Simply, we are launching Tekedia Innovation Forum. This will help us continue to develop interactions with our readers. We thank our readers for such a positive outlook. You wanted it and today, we are very happy to offer you a forum. Visit, share, learn and progress. We will be posting more details very soon.
“Right To Be Forgotten” – You Want A Search On You To Return Nothing. The New Debate in Spain
Associated Press reports this fascinating pattern in Spain where folks do not want to be remembered on the web. They just want to be forgotten. We are reproducing here because the link will expire within hours . AP – sorry about that.
MADRID – Their ranks include a plastic surgeon, a prison guard and a high school principal. All are Spanish, but have little else in common except this: They want old Internet references about them that pop up in Google searches wiped away.
In a case that Google Inc. and privacy experts call a first of its kind, Spain’s Data Protection Agency has ordered the search engine giant to remove links to material on about 90 people. The information was published years or even decades ago but is available to anyone via simple searches.
Scores of Spaniards lay claim to a “Right to be Forgotten” because public information once hard to get is now so easy to find on the Internet. Google has decided to challenge the orders and has appealed five cases so far this year to the National Court.
Some of the information is embarrassing, some seems downright banal. A few cases involve lawsuits that found life online through news reports, but whose dismissals were ignored by media and never appeared on the Internet. Others concern administrative decisions published in official regional gazettes.
In all cases, the plaintiffs petitioned the agency individually to get information about them taken down.
And while Spain is backing the individuals suing to get links taken down, experts say a victory for the plaintiffs could create a troubling precedent by restricting access to public information.
The issue isn’t a new one for Google, whose search engine has become a widely used tool for learning about the backgrounds about potential mates, neighbors and co-workers. What it shows can affect romantic relationships, friendships and careers.
For that reason, Google regularly receives pleas asking that it remove links to embarrassing information from its search index or least ensure the material is buried in the back pages of its results. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., almost always refuses in order to preserve the integrity of its index.
A final decision on Spain’s case could take months or even years because appeals can be made to higher courts. Still, the ongoing fight in Spain is likely to gain more prominence because the European Commission this year is expected to craft controversial legislation to give people more power to delete personal information they previously posted online.
“This is just the beginning, this right to be forgotten, but it’s going to be much more important in the future,” said Artemi Rallo, director of the Spanish Data Protection Agency. “Google is just 15 years old, the Internet is barely a generation old and they are beginning to detect problems that affect privacy. More and more people are going to see things on the Internet that they don’t want to be there.”
Many details about the Spaniards taking on Google via the government are shrouded in secrecy to protect the privacy of the plaintiffs. But the case of plastic surgeon Hugo Guidotti vividly illustrates the debate.
In Google searches, the first link that pops up is his clinic, complete with pictures of a bare-breasted women and a muscular man as evidence of what plastic surgery can do for clients. But the second link takes readers to a 1991 story in Spain’s leading El Pais newspaper about a woman who sued him for the equivalent of euro5 million for a breast job that she said went bad.
Africa Has Opportunities. How The World Will Help It Get Better
While attending a UN-sponsored workshop last month in Freetown, Sierra Leone, I noticed an amazing transformation in that country, fuelled primarily by the Chinese. In my hotel, the TV remote controller was marked in Chinese. This is a nation where English is the official language, but I saw many young Chinese men, getting ready for work.
From Freetown to Brazzaville, this is the new Africa — Chinese investing massively in the continent, buying the mines to support their booming economy, despite restricting export of their rare earth metals. With influx of capital and improved democratic institutions across the continent, foreign investors are aggressively looking for opportunities there. But China’s style of giving cash in exchange for mine control has endeared it to most African leaders. This strategy has worked so well that an estimated one million Chinese are living in Africa today.
Though the traditional media continue to report wars, famine, and HIV, most business media showcase Africa as a continent with opportunities. There’s a growing middle class, expanded GDP, and general optimism in the region. Multinational companies are opening offices and investing in the continent. Africa has become a place where financial institutions are financing real estate projects.
Yet, is it possible to create a modern Africa without investing in knowledge? Is this growth sustainable, after the minerals are depleted? The educational institutions remain underfunded, so it’s difficult to to create knowledge and diversify the economies beyond minerals. Strikes in universities are common and quality remains very low, especially in technical education. Little shows that Africa is prepared for the post-mineral era. The current foreign investment model focuses on accelerating consumption and exploration of minerals. Few investors focus on building capacity. While the tech giants build factories and research centers in Asia, they open offices to sell products in Africa. The most common excuse for this is that African talents are not ready for research; yet, those talents are good enough when new mines are discovered.
