African union, Huawei sign pact to connect Africa

Written by Olabisi Olaleye - Nigeria

African union, Huawei sign pact 

Huawei, an information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, has collaborated with the African union to accelerate better connectivity.

This partnership deal was sealed recently in in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Huawei Senior Vice President, Charles Ding met with Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy of the African Union, Dr. Elham Ibrahim at the African Union specialized technical committee on Communication and Information Technologies (CCICT), to chart way forward.

During the conference, Ibrahim said "Recently in January, Huawei has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the African Union to jointly enhance Information and Communication Technology literacy and capability and ICT infrastructure development. This would further speed up the realization of the lofty set goals of Africa's Agenda 2063 and also we are very grateful of Huawei’s goodwill to offer ICT training for 25 employees of AU in China in the near future.

How to protect your information online

IFE ADEDAPO writes on ways to strengthen cybersecurity

The Central Bank of Nigeria estimates that about N40bn has been lost by Nigerian banks to cybercrimes in recent times.

Organisations and prominent individuals are also victims of the tactics of fraudsters online while these activities cost businesses huge sums of money and affect their overall performance.

According to experts, the fight against cybercrime globally can only be made possible if a robust information security policy framework exists.

But as the frequency and costs of security incidents continue to rise, a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that many organisations have not updated critical information security processes, technologies, and employee training needed to combat cybercrimes.

The report titled, 'The global state of information security,' states that in some cases, it appears that information security programmes have weakened due to inadequate investments in it.

It adds that the financial costs of investigating and mitigating online financial crime incidents grow year over year.

The report notes that the total number of security incidents detected by respondents rose to 42.8 million in 2014, an increase of 48 per cent from 2013.

Taking a longer view, the survey data shows the compound annual growth rate of detected security incidents has increased 66 per cent year over year since 2009.

According to the survey, these numbers are by no means definitive, however; they represent only the total incidents detected and reported.

"It is important to note that many organisations are unaware of attacks, while others do not report detected incidents for strategic reasons or because the attack is being investigated as a matter of national security," it says.

Employees, third parties are insider threats

The report notes that former and existing employees in organisations play active role in the breach of information security.

It adds, "Compromises by insiders - current and former employees, as well as third parties with trusted network access - continue to rise, but many organisations have not implemented processes and technologies to address internal incidents.

Social networking tips for job seekers

Written by Segun Akiode - Nigeria

Segun Akiode

Social networking involves communication and interaction between "friends" or "connections" or people that are a part of your online community. An online community is built by the effective use of social media platforms.

Social media networking or simply social networking is using social media to network with people in the same way that you would do in a face-to-face interaction. Social media networking does not replace an offline interaction, it only adds to it and enhances real-time communications among people across different geographically locations.

In my line of work as a talent-sourcing specialist with special interest in social recruiting, I am often asked, "What are the basic social media etiquettes that govern the use of social media by jobseekers?" I attempt to answer that question in today's article. Permit me to cite a few social networking tips for job seekers:

Focus on a value-adding social relationship: 

As a job seeker, you need to know that in order for you to take advantage of social networking, you have to realise that recruiting is all about building relationships. When you use social media to connect with people: friends, recruiters and hiring managers, your focus should be to add value.

Before you know it, value will flow back to you in return. That is the secret of social media networking you need to come to terms with. People make job referrals first to their friends and not their enemies.

Endeavour to know your social media audience: 

Every social media platform is built on its own unique audience.

And as a job seeker, you need an understanding of your social media audience to leverage social media platforms. As a job seeker, make sure your messages are appealing to the people who read them.

Tips for writing a better blog

Written by Geoff Iyatse

There is no doubt that blogging helps to improve engagement and communication between your business and your customers. Many business owners have recognised that fact, and they have been quite successful at dedicated business blogging. The result is increased traffic to their websites or blogs, increased awareness of their services or products, increased positive perception (depending on how well managed the blog is) and, ultimately, increased sales.

However, blogging can be time-consuming and if writing does not come naturally, it can be such a chore that it is easy to abandon it altogether.

To enjoy the benefits listed above, one has to learn to be patient and be willing to master the art and science of creating an interesting blog.

Here are tips that can help you to write a better blog:

Understand your audience

While it is tempting to start a business blog, it is also important to understand your audience - who they are, where they are, why they will be interested in reading your articles, what their pains are and others.

