The New Oil

In the picture above, Economist magazine which happens to be one of the biggest media outfits in US stated clearly that Data is bigger than oil,  but how true could that really be ?

First and foremost, zoom in on that picture, what you will see are some of the most valuable companies in the world. Companies  like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon etc. These companies are richer than all of the biggest economies in Africa. Let me give you some figures :

Facebook is worth over $438 billion dollars!!! and as developed as South Africa is, that country's GDP, as rebased recently, was just $358 billion. Nigeria as at the 2015 had a GDP of *$458 billion (please don't remind of what it is now..sobbing), just a paltry $10 billion more than a 30 years old online business boy. Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt are the three biggest economies in Africa and one man's business, Bill Gates of Microsoft, is richer than those 3 nations collectively!

Infact don’t be surprised if they decide to buy your country someday.....(just kidding).

These companies pride on the massive user base and customers that patronize them. Recently, Mark zuckerberg declared that Facebook had hit 2 billion users and of course that includes You and I.

Over 3.5 billion people actively use the internet daily. These humongous internet users surf the internet  to chat and socialize with friends, others utilize  the internet  as a market place where they buy and sell goods and items.

1gb of data in most countries is above 1 dollar. In Nigeria for example, 1gb of data is #1000 (one thousand naira). But let’s even assume that these internet users spend 1gb of data every month, that amounts to 3.5 billion  x $1 = 3.5 billion dollars of free money to be shared between Google Facebook , Amazon and all those popular sites. By the time you add airtime purchase of people to the list, you will discover that so much money is readily available to be shared, much more money than oil can ever generate.

What more can I say? You choose; oil or data.. Like, right now, as you are reading this post, which is of more importance to you? How about when you do your online shopping, fill that form online, transact that business, like that post, update your status, upload that image or video, etc on Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter, etc? How about when you pay that bill, do that research, catch up with friends in the hinterlands or far away metropolitan suburbs on whatsapp, Facebook (chat), Snapchat, etc. Which has imparted your life more in the recent past (and will continue to)? Indeed we cannot begin to quantify the value of data to our entire existence these days and it's gonna be so for a long time.

The Distortion (cont'd)

This is the conclusion of the first part of a series of insightful post on challenges our current education system faces, the untoward effects and possible remedial measures we can take as individuals to escape the quagmire. Kindly drop your comments, like and share this post.

Please take some time out to go visit your old school and see that the only thing that might have changed are your old teachers and probably some new buildings but the syllabuses remains the same and the processes and expected outcomes are geared towards the same things. Learn, serve, look for a job and earn salaries. But that equation has lost its constant. Things have change. Automation has set in. Systems are being developed to take over human activities with only highly technically professional people left in work places, basically, only to monitor those system, and perhaps, proffer ways to improve those systems, which will eventually also lead to someone one losing their job because making a system better in modern terms more or less implies relieving a human of their job for an artificially intelligent machine or program to perform.

However, these jobs, so taken away from humans, still need get done, but by people with superior knowledge that match the complexities of the modern work place. Actually, it’s going to be like this now and going forward:

1. Mobile hardware, software and services will continue to rapidly evolve, creating many new careers, as all phones become smartphones, and our primary computer and tablets continue to evolve as our laptop replacement. This new level of mobility will allow any size business to transform how they market, sell, communicate, collaborate, educate, train and innovate.

2. Remote visual communications will become a primary relationship-building tool for businesses of all sizes as employees use smartphones, tablets and laptops, in combination with current video conferencing systems, to communicate at new levels with customers, partners and employees.

3. Social business enterprise management will grow rapidly as organizations shift from an Information Age "informing" model to a Communication Age "communicating and engaging" model. New careers will emerge as social software rapidly grows -- with applications to enhance business relationships, collaboration, networking, social validation and more. Social search will increasingly shape careers as marketers, researchers and those on Wall Street create applications and services to tap into millions of daily tweets and Facebook conversations, providing real-time analysis of many key consumer metrics.

4. Cyber security and forensics careers will grow rapidly as we become increasingly connected and dependent on computer systems and machines using intelligent sensors connected to just about everything. Careers in data and information forensics will grow rapidly as the need to solve cyber crimes increases.

