NBC may go a long way into putting the station in a position to know that it has to make money apart from the subventions by government, and decide on reasonable channels through which to spend the money.
Broadcast contents coming out of Nigeria must be made competitive both in quality and in terms of cost and only competition and fair trade practices can guarantee survival and success of the various organisations rushing to give the country a voice at the international level.
•Funtua Ahmed, broadcast analyst, writes from Kaduna.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Who wants Ndukwe’s job?
Comment:
First, let it be said that the uninformed disruption of the ICT performance indicator and in particular, the telecommunications sector is capable of setting back the tele-density gains of Nigeria by two decades if the sentimentally orchestrated greed is allowed to thrive! Let it also be remembered that by comparison, if it took over three decades to deliver only 720 thousand telephone lines out of which less than 400 lines were connected and partially working.
It therefore becomes a simple arithmetic to decipher what will happen when the current Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-enabling environment is left in the hands of Maverick Pirates who are indeed Techno-blind but mentally driven by unprecedented greed of the moment as a trade-off for our future digital disaster. This converging calamity should not be allowed to emerge nor be actualized. It should not happen through wishful thinking.
The recent Klu-Klax-Clan orchestrated call on “I want Ndukwe’s job” is to say the least, a national sabotage and an incubating national disgrace to the constructive development of Information and Communications Technology in Nigeria today. Indeed such acts which can be said to have originated by gross ignorance of the highest order in the ICT environment and clandestinely put forward to distract the development of IT should be classified as a colossal crime to the foundation of Nigeria’s global competitiveness future. Today every Dick and Dumb has suddenly arrived to become an ICT Guru. Those who were selling broken blocks, roasted yam, plantain, gala, pure water and groundnut have suddenly (shamefully) become local ICT champions and fly-by-night experts.
The crux of the matter is that to professionally deliver and sustain a functional and scalable national ICT architecture is not mastered overnight. Dr. Enrest Ndukwe unknown to many is indeed the “Digital Magician” (of high repute) of our time! This is an exceptionally gifted man who has broken all known technology leadership management and development records in Africa, nay in the world, yet greed blinds us to see beyond the immediate by covertly building very dangerous and overt self-interest impediments.
Is this why the continental brain drain erosion has intensified? Does this reveal the bane of Africa’s (Nigeria’s) technology-aided leadership development today? Whatever the hidden agenda maybe, it is time for Africa and Nigeria precisely, to understand and accept that she cannot continue to be and/or play the enemy-within. Nigeria can no longer continue to wish for technology development rather, she must earn it.
Those who myopically feel they can set back the hands of the digital clock are better be informed that this is no longer possible nor feasible, because information-sufficient knowledge process has already taken over and the creative class of the new economy has emerged – maximally equipped with the commensurate IT capabilities, tools, skills and compatible solutions to adequately respond to unforeseeable challenges.
According to Drucker, the challenge for knowledge creation and success in business has always been, as he puts it, “it is not how to do things right, but how to find the right persons to do the things to do.” Today, the most contingent and right thing to do is to perhaps clone Engineer Ernest Ndukwe and multiply his professional leadership competence and tenacity to deliver world class ICT best practice performance with an extra-ordinary computing skills. I am sure this is one of the major tasks Nigeria faces today in the transformation process of our national vision.
As the world transits into the Information Society [IS], new conditions for professional leadership, business, living, education, employment, work and entertainment are being defined, created and harnessed at almost the speed of light. These conditions are, to a large extent, dictated by information and communications technology-based innovation, skill-acquisition, support and maintenance culture.
Some view the changes effected by global networks and information technologies with great apprehension. Others consider it as a revolution with potential digital resources for worldwide cooperation. The emergence of this information-intensive knowledge society therefore challenges all nations to meet the need, not just for business, governance and industry, but more so for professional leadership, social interaction and life-long education at all levels.
