Can you vouch for Netizens in this era? - ITREALMS

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The viral events on social media space recently, have left many wondering if the 21st century parents could still vouch for their Netizens children, asks REMMY NWEKE.

Preamble:

Growing up, one thing parents do easily is knowing their children well enough to vouch for them simply because often they all live under one roof, especially mothers.

Internet shutdowns: Africa netizens must fight for digitocracy - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

African netizens have been called to action over the increasing internet shutdowns across the continent for them to face the reality and fight the emerging army against digitocracy, reports ITREALMS.

Digitocracy, ITREALMS gathered has been versely defined as “Digital Power” rooted in processed ‘data’ with ‘cracy’ originating from the Greek word –kratia, which means 'power, rule'. While netizens, refer to persons who actively use the Internet responsibly, mostly in socio-political process aimed at contributing to the Internet's use and growth for good governance.

This charge was made by the publisher of Africapedia, Mr. Charles Onayango-Obbo during his keynote address to the 5th Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FiFAfrica 2018) which held at La Palm Beach Resort in Accra, Ghana at the weekend.

He pointed out that in the 1950s and 1960s African forefathers were busy fighting for independence across board and as the 21st dawn came to Africa with the Internet evolutions including the shutdowns which are happening at intervals across the continent, the netizens have to wake up and fight this digitocracy.

According to him, if stakeholders, especially the netizens, did not fight over good governance of the Internet, it may not be valued as of today.

He pointed out that there a few examples, saying that it was “instrumentalised” by the new and dominant 21st African bureaucracy, hence “digitocracy” is built around telcos, platform technologies like Mpesa, e-Citizen, and the “surveillance securitocracy”.

These, Onyango-Obbo said, enables governments and precisely African leaders to weaponise digitocracy for political messaging, attacking regime foes, and election influencing.

Further, he said there is an internal contest between the old and new, with the new favouring open internet even for cynical political reasons and urged new generation or netizens to take heed and do well to fight the fight of keeping the Internet open, because the old had fought for the African independence.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Hungarian Netizens prepare for protests over Internet tax

ITRealms:

Over 30,000 internet citizens or users otherwise known as netizens in Hungary may be warming up for a protest over the government tax on the internet come Sunday, November 2, 2014, reports ITRealms.

As confirmed by Viktor Orban, the government has advanced plans to tax internet users from the beginning of 2015, according to a bill submitted to Hungary's parliament on last Tuesday.

ITRealms recalls that a few days ago, the Hungary said it would charge Internet Service Providers (ISPs) 150 forints (around 60 US cents or N99.39 in Nigeria) for each gig transferred. Hungary shifted 1,150PB in 2013, and 18PB in mobile data, according to figures from consultancy eNet and TheRegister.

Also, the government was reported as saying that the tax is no different to the levies it collects from telecos for long-distance calls, and there will be an upper limit to the download tithe, but would be set soon.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @HUNGARY
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Nigeria Internet Usage: Digital immigrants more active than netizens - Twinpine

ITRealms:

Contrary to popular believes, ‘Digital Immigrants’ generation of internet users in Nigeria are becoming more active than the netizens, according to the latest Twinpine Research made available to ITRealms.

Digital immigrants, ITRealms reports are known as individuals who were born before the existence of digital technology and adopted it to some extent later in life. The opposite is the ‘digital natives’ who are persons born during or after the general introduction of digital technologies and through interacting with digital technology from an early age, and purported to have a greater understanding of its concepts, according to Wikipedia.

The study, ITRealms gathered is a comparative taken from about 22,000 respondents which showed that internet users between the ages of 33 and 53 years known as Generation X; were more active on the internet when matched against their counterparts aged 19 and 32 years of age otherwise known as Generation Y.

Speaking on the findings, Research Lead at Twinpine, Ms. Eniola Moronfolu said this paints a different picture from the generally accepted idea that the internet is the medium of the younger generation.

“This knowledge is an eye opener and shows how trends in internet usage are taking shape among consumers. This also means that marketing efforts can be more effectively targeted to reach the right demographics,” she said.

She pointed out that the activities which topped the list in terms of frequency of use for Generation X, were the use of search engines for research; News on current affairs, lifestyle, entertainment and sports; and online shopping.

Citing an instance with the research findings which she said showed that 50 per cent more people between the ages of 33-53, regularly purchased goods and services online and 6 per cent more of this demographic were more likely to share information on social media or lodge a complaint about a product or service via social media.

She emphasised that the probable factors for the increased usage by this age bracket include higher spending power not only in purchasing advanced mobile devices, but also to purchase bigger data bundles as well as goods and services online.

Noting that though the gap was still not very wide, the figures predict a trend of growth which would affect the way both advertisers and digital marketers approach targeting and segmentation of consumers based on the type of media they consume.

ITRealms recalls that Twinpine Networks runs a major mobile advertising network across Africa and carries out periodic research on internet usage across multiple platforms through the support of partners within and outside Nigeria.

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