5. Additive manufacturing (3-D printing) will create many new careers in manufacturing as this revolutionary technology allows any size company to manufacture quickly, locally and with far fewer costs. Additive manufacturing builds things by depositing material (typically plastic or metal) layer by layer until the final product is finished. Examples of final products today include jewelry, iPhone cases, shoes, car dashboards, parts for jet engines, prosthetic limbs and much more.

6. Gamification of education will create many new careers as corporations and educational institutions at all levels accelerate learning by using advanced simulations and skill-based learning systems that are self-diagnostic, interactive, game-like, and competitive, all focused on giving the user an immersive experience thanks to a photo-realistic 3-D interface.

7. Cloud services and virtualization will be increasingly embraced by businesses of all sizes, as this represents a major shift in how organizations obtain and maintain software, hardware, and computing capacity. IT is rapidly becoming an on-demand service that is rapidly transforming all business processes resulting in a rapid evolution of current careers as well as creating new careers in every functional area.

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8. Big data and real-time analytics describe the technologies and techniques used to capture and utilize the exponentially increasing streams of data with the goal of bringing enterprise-wide visibility and insights to make rapid critical decisions. This new level of data integration and analytics will require many new skills and cross-functional training in order to take advantage of new opportunities as well as break down the many data and organizational silos that still exist.

9. Intelligent e-personal assistants using natural language voice commands was launched with Apple's Siri, which was rapidly followed by Google, Microsoft, and others all offering what will become a mobile electronic concierge on your phone, tablet and television. The technology will rapidly evolve and soon every profession from retailers to maintenance workers will have a Siri-like assistant. Adding an e-personal assistant to support an existing product and/or service will create many new careers.

10. 3-D web will transform today's Internet experience (which is like looking at a flat piece of paper with a few photos, embedded video, and a few hyperlinks) to a true 3-D experience, similar to today's video games, where you can virtually walk into a showroom, look around and both listen to and see the new car you are interested in, or whatever the website is trying to show you. This will employ many new graphic artists, designers and programmers.

11. Connected intelligent objects using chips, microsensors and both wired and wireless networks will create a rapidly growing "Internet of things" sharing real-time data, performing diagnostics and making remote repairs. Many jobs will be created as we add intelligent connected sensors to bridges, roads, buildings, homes and much more. By 2020, there will be well over a billion machines talking to each other, and people will install them.

12. Advanced robotics and automation will take a giant leap forward, thanks to networked sensors, artificial intelligence, and Siri-like voice communications, taking the next level of repetitive jobs from humans. This will create many new career opportunities from design, programming and installation to service and maintenance, to name just a few.

You don't have to know the physics of a telephone in order to use it. You do have to know it exists and how to creatively use it to accomplish your goal. Don't wait until next year, or the year after, or until you're laid off. Invest the time to identify what you need to learn right away so that you will thrive both now and in the future, either in your current career or a new one. However, if you think this whole idea is too metaphysically way up for you, well, you wouldn’t want your kids to waste their childhood and youthful days learning only junks in schools without also having them to learn about how the real world now works, would you?

The Distortion

I talked about creating a post on the anomalies of our educational system. This is going to the beginning of such posts. Please feel free to share your thoughts and perspectives, like and share this post to get the message out and round. Let’s get into it.

Technology is a powerful tool. It is the driving force of human life and advancements and it is what shapes our world in all ramifications and spheres of life. If the technology we have today is still virtually controlled only by government, there can be no snowball chances in hell for things like the digital monies we now hear of existing like they do at this age. As software develop and internet inclusiveness emerges more intensely, ideas such as booking and uber are bound to emerge.

Back in the 1950's, during the height of the cold wars or ideological warfare between the western bloc nations or NATO state and the Eastern bloc nations or WARSAW pact, also referred to as the ideological supremacy race between Capitalism and Communism, one of the defining aspect of virtual battle scenes was the Race to the moon.

The great leap forward to this reality left an indelible mark on modern societies and created series of advancements that made human reliance on technology inevitable and mandatory.

So the question now is; what connection, does a smartphone have with a space rocket? The day I found out, my heart stopped beating for a few couple of seconds, as I held my breath in utter disbelief and astonishment. And this is why.