The character of a nation we are informed, ‘is governed by the structure, operational dynamics and charge-management of her information systems’ – which develop and filter into core knowledge and intelligent applications. Conventional wisdom therefore dictates that in-country poverty cannot and will not be eradicated by monetary grants and loans - unless a sizeable reliable and efficient knowledge-base and critical intelligence network is country-resident.
In other words, the comparative advantage of nations this century, will be entirely based on human knowledge creation. Science propelled Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become a critical element and the engine room for modern governance and indeed a subject of major concern to the existence of all human entities. It is therefore recognised as the core/inexcusable tool for a more purposeful, strategic and sustainable development. It also facilitates the creation and equitable sharing and distribution of community/national wealth.
In assessing the development and diffusion of Science and Technology globally – and in particular, the advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), - three group of countries may be distinguished: countries that are leaders in this field, including the innovation, production and generation of Science and Technology roadmap as well as the application of its research findings.
This is followed by those where some capacity for the production and application of Science and Technology has been developed but continued to depend on the first group for the survival of their production lines. Finally, the last group is those where Science and Technology is still at the embryonic stage and access to it depends solely on importation. This last group is the consumer countries, in which Nigeria is a classical example. The Global Internet Access and Usage showed a typical example of global knowledge divide also known as digital divide?
Today, Ndukwe’s ICT ingenuity has facilitated perhaps the single largest capacity building spectrum for job creation and employability opportunities for the majority of Nigerians in the last 8 years. The global information society demands higher levels of efficiency in governance, education, infrastructure, economy, culture and commerce, since there is now only one global standard in ICT. The gross implication is that Globalization can essentially be viewed as a “global technology revenue basket” where inventor participants “earn credits” and consumer nations “pay debts”. You are therefore, either buying (conspicuous consumption}, and/or selling in the delivery of services to the new knowledge economy!
Leadership, governance and in particular, educational institutions will have to face up to the challenge of facilitating lifelong learning. The task ahead is, that of transforming the art of governance and education from the inculcation of information to instilling the skill of ‘critical reasoning’ in leadership. ICT offers the potential for economic growth and increased prosperity with reduced impact on the environment and lower consumption of non-renewable resources.
The new ICT frontier is all about Information sufficiency and knowledge-connectivity for economic development and cultural emancipation. In 2002, World Information Technology Services Alliance (WITSA) – of which Nigeria is currently not a member, but many other developing nations are (including mini African countries) - entered into a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to create an Information Technology Mentors Alliance. The alliance enhances the capacity and sustainability of ICT industry associations in emerging economies to promote the ICT for economic development.
Ernest Ndukwe has demonstrated a great tenacity in mastering the tide in the turbulent ocean of ICT where many sharks have been tamed.
Today, lessons learnt from Ndukwe’s ICT due diligence performance records reveals that: “unless a meaningful chunk of developing countries IT spend (investment) is consciously and transparently deployed and managed by core and patriotic professionals (with cognate skills capable of creating knowledge domains such as Software Research, Design and Development, Critical and Specialized Infrastructure, IT Capacity Building/Training, PC Ownership Density and Internet penetration, Information Systems Services and Project Implementation and Management), they will remain perpetual consumers and digital slaves of the emerging knowledge society and digital economy - what Ndukwe has vowed to discontinue for ever.
However, one is consoled by the fact that Nigeria, with a vibrant youthful population, about 42.3 per cent stands to benefit immensely. The Nigerian Youths are the positive force of the emerging digital warriors of our future. They are the protectors of our digital future. Government should therefore shore up the political will to ploy significant resources to build formidable IT responsive institutions, infrastructure, leadership skill (such as that of Dr. Ernest Ndukwe’s) - and World-class Software knowledge-skilled capacities and capabilities.
Instead of clamoring for Ndukwe’s job, we should strategize on how to bring back ex-CEOs as layer-consultants to most of the nation’s development corridors. In any case, if you want Ndukwe’s job, - come and get it and be ready to grow gray hairs from the first nano-second in office … a word is enough for the wise.