For example, I found it interesting that comments on a popular food blog show that the audience are primarily women who are looking for new ways to spice up the family dining sessions at home. That insight is a great point to plan a blog.

What is your premise? To help you dig deep, you can start to researching what others within your industry are blogging and the response their posts are receiving. This may not often give you the whole picture. A blog may be receiving lots of traffic but little or no comments. It does not mean people are not reading the blog. However, that can form a great starting point to help you carve your niche.

Understand what makes your target audience tick. Are they looking for something humorous to take them through the day? Are they looking for something serious to help them to solve a pressing problem? Are they looking for insider information in the industry?

Understanding your audience is just a first step to getting blogging right.

Managing oneself in the Digital Age

Written by Opeseyi Joel - Nigeria

The Wired World: A graphic representation of the Internet

In today's ever varying marketplace, one wonders: How do we manage oneself in the digital age? Most businesses believe that they have a digital presence but it is not sufficient for them to just have a website and a few social channels. To have an overall digital marketing presence, one must stand against the competition, and more significantly, drive more clientele to their business.

The first place to initiate is to think about what is already in the digital domain about you, review it and then take manage of how your 'brand' is being accessible to anybody (a prospect or present manager, potential client or even member of the press) who may wish to give you an opportunity.

Would they want to know more about you or form an instant judgement of your 'brand' based on images, remarks, you make on social media pages for example?

The preponderance of digital and media sense business people do have some component of social media existence. They manage perceptions and their individual and business brand image by putting their best genuine selves on the noticeable digital shelf. They almost always have deliberately thought about how they exhibit their personality.They do so by unscrambling their business social media from personal.

Through the supremacy of the Internet, companies are now capable to tap into a networked financial system where they can connect with a multiplicity of businesses, clientele, technology and a distribution system of information that supersedes the antiquated ways of oldmedia. The World Wide Web and Internet have revolutionized what a corporation must do to be successful in the digital age, but managing begins by understanding what it takes to adapt to the changing landscape of the market and which technologies are needed to help businesses evolve.

Understanding increased hacking With today's market, businesses need to tap into discovering new,creative ways to grow their digital presence. Increased hacking requires the ability to be analytical and drive results based on media, customer engagement and data.

However, one must also be able to think outside of the box and create strategies that no one has thought of before. Once this balance is reached, through trial and error,businesses will be able to reach more clientele through more engaged efforts to construct social traction and online exposure. Though this is a case-by-case basis, through research, analytics and creativity, a business can even potentially catch a wave of viral marketing by trying out dissimilar policies that put across the significance of their goods, products, or services that wow their clientele so they want to share the experience with their connections.

Discovery through relevancy

Truth, lies and breaking news

Written by Adeola kayode - Nigeria

Adeola kayode

With the popularity of blogs, social media and camera phones, almost everybody is now a citizen journalist. This is putting much pressure on the society who must separate facts from rumours.

Social media are a powerful tool, and the people who know how to use them are getting results. They are a great means to connect with others and to share information on things that are important to us.

However, they also come with their pitfalls and challenges. An important trend we need to guard against is the way many people spread false, obsolete and malicious information online.

We have all experienced it: breaking news of someone's car being stolen, a picture of events that happened years ago but posted like a current issue and so on.

At the 2014 World Economic Forum's Network of Global Agenda Council, members voted the rapid spread of online misinformation as one of the top 10 threats facing the world.

The viral spread and rapid response false online information usually generates has become a global cause of concern. Consider that two of the major images people created and spread during the start of #Bringbackourgirls campaign were traced to a completely unrelated event in Africa.

Also consider the recent false story which claimed that former President Goodluck Jonathan's Chief Security Officer, Gordon Obuah, was dead.

In this age of website journalists, it is easy for people with malicious intentions to set up website for the purpose of spreading false information.

We hear of breaking news today but only to find out that some copy-and-paste bloggers are the source of the information. As a result, we need to think before we share false information so that we do not become a conduit pipe for falsehood.