In 1956, the Russians and Americans raced to place man on the moon. To be honest, at this period, the biggest technology in the world was the Aeroplane. A giant tube of aluminium mass and fiber glass, glazing through the skies from one location to the other...so one can hardly imagine the audacities of experimenting on a quest to put man on a planet, outside man's natural reaches and abilities of that time.

Massive resources and billions of dollars were expended on these projects on both sides and the race was intense and extremely focused on success or nothing.

In 1956, the defunct USSR succeeded in the race to the moon, through the now late Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, but the Americans, in the early 1960's, placed the first man on the moon.

But the amazing thing about the whole COMPUTER technology that drove those huge rockets and took man to the moon is only as half as sophisticated as the computer currently powering your MOBILE PHONES.... Now that's absolutely bombastic. To think that fifty years ago, the mass of knowledge that could create our tiny mobile phones was worth billions of dollars.

No wonder Robert Kiyosaki, one of the greatest motivational speakers of this generation and a great author and writer said, "Nobody with a smartphone in this age and time, should have anything to do with poverty" (not exact words, and emphasis mine). How can one imagine individuals of this age of free information, knowledge and social interactions on a global stage, with the same unique access to the power that took man outside the earth crust and colonized the moon and now planet Mars, declare that he or she is broke, poor or lacking in privilege? That would be a big shame.

Presently, WhatsApp has over 1.2 billion subscribers meaning that more than 1 billion phones have the WhatsApp app. But someone will say or ask, what's the big deal, shebi WhatsApp is free?!...I laugh at such ignorance; yeah its free at the front end, but don't forget that my good friend and soon to become business partner…lol, Mark Zukerberg paid a whooping $19 billion dollars to buy WhatsApp from Jan Koum and Brian Acton in the year 2013!!!...  My people, that same person that bought a so called free app for the whole budget of Africa put together and still had change, remains the 5th richest man on earth today. Think about that! Your child could be next whizkid to develop a multimillion dollars app.

The truth is that WhatsApp generates over billions of dollars every day, as over 1.2 billion subscribers burn billions of megabytes daily as they socialize on the WhatsApp platform. A sizable chunk of that revenue goes to my friend, Mark –winks.

The equation no longer holds true – the distortion

In the early ages, as formal education develops and curriculums increased to focus on career specializations and job role demands, schools were designed to condition our minds to learn as much as we can, earn a degree, look for a good job and earn salaries. Decades in and decades out, we keep learning the same stuffs and doing the same things, while the world changes around us. Formal education is very good. One cannot wish it away or deny its importance to societal growth and developments, but to insist that it is the only way and means of making it in life is a mirage, a big lie and a global deception of magnanimous magnitude.

Let's quickly look at the pictures below and tell ourselves some hard truths.

Picture (A) is showing a group of men joining forces together to lift up into a huge truck, A 5MB, not 50MB, but a 5MB memory disc into what was termed a super computer, during the early race to the space age... Now maybe someone was thinking I was exaggerating about what I said previously, about the computing powers that took mankind to the moon in the early 1960's, but this picture appears to vindicate me. A Nokia 3310 (oh, how I miss that phone) has more than 50mb computing powers, such that its memory store up to 500 names, it can do call waiting, conference calls, send text messages and much more, I'm sure someone is shaking their heads in acceptance, yet, today, we have Smartphones with dynamic computations that would have almost burst the brains of Albert Einstein; or so is my imagination running more itself?

Picture (B), shows the magnanimous printing machine of the 19th century. What enormous engineering feat. Can you imagine the ingenuity of the men that developed this feat of technology? They must have felt like geniuses and whiz-kids. Under few hours, they can now print books and increase knowledge. We are thankful to those guys and appreciate their outstanding foundations.

But friends, imagine you are somewhere around Education Mile 1, the headquarters of Printing presses and jobs in Rivers State or Shomolu-Bariga Lagos state the headquarters of Printing presses and jobs in Nigeria and after negotiating price, the manager takes you to their back office factory and you saw this relic, what will be your reaction? I'm sure you would think you have teleported back to the era of Charles Darwin's and needed to wake up fast.