•Chris Uwaje, President of Global Network for Cybersolutions.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
First, let it be said that the uninformed disruption of the ICT performance indicator and in particular, the telecommunications sector is capable of setting back the tele-density gains of Nigeria by two decades if the sentimentally orchestrated greed is allowed to thrive! Let it also be remembered that by comparison, if it took over three decades to deliver only 720 thousand telephone lines out of which less than 400 lines were connected and partially working.
It therefore becomes a simple arithmetic to decipher what will happen when the current Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-enabling environment is left in the hands of Maverick Pirates who are indeed Techno-blind but mentally driven by unprecedented greed of the moment as a trade-off for our future digital disaster. This converging calamity should not be allowed to emerge nor be actualized. It should not happen through wishful thinking.
The recent Klu-Klax-Clan orchestrated call on “I want Ndukwe’s job” is to say the least, a national sabotage and an incubating national disgrace to the constructive development of Information and Communications Technology in Nigeria today. Indeed such acts which can be said to have originated by gross ignorance of the highest order in the ICT environment and clandestinely put forward to distract the development of IT should be classified as a colossal crime to the foundation of Nigeria’s global competitiveness future. Today every Dick and Dumb has suddenly arrived to become an ICT Guru. Those who were selling broken blocks, roasted yam, plantain, gala, pure water and groundnut have suddenly (shamefully) become local ICT champions and fly-by-night experts.
The crux of the matter is that to professionally deliver and sustain a functional and scalable national ICT architecture is not mastered overnight. Dr. Enrest Ndukwe unknown to many is indeed the “Digital Magician” (of high repute) of our time! This is an exceptionally gifted man who has broken all known technology leadership management and development records in Africa, nay in the world, yet greed blinds us to see beyond the immediate by covertly building very dangerous and overt self-interest impediments.
Is this why the continental brain drain erosion has intensified? Does this reveal the bane of Africa’s (Nigeria’s) technology-aided leadership development today? Whatever the hidden agenda maybe, it is time for Africa and Nigeria precisely, to understand and accept that she cannot continue to be and/or play the enemy-within. Nigeria can no longer continue to wish for technology development rather, she must earn it.
Those who myopically feel they can set back the hands of the digital clock are better be informed that this is no longer possible nor feasible, because information-sufficient knowledge process has already taken over and the creative class of the new economy has emerged – maximally equipped with the commensurate IT capabilities, tools, skills and compatible solutions to adequately respond to unforeseeable challenges.
According to Drucker, the challenge for knowledge creation and success in business has always been, as he puts it, “it is not how to do things right, but how to find the right persons to do the things to do.” Today, the most contingent and right thing to do is to perhaps clone Engineer Ernest Ndukwe and multiply his professional leadership competence and tenacity to deliver world class ICT best practice performance with an extra-ordinary computing skills. I am sure this is one of the major tasks Nigeria faces today in the transformation process of our national vision.
As the world transits into the Information Society [IS], new conditions for professional leadership, business, living, education, employment, work and entertainment are being defined, created and harnessed at almost the speed of light. These conditions are, to a large extent, dictated by information and communications technology-based innovation, skill-acquisition, support and maintenance culture.
Some view the changes effected by global networks and information technologies with great apprehension. Others consider it as a revolution with potential digital resources for worldwide cooperation. The emergence of this information-intensive knowledge society therefore challenges all nations to meet the need, not just for business, governance and industry, but more so for professional leadership, social interaction and life-long education at all levels.
The character of a nation we are informed, ‘is governed by the structure, operational dynamics and charge-management of her information systems’ – which develop and filter into core knowledge and intelligent applications. Conventional wisdom therefore dictates that in-country poverty cannot and will not be eradicated by monetary grants and loans - unless a sizeable reliable and efficient knowledge-base and critical intelligence network is country-resident.
