Hotel Bars and Fast Foods turn internet lounge

Of recent there as been an increase in internet penetration in calabar. We have hotels throwing free wireless internet connections in their bars. Good thing right? Guess you would say that. Now i just arrived Calabar from Abuja and i got to hear alot about a new hotel MONTY SUITE. Was taken there and nice place wish i could post a picture here. Now getting into the bar i realize the place was littered with people using laptops. And of course we know so much about NIGERIAN. Well am actually Nigerian as well.. We love and when i say love am talking LOVE in caps.. free stuff. We all know the popular saying that free things dey PURGE belle. And Several days later.. the place really is swamped with Internet Hungry peeps of which my dear friends am a part of.  Aint life just funny.

Silicon Valley here in 9ja. How can we turn that dream to reality.

Hey just before u call it quit on the Silicon valley and the naija equivalent.. i need to speak my mind.

Now talking about china and india and their silicon dream. Now those guys found a niche that they could fit into and capitalized on it. Now software or generally a successful IT desire or dream can only be achieved collectively using team effort. Sacrifices would have to be made. Independence from some government control may be needed. The only way we can have a silicon valley (or whatever u choose to call it in nigeria is only possible if we stop waiting for government to do stuff). If we the ordinary guys collaborate on some reasonable terms i think we can achieve a lot. Now like I said IT business is a collaborative effort. Now here in nigeria we are mostly interested in one man business, every one wants to be president and founder ,all by myself attitude. With that approach no silicon valley is possible. The best we can do is hold several seminars do all the TALK TALK TALK and beg foreign investors to come in (how much have we invested in ourself that others would come and invest).we also look too much at what others are doing and try to copy (FYI that issue of “copy copy make u pass” only worked in nursery school). Now enough of the bashing of sweet nigeria cos it will lead to know where now let me share a little thought on how best to achieve this valley of silicon in nigeria.

First of all the only approach to setting up a silicon valley in nigeria would be more of a private sector initiative rather than a government thing. I know no matter how much we try we always run to dady Govt for assistance. The only assistance they can give may be in the form of land,favorable policy and maybe donations in form of cash. Now looking around nigeria needs good internet access to be able to embrace ICT in full but with our half baked internet connectivity that is still unreliable for a full day we never will get there..we still be dreaming. Now i believe if a few private group of companies and individual could collaborate on running a mega group of companies to set up a good ISP service making use of the best technology out there. Including capitalizing on our wasted comm satelite our there.This companies will benefit themselves apart from getting good returns on the investment they get their own internet connectivity as well.This maybe followed up using a contribution approach where every member is expected to donate periodically some amount to the foundation of group.

Now i would go into hardware but i guess this is a more expensive business. But here is the fun part u dont have to build everything urself. We can make use of free and open hardware platforms to get stuff working for US. Like the Gumstix and Sunspot kind of program. We can get small microdevices and get them to do some good to our community. Especially in the area of mobile computing. Nigerians love phone or any portable electronic stuff they can afford. Who wouldn’t like to read his or her news paper from a Palm Top like device on a daily basis using a cheap subscription approach. Without the need to store up old newspapers.

As for software, we have the market flooded with too much web designers designing lovely web sites that have very little functionality. Companies just need a web site here in nigeria most times not because they see it as a requirement in their business work process but because some other companies have a web site of their own. But then i feel we could do more in the area of attaching or linking our website to do more of Customer relationship management (CRM) and Business 2 Business thing. And also go into developing applications that can power our local businesses including government establishment and possible finance sector. Then we can think of doing out sourcing of software development as india is.

But then how do we start. First thing first get rid of the Me alone attitude and lets share progress and fame together.

Welcome to Ndy’s Blog Page!

Hello the rest of the world. My name is Ndifreke Ekott and am a young 25 year old chap as at 2009. I currently am doing my Nation Youth Service Corp (NYSC) in Abuja. An did i fail to mention am from Nigeria in Africa. Am a computer scientist by profession (at least that is what i read in school) and finished from the University of Calabar,Calabar in Cross River State Nigeria. At the moment am currently a Server Side Programmer using PHP and MySQL for my current Place Of Primary Assignment (PPA).

I am into Basket Ball when not busy though of recent have not done that in months.I love watching movies especially the Series types.I love music and i don’t really have a favorite genre though i love listening to rock,jazz,opera,folk and am open to new ideas as well. Am also a vivid computer game person. I love playing adventure games,first person shooters (FTS),RPG,sports etc.At some spare times i do like to hangout with friends,do a lot of site seeing and trying out new stuff which include food,activities etc. I do spend a lot of time surfing the web for all forms of contents to read. I subscribe to RSS feeds a lot and that keeps me informed in my fields especially.

I love putting up and open mind policy and am very welcoming to alternative ideas as well. I believe in listening to other peoples views and ideas as a basis for evaluating my own ideas and if possible find ways to either adopt theirs or alter mine a bit to make me a better person.

Family and friends are a very important factor of life to me  and i take great pleasure in hearing friends out,making new friends and simply enjoying life.

Well i hope this is alright for now on who i really. The rest of who i am i believe can be deduced from subsequent post on this site. Am glad i have an opportunity to speak to u or atleast u tool time out to read all this. Hoping to have a fruitful friendship as we progress.

Thank you very much