Why would that be? Well, we all see what the German technological brains and machines have developed in the 21st century. Whole factories are running automatically with less and few needs of human beings. Artificial Intelligence is coming on boards and the jobs we go to school to learn about and work in are gradually being eroded. Technology is changing very fast, but our textbooks remain largely the same; pity. Students are not being thought how to think productively to create wealth, but only what to think to obtain high grades to go work for money. Little wonders most of the Top 50 richest men in the world, are all college dropouts or even stark illiterates.

These guys didn't have the time to waste working for money, but they went ahead to create money and built systems that makes or enable their monies to work for them.

Pictures (C) &  (D) pretty much explains itself. Graham Bells was an electrical genius. He patented his invention and gave the world the first taste of long distance communications. I'm sure you know that his family still enjoys a fraction of this invention that he gave the world. But the phone in Picture (D) far outsmarts anything Mr. Bells could have thought of.

The educational system is preparing us for the joblessness, which is sure to continue [see some statistics: Nigeria’s employment crisis worsened in the first quarter of 2016, with unemployment rate rising to 12.1 per cent from 9.9 percent by September ending 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, said on Friday – May 20^th, 2016. Premium Times. NBS, has revealed that no fewer than 8,663 banks’ employees lost their jobs in the first half of 2017; that an average of 360 workers had been sacked every week from January to June 2017 –Vanguard, August 22, 2017], around the globe today. Students are not thought how to create systems that will make money for them. They are taught to be accountants, lawyers, Doctors, engineers, teachers and so on, for a monthly fee, earning 12 times in 365 days and giving 90% of their adult and productive life to build the businesses and dreams of the school dropouts and so called *never do wells... Well, you have in my previous posts, seen how business even those professions are going to be drastically affected by this technology revolution – no one is spared!

[To be continue] 

Human jobs are getting frostily outdated - see the statistics in this interview with Roland S. Folger, MD Daimler Benz

Thought really hard on how mildly to caption this post. Had a few other ideas but this one resonated more in my faculties so please pardon my "un-journalistic" methods because of course I'm not one.   

In a recent interview the MD of Daimler Benz (Mercedes Benz), Roland S. Folger, said their competitors are no longer other car companies but Tesla (obvious), Google, Apple, Amazon, etc.

Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years.  

Uber is just a software tool, they don't own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world

Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don't own any properties.  

Artificial Intelligence: Computers become exponentially better in understanding the world. This year, a computer beat the best Go player in the world,  10 years earlier than expected.

In the US, young lawyers already don't get jobs. Because of IBM Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans.

So if you study law, stop immediately. There will be 90% less lawyers in the future, only specialists will remain. 

Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 times more accurate than human nurses. Facebook now has a pattern recognition software that can recognize faces better than humans. In 2030, computers will become more intelligent than humans.

Autonomous cars: In 2018 the first self driving cars will appear for the public. Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be disrupted. You  don't want to own a car anymore. You will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. You will not need to park it, you only pay for the driven distance and can be productive while driving. Our kids will  never get a driver's licence and will never own a car.

It will change the cities, because we will need 90-95% less cars for that. We can transform former parking spaces into parks. 1.2 million people die  each year in car accidents worldwide. We now have one accident every 60,000 miles (100,000 km), with autonomous driving that will drop to one accident in 6 million miles (10 million km). That will save a million lives each year.

Most car companies will probably become bankrupt. Traditional car companies try the evolutionary approach and just build a better car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will do the revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels.

Many engineers from Volkswagen and Audi; are completely terrified of Tesla.

Insurance companies will have massive trouble because without accidents, the insurance will become 100x cheaper. Their car insurance business model  will disappear.

Real estate will change. Because if you can work while you commute, people will move further away to live in a more beautiful neighborhood.

Electric cars will become mainstream about 2020. Cities will be less noisy because all new cars will run on electricity. Electricity will become incredibly cheap and clean: Solar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years, but you can now see the burgeoning impact. 

Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil. Energy companies are desperately trying to limit access to the grid to prevent competition from home solar installations, but that can't last. Technology will take care of that strategy.