In other words, the comparative advantage of nations this century, will be entirely based on human knowledge creation. Science propelled Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become a critical element and the engine room for modern governance and indeed a subject of major concern to the existence of all human entities. It is therefore recognised as the core/inexcusable tool for a more purposeful, strategic and sustainable development. It also facilitates the creation and equitable sharing and distribution of community/national wealth.
In assessing the development and diffusion of Science and Technology globally – and in particular, the advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), - three group of countries may be distinguished: countries that are leaders in this field, including the innovation, production and generation of Science and Technology roadmap as well as the application of its research findings.
This is followed by those where some capacity for the production and application of Science and Technology has been developed but continued to depend on the first group for the survival of their production lines. Finally, the last group is those where Science and Technology is still at the embryonic stage and access to it depends solely on importation. This last group is the consumer countries, in which Nigeria is a classical example. The Global Internet Access and Usage showed a typical example of global knowledge divide also known as digital divide?
Today, Ndukwe’s ICT ingenuity has facilitated perhaps the single largest capacity building spectrum for job creation and employability opportunities for the majority of Nigerians in the last 8 years. The global information society demands higher levels of efficiency in governance, education, infrastructure, economy, culture and commerce, since there is now only one global standard in ICT. The gross implication is that Globalization can essentially be viewed as a “global technology revenue basket” where inventor participants “earn credits” and consumer nations “pay debts”. You are therefore, either buying (conspicuous consumption}, and/or selling in the delivery of services to the new knowledge economy!
Leadership, governance and in particular, educational institutions will have to face up to the challenge of facilitating lifelong learning. The task ahead is, that of transforming the art of governance and education from the inculcation of information to instilling the skill of ‘critical reasoning’ in leadership. ICT offers the potential for economic growth and increased prosperity with reduced impact on the environment and lower consumption of non-renewable resources.
The new ICT frontier is all about Information sufficiency and knowledge-connectivity for economic development and cultural emancipation. In 2002, World Information Technology Services Alliance (WITSA) – of which Nigeria is currently not a member, but many other developing nations are (including mini African countries) - entered into a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to create an Information Technology Mentors Alliance. The alliance enhances the capacity and sustainability of ICT industry associations in emerging economies to promote the ICT for economic development.
Ernest Ndukwe has demonstrated a great tenacity in mastering the tide in the turbulent ocean of ICT where many sharks have been tamed.
Today, lessons learnt from Ndukwe’s ICT due diligence performance records reveals that: “unless a meaningful chunk of developing countries IT spend (investment) is consciously and transparently deployed and managed by core and patriotic professionals (with cognate skills capable of creating knowledge domains such as Software Research, Design and Development, Critical and Specialized Infrastructure, IT Capacity Building/Training, PC Ownership Density and Internet penetration, Information Systems Services and Project Implementation and Management), they will remain perpetual consumers and digital slaves of the emerging knowledge society and digital economy - what Ndukwe has vowed to discontinue for ever.
However, one is consoled by the fact that Nigeria, with a vibrant youthful population, about 42.3 per cent stands to benefit immensely. The Nigerian Youths are the positive force of the emerging digital warriors of our future. They are the protectors of our digital future. Government should therefore shore up the political will to ploy significant resources to build formidable IT responsive institutions, infrastructure, leadership skill (such as that of Dr. Ernest Ndukwe’s) - and World-class Software knowledge-skilled capacities and capabilities.
Instead of clamoring for Ndukwe’s job, we should strategize on how to bring back ex-CEOs as layer-consultants to most of the nation’s development corridors. In any case, if you want Ndukwe’s job, - come and get it and be ready to grow gray hairs from the first nano-second in office … a word is enough for the wise.
•Chris Uwaje, President of Global Network for Cybersolutions.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
MTN’s balancing act for Okada riders
The Volkswagen bus stop end of the Lagos-Badagary Expressway was as chaotic as always one Saturday morning sometime last year. The gridlock began from Okokomaiko and stretched as far as the International Trade Fair Complex. Dozens of impatient motorists had broken the one-way traffic rule and had complicated the crisis, ensuring that there was no movement of motor vehicles on either side of the very busy expressway.