In fact, whatever you share online is a reflection of your intelligence and it affects your credibility. This is why I want to share with you some simple fact-checking tips:

Go beyond the headlines

The challenge is that many people do not read the stories but stop at the headlines. Look at the context. Get the whole story. If you had bothered to cross-check before shocking your colleagues, you could have stopped some major problems caused by falsehood. If you had read headlines about the Niger Delta question posed to the President during his recent visit to the United States, you would been very angry with him. But the video and the complete story said something else. A headline has its purpose; it not a summary of the content of the story. In many cases, it is crafted to attract attention to the story.

Who is saying it?

As someone said, "If using the phone keypads cannot be taken as a typing skill during interviews, you also cannot assume that everyone sharing information online is a credible source."

According to Eric Scherer, a director of future media, France Television, who spoke at an International Journalism Festival in Perugia in May, "The next big thing is not attention; the next big thing is trust."

On Facebook, the dead still celebrate birthdays

Written by Jesusegun Alagbe - Nigeria

Akunyili; Agbana

On that Saturday morning, in his Lagos home - before he got up from bed - there were six birthday notifications on his smartphone from Facebook, reminding him to wish his friends happy birthday celebrations. But what baffled him was that one of these friends, who was his course mate at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, was already dead. This made him wonder, "Why is Facebook asking me to wish a dead person a happy birthday celebration? Is Ade still alive?"

But before long, Peter Abisoye got an answer: Ade - his deceased friend - is not alive, but his Facebook account is still active.

"Every morning, I get birthday notifications of my family and friends from Facebook, so I don't even need to know offhand or look at the calendar for their birthdays again. The internet and social media have really brought me closer to them, even though we are separated by distance," Abisoye said. "But what I don't understand is why the social media company keep sending birthday notifications of dead people? You know, many times when it happens, like it happened to me, it makes me remember some memories of the departed ones - both the good and the bad."

After the brief moment of amazement, Abisoye said he got on the page of his deceased friend and wrote: "Ade, you remain one of the best friends I ever had in school. I remember how we used to eat burnt beans together, woo girls together and watch football matches in Adenike area on weekends. Death is so painful, but your memory is not. Live on, brother."

"I got on his page and I posted a brief birthday message in his memorial. Before I realised what was going on, about 20 of our colleagues in school had also followed suit. I guessed they must have been notified as well of Ade's birthday from Facebook. Well, I think it's good to keep the page alive, in memory and honour of the deceased," he added.

But one or two others who posted didn't even know Ade was dead.

"Someone, please tell me this is not true. I spoke with Ade two months ago and he was fine. No wonder I have been trying to reach him all this while and he's unreachable. So sad to hear, Ade," one of them wrote.

Almost every internet-ready smartphone and Facebook user today gets reminders of special events and this was perhaps the same scenario when many fans of the late female gospel singer and composer, Kefee Obareki Don-Momoh, popularly known as Kefee, woke up on Thursday, February 5, 2015 to find notifications from Facebook that she was celebrating her birthday.

Kefee died of lung failure in a Los Angeles hospital in the United States on Thursday, June 12, 2014, after spending 15 days in a coma. She was aged 34.

But not all her fans would want to believe she's dead. One of them, with the name 'PurpleiciousBabe,' wrote on a blog, bellanaija.com, on July 13, 2014, a month after her death, "Trust me, I am still in denial. I can't even mourn her. It's just not fair. Not our Kefee, so full of life and personality."

Scientists crack secret of eternal youth

Medical practitioners

Find some people can halt, reverse ageing process during their thirties

IT seems like something from the realm of science-fiction. Some people can halt - and even reverse - the ageing process in their thirties, scientists say.

A team who measured the effects of getting older on nearly 1,000 men and women found that over a 12-year period, three of the participants had shown no deterioration.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science journal.

Duke researchers analysed medical data from almost a thousand 38 year olds. While some appeared medically in their late 20s, some seemed almost 60.

They had biologically aged zero years, and had even begun to look younger. These people may hold the key to developing what would in effect be a fountain of youth, say the team from universities in Britain, the US, Israel and New Zealand.

While some cheated the ageing process, however, others were found to have aged biologically by three years for each calendar year.

The study focused on 954 people in the New Zealand city of Dunedin who have been tracked for several years.

The researchers devised a measure called 'biological age' to assess how worn out the participants' bodies were internally.