There is a genuine optimism from many parts of the world that Africa is moving in the right path. Yet, few can explain the sustainability roadmap for the post-mineral era. Throughout human history, new ideas have built nations. Africa is not creating any. The British ruled the world with knowledge during the industrial revolution. The Americans took over through investments in science and technology; today, the greatness of the U.S. depends on its excellent technical universities. If the U.S. loses its abilities to create and innovate, within a generation it will cease to lead the world. Look at what the BRIC nations have accomplished: China has educated women, India has invested in technical education, and the literacy rate in Brazil is now quite high. Africa has not educated its women, the technical education is still outmoded, the illiteracy rate is still high, and the infrastructure remains broken. Yet, because the Chinese are in town with cash, the world sees an illusion of more progress than there really is. Our problem is that the world has not invested helpfully in Africa — few invest in education, infrastructure, and research. Throughout the continent, we still don’t have reliable electricity.
People will criticize me for taking this problem to the foreign investors. Nonetheless, I still ask: Why shouldn’t the multinational companies that build real estates and mines put a small percentage into African education? If you spend millions developing real estate in the continent, you may be disappointed when the Chinese leave after the mines have been exhausted. Unless you plan to follow them, now is the time for sustainable investment in Africa where companies, especially Western ones, commit a certain percentage of these investments into areas that can build capacity. Build research centers, invest in for-profit education, and help develop a new generation of African technical leaders that will keep this present momentum going. Think about this before you invest in the next mine or oil rig in Africa.
Author: Ndubuisi Ekekwe
Originally published in HBR under a different topic
With Twitter’s Local Trends, Nigerians Can Connect Better. Yet, That is Not Enough. Twitter Must Go Deeper
TechLoy reports that Twitter has launched local trends in many cities around the world, with Nigeria included.
In November 2010, Twitter announced that they were expanding local trends to 14 new countries and 6 new cities, which included some of the site’s fastest growing markets. Just last week, Twitter added Nigeria to the list of countries with local trends.
At the moment, only Lagos, apparently the largest Twitter community in Nigeria is listed on Twitter’s ‘Local Trends’. Twitter had previously explained that “locations are not manually selected, but rather displayed dynamically based on tweet volume.”
Internet provided the platform to centralize, but in coming years, opportunities will emerge in localization. What Twitter is doing is such a pattern that will continue to evolve in coming months. If you do not provide local contents, you will pay for it. Groupon has shown the world the power of localization. Even Facebook will be forced in coming months to have a way to connect Nigerians and create a community for them. The same will apply to all cities and nations. Our attention span is reducing because of excess information capacity so firms must work really hard to provide data and info that people want on time and in formats they want them.
Yet, Twitter is not doing enough with this new service, they have to go further. They must target micro groups in the nation – IT guys, fashion people, etc and then create platforms for them within Nigeria. That way they will be sure to prevent disruptions.
Training 2.0 – Why Corporations Are Training African Developers, Free, On Their Platforms
It is a new world. And we are all living it. Nokia offers free Java training for developers. Blackberry matches it. Google is constantly finding a room to bring developers together. Everyone wants that killer Apps to be in their ecosystem. There is nothing like watching as firms compete for attention. We mean, they want you to use their platforms, over the competitor. Who knows, in the near future, they may be paying people to build in their platforms.
This process starts this way – they train and help developers setup the structure so that they can develop in their platforms. They select the best entrepreneurs- people with passions – and use them to build and expand opportunities, locally and globally. This is all good and we like it. Nokia has sponsored many in Uganda and Kenya. Nigerians are also getting lots of help from these giants.
But remember, they do not just accept novice. They take those that are already doing cool things in the platforms and make them better. So to make the cut, you must work hard to stay ahead and get in the game. You need to start developing right away to have any luck.
————-a Sample from Nokia—
14 week Java training
Nokia is offering a unique opportunity to software developers in Kenya and Uganda.
We are offering a 14 week course on Java ME development for mobile handsets to the top developers in both countries.
We are looking for entrepreneurs who are passionate about leveraging mobile phone technology to develop applications that will bring useful service to local communities and create prosperous businesses.
The training will be fully sponsored by Nokia, and we are therefore looking for applicants who have a strong academic track record, and demonstrated interest in mobile technology.
All applicants must have minimum of 1 year of Java development experience to qualify to participate in this training.
The course will run for 14 weeks beginning from 7th of February to 13th of May 2011, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Registration has been closed, thank you for all the applications! We will contact the selected participants during week 5. We will also keep you posted on upcoming events in Kenya and Uganda!
For more information contact:
Teemu Kiijarvi
Forum Nokia Developer Relations Manager