There was ‘absolutely nothing wrong’ with this for the people who live along this route as such scenes are common occurrence. What was not common was the sight of a bride in her full white gown pacing up and down with her best lady in tow beside a gaily decorated Toyota Avensis marked To The Alter.
It was obvious that the convoy, which was coming from Olojo Drive that connects the expressway to the famous Alaba International Market was church-bound. Word soon spread among bystanders and a crowd of other commuters and motorists that the convoy was going to a Catholic church in Festac for a wedding service that was to have commenced some 30 minutes earlier.
The convoy had spent considerable amount of time to proceed to the Volkswagen end of Olojo Drive but had come to a complete standstill, with no hope of being able to get out of the situation anytime soon.
The unthinkable happened. With loud protest from her best lady and some more elderly members of her entourage as the bride flagged down an okada, gathered up her gown and jumped on the passenger seat. Left with no choice, the best lady grabbed the next available one and chased after the anxious bride.
Some other members of her convoy, one after the other, chased after okada riders to ferry them to the church where, it was understood, the very strict officiating minister had already commenced the services as there were four other couples involved.
Despite the traffic jam, with an okada, the bride was guaranteed to get to the church service latest in 30 minutes. Therein lays the foremost value of an okada in the modern Nigerian society. With the appalling state of the roads, gross indiscipline on the part of motorists and a steady rise in number of vehicles using the roads, a very important role has been carved out for commercial motorcycles in the Nigerian transportation system.
This is so crucial that people who would rather not touch an okada with a long pole now on the increasing occasions have to hop on it to meet urgent appointments.
Okada riders would go against the normal flow of traffic, run on the kerb, the road median, the frontages of people’s residences and other such improvised thoroughfares to get their passengers to their destinations and sometimes, to the mortuary too.
Statistics released by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) recently indicated that 60,261 persons were killed through motorcycle accidents (okada) between 1989 and 2007. A total of 40,706 persons were maimed within the same period in a total of 73,766 incidents.
These figures, which the sector Commander, FRSC, Lagos described as Mr. Kayode Olagunju unacceptable, are indeed grossly understated. Only a few of the road accidents in Nigeria get reported to the police and yet only a few of the ones reported at the local stations get forwarded to a central information pool where the statistics are drawn.
The okada probably constitutes more peril to Nigerians today than any other means of transportation because of its sheer pervasiveness. And interestingly not only those who utilise it for transportation are at risk. Okadas have been known to run into commuters for buses or otherwise run down pedestrians.
Managing the menace of Okada in Nigeria has therefore become a major issue to the general public and their appointed leaders. Many of these stakeholders have come up with a lot of suggestions as to how to strip this now accepted means of transportation of its inherent evil for the benefit of the society.
A general consensus is that many of the motorcycle operators lack the necessary safety awareness to run commercial motorcycle operations on the roads. Invariably, this informed the decision of Nigeria’s leading telecommunications company, MTN, to build an extensive safety awareness programme for okada riders nationwide into its recently concluded month-long staff volunteerism campaign, dubbed 21 Days of Y’ello Care 2008.
The staff volunteerism scheme initiated last year by the MTN Group involved staff in its 21 operations across the world taking part in community-based activities.
In Nigeria, MTN employees this year were divided into two major groups, Business Transformers and Share ‘n’ Care, which organised dozens of activities aimed at improving the society. The safety awareness drill for okada riders and commercial drivers were championed by the Business Transformers group, whose activities centred around assisting small and medium scale enterprises acquire sound business practices that can take them to the top.
Working with the umbrella body of commercial vehicle operators known as the National Union of Road transport Workers (NURTW), the group organised informal workshops for commercial motorcyclists and drivers in some of the busiest terminuses in Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt and many other parts of the country.