HOW THEY DID IT

The data comes from the Dunedin Study, a landmark longitudinal study that has tracked more than a thousand people born in 1972-73 in the same town from birth to the present.

Health measures like blood pressure and liver function have been taken regularly, along with interviews and other assessments.

Belsky said the progress of aging shows in human organs just as it does in eyes, joints and hair, but sooner.

Getting fit the tech way

Written by Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade - Nigeria

Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade

I am very familiar with staying fit, or at least attempting to do so. I am also very familiar with sticking to a budget. Not my choosing though. Several years of engaging in sports, followed by years of struggling with the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, have definitely taken their toll on my body.

When I find myself cash-strapped, I used to think that was the perfect excuse to cancel my gym membership and my workout plan. Now, I know that it's all more reason to get creative.

It is hard to find the motivation to stay in shape. Once you do find that push to get fit, it is hard to stick to the plan. Fees for gym memberships, personal training sessions, new workout gear and equipment add up to a foreboding and massive number, leading us to throw those fitness goals out of the window. There are ways to get around spending so much money.

YouTube

YouTube has evolved into a resource for almost everything. You can see cats doing crazy things, watch your favorite music videos, learn a new skill and tour a foreign country. The possibilities are literally endless, and when it comes to fitness, YouTube has earned its rightful spot on the free resource list.

I recognise that it may seem counterproductive to sit in front of a computer screen in order to get fit. But utilising YouTube in an efficient way will actually get you out of that computer chair and into those jeans. There are tons of workout videos and YouTube channels that feature great fitness routines that cater for everyone. Squeeze in a quick yoga sequence or complete an hour-long training session without spending a kobo.

Apple buys a Nigerian-owned ICT firm for $1 billion

UNITED States of America’s most celebrated brand, Apple, has bought Nigeria’s Chinedu Echeruo’s HopStop.com. According to The Wall Street Journal’s publication, AllThingsDigital, it informed that though the term of the deal has not been disclosed officially, but HopStop has been compared to Israel’s Waze, which was recently acquired by Google for $1 billion.

Founded in 2005, HopStop.com makes mobile applications for both iOS and Android that covers over 300 cities and that helps people get directions or find nearby subway stations and bus stops.

Echeruo, formerly an analyst at investment banks and hedge funds, who founded HopStop, is now chairman of the Board for the app firm.

The move, according to market intelligence, is seen as Apple’s plan to bolster its map offering especially given Google’s recent acquisition of Waze.

A serial entrepreneur, Echeruo, grew up in Eastern Nigeria and attended Kings College, Lagos.

He attended Syracuse University and the Harvard Business School in the United States and founded HopStop.com after working for several years in the Mergers and Acquisitions and Leveraged Finance groups of J.P Morgan Chase where he was involved in a broad range of M&A, financing and private equity transactions.

He also worked at AM Investment Partners, a $500 million volatility-driven convertible bond arbitrage hedge fund.

What electronic gadgets can do to you

Written by Bukola Adebayo

A gadget is a device or appliance having a unique purpose and function. At the time of their invention, gadgets are often way ahead in terms of novelty and uniqueness. This is what makes them so desirable and 'cool.'

That modern gadgets have changed the world is an understatement. No one wants to go back to the days of no television, no Internet and definitely no cell phone.

Each day, tech companies churn out the latest versions of laptops and mobile phones, while household and kitchen appliances are not left out.

While it is easy to get caught up in the rave of the moment, there is increasing scientific evidence linking 'electropollution' to the rise in cancer, birth defects, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, depression, learning disabilities and even Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

According to the World Health Organisation, 'electronic smog,' created by electricity, is "one of the most common and fastest growing environmental influences." Experts therefore warn that it is important that one is fully aware of the ill effects of these modern gadgets on health.

Researchers at Carnelle Montelle University, Toronto, Canada, in a report titled, "Tech Injury," give a brief outline of how these gadgets impact human health.

Texter's neck

This syndrome is associated with mobile phones, laptops and tablet use. The report states that those who engage in texting or simply reading while hunched over laptops easily strain their necks. Chiropractors say the pain can be severe.

The experts note that this habit affects blood circulation, which can lead to tennis elbow, whereby the exterior region of the elbow becomes sore.

Doctors in India say they see between 30 and 40 patients suffering from texter's neck every month, and they are mostly youngsters.