With cheap electricity comes cheap and abundant water. Desalination of salt water now only needs 2kWh per cubic meter (@ 0.25 cents). We don't have  scarce water in most places, we only have scarce drinking water. Imagine what will be possible if anyone can have as much clean water as he wants, for nearly no cost.  

Health:    The Tricorder X price will be announced this year. There are companies who will build a medical device (called the "Tricorder" from Star Trek)  that works with your phone, which takes your retina scan, your blood sample and you breath into it.

It then analyses 54 biomarkers that will identify nearly any disease. It will be cheap, so in a few years everyone on this planet will have access to world class medical analysis, nearly for free. Goodbye, medical establishment.

3D printing: The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from $18,000 to $400 within 10 years. In the same time, it became 100 times faster. All  major shoe companies have already started 3D printing shoes.

Some spare airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote airports. The space station now has a printer that eliminates the need for the large amount of spare parts they used to have in the past.

At the end of this year, new smart phones will have 3D scanning possibilities.    You can then 3D scan your feet and print your perfect shoe at home.  

In China, they already 3D printed and built a complete 6-storey office building.    By 2027, 10% of everything that's being produced will be 3D printed.

Business opportunities: If you think of a niche you want to go in, ask yourself: "in the future, do you think we will have that?" and if the answer  is yes, how can you make that happen sooner?

If it doesn't work with your phone, forget the idea. And any idea designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure in the 21st century.

Work:  70-80% of jobs will disappear in the next 20 years. There will be a lot of new jobs, but it is not clear if there will be enough new jobs in such a small time.

Agriculture: There will be a $100 agricultural robot in the future. Farmers in 3rd world countries can then become managers of their field instead of working all day on their fields.

Aeroponics will need much less water. The first Petri dish produced veal, is now available and will be cheaper than cow produced veal in 2018. Right now, 30% of all agricultural surfaces is used for cows. Imagine if we don't need that space anymore. There are several startups who will bring insect protein to the market shortly. It contains more protein than meat. It will be labelled as "alternative protein source" (because most people still reject the idea of eating insects).

There is an app called "moodies" which can already tell in which mood you're in.  By 2020 there will be apps that can tell by your facial expressions, if you are lying. Imagine a political debate where it's being displayed when they're telling the truth and when they're not.

Bitcoin may even become the default reserve currency ... Of the world!

Longevity:  Right now, the average life span increases by 3 months per year. Four years ago, the life span used to be 79 years, now it's 80 years. The increase itself is increasing and by 2036, there will be more than one year increase per year. So we all might live for a long long time, probably way more than 100.

Education:  The cheapest smart phones are already at $10 in Africa and Asia. By 2020, 70% of all humans will own a smart phone. That means, everyone  has the same access to world class education.

Every child can use Khan academy for everything a child needs to learn at school in First World countries. There have already been releases of software in Indonesia and soon there will be releases in Arabic, Suaheli and Chinese this summer. I can see enormous potential if we give the English app for free, so that children in Africa and everywhere else can become fluent in English and that could happen within half a year.

THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN THE WORLD VS NIGERIA'S

School children aged between 10 – 17 in Europe, Asia and America are designing robots, drones, computer codes and apps that are making a difference in peoples’ lives and generating a colossal amount of money on Apple Stores and Google Stores, etc. Thanks to well-developed and up-to-date education systems and high-performance initiatives and cultures. For example:

(a) A 16-year-old Australian, Ben Pasternak, is the CEO of Flogg, and a multi-millionaire through the creation of a game app at age 12.

(b) Thomas Suarez (USA), the winner of the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards, was already a multi-millionaire and business tycoon by the age of 12 and the youngest to appear on TED Talk, an international discussion forum, following his success in the development of iPhone apps.

(c) Arsh Dilbagi, a 16-year-old Indian secondary school student, is a young roboticist who designed a next-generation Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device for people with conditions that prevent them from communicating verbally

(d) Cynthia Sin Nga Lam, 17, Australian, mindful of limited access to electricity and potable water in some developing countries, developed “a portable device that purifies wastewater while generating electricity sustainably and affordably.”

In Nigeria, students are still taught the very pre-historic rudiments of physics and chemistry in our schools. And this is even in the few schools that teachers and students still meet in the classrooms!