The workshops took the participants through a number of issues like accident prevention and control, first aid treatment, life saving tips and techniques, defensive driving, basic road signs and anger management among others.
In addition, the participants also benefited from free health screening for common ailments that could adversely affect safe operation of motorcycles, principal among which are eye problems. They also received counseling on how to use commercial motorcycling operation as a stepping stone to greater means of livelihood, especially when they become older and incapable of carrying on with the business.
“Our major concern is to ensure that accidents of okada and of course motor vehicles are reduced to the barest minimum” said Coordinator, Business Transformers Project, Okundola Bamgboye. “So we have the burning desire to inculcate the necessary safety awareness in the operators. And secondly, in the event that accidents occur, how do people deal with them? How a victim of accident is handled at the scene can make the difference between life and death or between total recovery and permanent disability. That informed our decision to include a few first aid treatments and serious emergency tips in the programme,” he said.
A number of beneficiaries also lauded MTN for the initiative including Mr. Sikiru Adesokan, an Ibadan-based participant.
“I am personally happy with this programme because I have learnt a lot. Even though I would have been able to make some money during the time I spent on this seminar, I still consider myself lucky to have benefited from the training because, the truth is that you cannot put a cost to what we have learnt, “ Adesokan, who participated at the Boundry/Ajegunle version of the workshop.
Other activities embarked upon by MTN staff during this programme included malaria awareness campaign, HIV/AIDS seminars, visits to orphanages and homes for the elderly, environment sanitation exercises and free eye-screening and blood pressure measurement exercises.
“It has been rewarding. Members of staff were so committed to this programme that they rush down from the mosques on Fridays and even come with their families on Sundays to take active part in the programmes”, said Idris Bello Eneye, MTN Regional Safety, Health and Environment Coordinator, Abuja Regional Office, while the MTN Safety, Health and Environment Supervisor, Ramatou Otini Isah, described the experience as highly enriching.
•Mimi Deke contributed this from XLR8, a public relations consultancy firm based in Lagos.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
There was ‘absolutely nothing wrong’ with this for the people who live along this route as such scenes are common occurrence. What was not common was the sight of a bride in her full white gown pacing up and down with her best lady in tow beside a gaily decorated Toyota Avensis marked To The Alter.
It was obvious that the convoy, which was coming from Olojo Drive that connects the expressway to the famous Alaba International Market was church-bound. Word soon spread among bystanders and a crowd of other commuters and motorists that the convoy was going to a Catholic church in Festac for a wedding service that was to have commenced some 30 minutes earlier.
The convoy had spent considerable amount of time to proceed to the Volkswagen end of Olojo Drive but had come to a complete standstill, with no hope of being able to get out of the situation anytime soon.
The unthinkable happened. With loud protest from her best lady and some more elderly members of her entourage as the bride flagged down an okada, gathered up her gown and jumped on the passenger seat. Left with no choice, the best lady grabbed the next available one and chased after the anxious bride.
Some other members of her convoy, one after the other, chased after okada riders to ferry them to the church where, it was understood, the very strict officiating minister had already commenced the services as there were four other couples involved.
Despite the traffic jam, with an okada, the bride was guaranteed to get to the church service latest in 30 minutes. Therein lays the foremost value of an okada in the modern Nigerian society. With the appalling state of the roads, gross indiscipline on the part of motorists and a steady rise in number of vehicles using the roads, a very important role has been carved out for commercial motorcycles in the Nigerian transportation system.
This is so crucial that people who would rather not touch an okada with a long pole now on the increasing occasions have to hop on it to meet urgent appointments.
Okada riders would go against the normal flow of traffic, run on the kerb, the road median, the frontages of people’s residences and other such improvised thoroughfares to get their passengers to their destinations and sometimes, to the mortuary too.
Statistics released by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) recently indicated that 60,261 persons were killed through motorcycle accidents (okada) between 1989 and 2007. A total of 40,706 persons were maimed within the same period in a total of 73,766 incidents.
These figures, which the sector Commander, FRSC, Lagos described as Mr. Kayode Olagunju unacceptable, are indeed grossly understated. Only a few of the road accidents in Nigeria get reported to the police and yet only a few of the ones reported at the local stations get forwarded to a central information pool where the statistics are drawn.
The okada probably constitutes more peril to Nigerians today than any other means of transportation because of its sheer pervasiveness. And interestingly not only those who utilise it for transportation are at risk. Okadas have been known to run into commuters for buses or otherwise run down pedestrians.
Managing the menace of Okada in Nigeria has therefore become a major issue to the general public and their appointed leaders. Many of these stakeholders have come up with a lot of suggestions as to how to strip this now accepted means of transportation of its inherent evil for the benefit of the society.
A general consensus is that many of the motorcycle operators lack the necessary safety awareness to run commercial motorcycle operations on the roads. Invariably, this informed the decision of Nigeria’s leading telecommunications company, MTN, to build an extensive safety awareness programme for okada riders nationwide into its recently concluded month-long staff volunteerism campaign, dubbed 21 Days of Y’ello Care 2008.
The staff volunteerism scheme initiated last year by the MTN Group involved staff in its 21 operations across the world taking part in community-based activities.
In Nigeria, MTN employees this year were divided into two major groups, Business Transformers and Share ‘n’ Care, which organised dozens of activities aimed at improving the society. The safety awareness drill for okada riders and commercial drivers were championed by the Business Transformers group, whose activities centred around assisting small and medium scale enterprises acquire sound business practices that can take them to the top.
Working with the umbrella body of commercial vehicle operators known as the National Union of Road transport Workers (NURTW), the group organised informal workshops for commercial motorcyclists and drivers in some of the busiest terminuses in Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt and many other parts of the country.
The workshops took the participants through a number of issues like accident prevention and control, first aid treatment, life saving tips and techniques, defensive driving, basic road signs and anger management among others.
In addition, the participants also benefited from free health screening for common ailments that could adversely affect safe operation of motorcycles, principal among which are eye problems. They also received counseling on how to use commercial motorcycling operation as a stepping stone to greater means of livelihood, especially when they become older and incapable of carrying on with the business.
“Our major concern is to ensure that accidents of okada and of course motor vehicles are reduced to the barest minimum” said Coordinator, Business Transformers Project, Okundola Bamgboye. “So we have the burning desire to inculcate the necessary safety awareness in the operators. And secondly, in the event that accidents occur, how do people deal with them? How a victim of accident is handled at the scene can make the difference between life and death or between total recovery and permanent disability. That informed our decision to include a few first aid treatments and serious emergency tips in the programme,” he said.
A number of beneficiaries also lauded MTN for the initiative including Mr. Sikiru Adesokan, an Ibadan-based participant.
“I am personally happy with this programme because I have learnt a lot. Even though I would have been able to make some money during the time I spent on this seminar, I still consider myself lucky to have benefited from the training because, the truth is that you cannot put a cost to what we have learnt, “ Adesokan, who participated at the Boundry/Ajegunle version of the workshop.
Other activities embarked upon by MTN staff during this programme included malaria awareness campaign, HIV/AIDS seminars, visits to orphanages and homes for the elderly, environment sanitation exercises and free eye-screening and blood pressure measurement exercises.
“It has been rewarding. Members of staff were so committed to this programme that they rush down from the mosques on Fridays and even come with their families on Sundays to take active part in the programmes”, said Idris Bello Eneye, MTN Regional Safety, Health and Environment Coordinator, Abuja Regional Office, while the MTN Safety, Health and Environment Supervisor, Ramatou Otini Isah, described the experience as highly enriching.
•Mimi Deke contributed this from XLR8, a public relations consultancy firm based in Lagos.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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