In our schools, today, a major pre-occupation of the elites controlling the federal ministry of education, is the introduction of Arabic Language and Religious Studies as core subjects (well, may I not be misunderstood on this one; I don’t dispute the teaching of any form of religious education in schools, especially since they contain a major ingredient of our moral values as African - in a global world). However, their children are studying in UK and US where high-quality education excludes these same subjects. This is a shackle that must be broken and only possible with a government that is in tune with the fundamentals of economic and scientific progress.

Well, the last statement is what readily comes to mind and is spewed out of the lips almost spontaneously – the government, each time matters of concern is talked about in this country. But fact is, it is a collective responsibility of everyone. I mean information is readily available to everyone these days, events are shown on global TV networks across the world and social media platforms are handy to get the latest of any sort of information to anyone right in the loo. So we can’t say we are not aware, we can’t say we don’t know how other countries survive and even thrive in these times, we can’t say government cluelessness is directly proportional to our own cluelessness, and you know what, we can’t even say we don’t know how to go about it?

At this point, may I now take some time out to acknowledge some very high spirited, forward looking Nigerian who have made their marks and are still writing their names in gold:

1.   THE IKHIANOSIME BROTHERS

The duo of Osine Ikhianosime and Anesi Ikhianosime have certainly written their

names in the sands of time in the mobile applications development industry.

Osine Ikhianosime and Anesi Ikhianosime born of same parents co-developed 

‘Crocodile Browser’ at ages 13 and 15 respectively whilst still schooling in Nigeria. 

They developed passion for technology at very tender ages and their parents 

supported them, their school had a structure that supported the use of 

technology. Reading the story of this young entrepreneurs (as they are the 

founders and owners of BluDoors the trademark company behind Crocodile 

Browser), I discovered that the synergy between the home and school played a 

major role in instilling the discipline in them that had made them who they now 

are.

2.   SEYI TAYLOR

Born 37 years ago and one of Nigeria’s greatest young minds, a technology, design and branding specialist, Chief Creative Officer of his sole owned Noah69 Company, and also owns an online advertising service based in Lagos by the name Bloovue. Though a medical doctor by training, his passion lies with the IT sector. He is one of the National winners of the 2007 International Young Design Entrepreneur Award.

3.   JASON NJOKU

The self-acclaimed ‘Igbo-Kong Fu Smurai Warrior Geek’ has doubtless proven to be one. He is the founder of the Nigerian version of Netflix – iROKOtv.com which, not too long ago got funding worth $8million from Tiger global. He is also the founder of iROKING.com a music streaming service and IROKO partners.

4.   FRANCES ONWUMERE

He is a Web and Mobile Applications Developer at his Co-Founded Digital Craft Studios and the Co-Founder of Prowork, a team collaboration web application. He took part in the organization a major Hackathon – Garag48 and Developer relations at Startup Weekend. Francis studied at University of Nigeria.

5.   OLUWASEUN OSEWA

Definitely Nigeria’s Internet Legend. He is the owner of Nairaland.com, Nigeria’s premier forum which, till today, remains the most used and visited forum in Nigeria. He describes himself as a professional Website Administrator and the one that runs the popular Nairaland. And he runs a personal blog that goes by his name seunosewa.com.

6.   AHMAD MUKOSHY

The 27 years old has been a Web developer since the age of 14. He has so many works to his credit but to mention a few will be yrn.me – url shortner, yarnable.com – twitter like social network (sold to MobiQue), clickbit – online javascript game, and recently GigaLayer – a web hosting company (formerly aimtech). He has been in the frontline of web development in Nigeria and participated in notable events such as the Garag48, which saw the launch of flippii.com – another social network based on ideas. And all these he did before his youth service.

Credits: connectnigeria.com , vanguardngr.com

These are to mention but a few.

Now, there is no story anywhere, either written by them or any other person that says they brokered a deal with the government for support or any form of “providing the needed infrastructure or enabling environment” for them to do their businesses and harness their passion into productive ventures and enterprises. That spirit is what I believe will get Nigeria out of the doldrums into limelight among the committee of nations.

Well, waiting for the government to provide us with staples has so far kept us marking time how about we stepped out and/or give our young kids the opportunity to do so? You know, only madness would expect to get a different result doing the same thing.

IT has all it takes to secure your children’s future. Don’t play down on their on their attachment to gadgets when you discover one. Don’t overlook their tech-savviness, help them harness it. Don’t ignore their curiosity; help them find their path for there is world of information at their disposal.

At K-Koders that’s what we do, giving children a sense direction in computing by unraveling the world of possibilities with computing and allow them make informed decisions as to their passion and career path in the future.

THE FUTURE AS IT IS TODAY – …NIGERIA IS NOT EVEN IDUSTRIALISED YET AND THE INDUSTRIAL AGE IS GONE!

This is a follow up to a previous post titled “Is Your Child Coding Yet?”

Have you made time to weigh the consequences of the day after the collapse of oil revenue, which experts estimate to be in 8 – 10 years’ time? For your consideration, below is a short list of developments with dire consequences in less than 10 years’ time for the Nigerian oil sector and its economy (just feel a hunch to keep talking about this some more):

(a) Major car manufacturers including Volvo, Peugeot and Mercedes Benz have announced plans to phase out the manufacture of petrol and diesel cars.

(b) President Emmanuel Macron of France has decreed that the manufacture and driving of petrol and diesel engine cars, will become illegal by 2040.

(c) Professor Tony Seba of Sandford University, a world-renowned economist, predicts that by 2030, 95% of people won’t own a private car, killing off the auto industry; and electric vehicles will devastate the global oil industry by the same date.

(d) UK will ban the manufacture and sale of all new diesel and petrol cars by 2040 (23 years time) in favour of electric cars, and restrict the operation of polluting diesel cars on British roads by 2020 (in 3 years time).

(e) Electric cars will be charged with solar energy – meaning that the days of oil revenue sharing in Nigeria will soon be over (Senator Ben Murray-Bruce).

How old are you in 10 years’ time, and where will you and your family run to if the oil dependent economy of Nigeria runs into trouble? This is a million-dollar question for us all.

Economies of the world have since moved on from fossil energy to renewable, bio friendly, non-ecosystem degrading forms of energy and virtually all these forms of energy are controlled by computing devices, programs, applications; some standalones on computers, some we (can) carry about on our mobile devices – phones, tablets, etcetera.

Industry players are switching lanes from floating oil servicing companies to leveraging on the current wave of information revolution by setting up software developing companies. A lot of them are around now. Fact is there are many problems to solve with software than there are programmers world over, so the market is rife for anyone to come in and shine.

Point is let’s begin to point our children to problem solving than coming out of school with good grades because that eventually will make them better global citizens in this age of information revolution – it is here with us and we can’t shy away from it pretending not to know.

Nigeria really did not meet up with even the industrial age, don’t know if we were asleep when it took off that till today we still talk about industrializing the country.. kinda makes me laugh. Well this is another grand opportunity to make a mark.. The government can’t do it (alone, they will want us to say). Yes! Because they are lazy. 

Citizens, parents, insist your children learn to code!

...IT'S TIME!

Clearly and simply put. How can we still be killing our citizens for oil exploration when oil is already going extinct. Are we thinking forward or backward? The world has moved on.

Please watch this!

We must redesign our automobile and mass transit policy and go green! pic.twitter.com/m8KBLHvCvN

— Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) August 5, 2017

https://twitter.com/benmurraybruce/status/893722625427591168

“MASTERY BASED LEARNING…” “TAKE AGENCY OVER YOUR LEARNING…”

...These are the words I kept hearing (and I’m sure you too will hear) when I watched this video by Sal Khan, Founder and CEO Khan Academy; and, as an enthusiast of children education who have worked with children of different ages for, some, over five years now,  I can't agree less with him. 

I believe this is one of the missing ingredient in our education system – the education that is grade-based and not ‘whole-concept-mastery-based’, one where learners have to learn to take exams to come tops in class (with the pass grades of A, B, or C as the case may be) only for the purpose of promotion to a higher class (where previously learnt or missed concepts are built upon) leaving unattended to those knowledge gaps created by those 40%, 15% or even 5% failures. So, really, is 75% or even 95% pass mark which equates to an A (and an excellent grade by the current education system) really a measure of a child’s knowledge of a particular subject? Is that the best a child can do on a particular subject? What stands in the way of learners gaining mastery of subject taught in school (let’s not begin to talk about the kinds of subjects we subject our children to learn in schools (nursery, primary, secondary, tertiary and the rest) at the expense of those that will enhance their natural abilities and get them to become self-reliant, articulately expressive and think logically to be able to solve real life problems – maybe I will do a post on that one some other time). How come most students who finish school genuinely with excellent grades are really not productive in practical terms? Well, the analogy used by Sal in this video will give you an idea of the graveness of the situation we find ourselves today, let me hold my breath. Happy viewing.

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Would you choose to build a house on top of an unfinished foundation? Of course not. Why, then, do we rush students through education when they haven't always grasped the basics? Yes, it's complicated, but Sal shares his plan to turn struggling students into scholars by helping them master concepts at their own pace.  –Sal Khan.

IS YOUR CHILD CODING YET?

“THE JOBS OF TOMORROW HAVEN'T BEEN INVENTED YET.” This, however true, is an old story because, really, fact is those jobs are here now and sending a lot of parents on retrenchment in industries around the world and especially here in Nigeria. Perturbed what the future holds? Or what this portends, economically, in the short and long term? No need to be, JUST BRACE UP!

The intention is not to push many, hitherto employed people, back into the labour market (if there is and will be a thing as such in the near future). It is for us to learn the new ways of doing our current or old jobs. Robots aren’t certainly gonna take our place on our desks; because those robots need you to make them work, they need you to give them the instructions required for them to perform with ease those tasks you strenuously perform (at your desk). Those programs need you to get them started and maintained, those processes need you to write codes to simplify their operation/execution, that industry needs you to device newer ways to improve efficiency and capacity.

It is even going to get smarter. Question is: If you didn’t, haven’t or can’t keep up with the trend should your kids also be left aloof? The attitude I suppose should be “my child had better learn to code.” As software has redefined a range of industries and professions, many parents around the globe are rushing to make sure their children learn the building blocks of computer programming. DON’T BE LEFT OUT.

I was thrilled when only recently a sibling of mine, I presumed saw some of my posts, called me up with a question regarding how to go about a certain programming language code. This is someone who ordinarily wouldn’t toe that path, but seeing the necessity of being educated, even if not professionally, in computer programming, I believe has taken to learning programming. Now this gives me much joy.

A lot won’t be the way they are now in the near future just as things were not the way they now some years back. Countries are giving themselves deadline to stop using some old stuff and switch to better (electronic) means of doing those same things. That means those ones who are still stuck on the old ways by then will be kicked out to make room for those who took advantage of the opportunity. In the case of UK and France, mechanics who refuse to learn how to fix electric cars by 2040 have already thrown themselves out of job. Mechanics who fix Volvo cars who don’t switch technology by 2019 will find themselves scrambling for scraps in dumpsites as there will no longer be production of diesel or petrol Volvo cars by then.

Did I hear someone say “that’s for those people naa?” Well, I’m sorry, u may need to find time to look at some basic world economic indices. For one, the ban of petrol and diesel vehicles renders our oil here in Nigeria more or less useless? Or can someone mention ten products of refined crude produced from scratch to finish here in Nigeria? If some of our major customers in the crude oil market are gone, and many more will; what next? The economy is threatened. However with adequate manpower with the required skill sets to drive an economy without oil and that gives them leverage to work anywhere in the world like you find in the IT world, the economy will still be stable with enough forex to remain relevant in the global economy.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IS THE OIL OF NOT JUST THE NEXT GENERATION BUT THIS GENERATION ALSO. SO, AGAIN; IS YOU CHILD CODING YET?

THE MONEY MAKING MACHINE - IT

Just a few weeks ago the richest man on the planet was Bill Gate of Microsoft with a net worth of 89B USD with the second in line Jeff Bezos only coming slightly lower in the second position with a net worth of 85B USD .....but today, he is the richest man in the world at the age of 50. He overtook 4 years title holder, Bill gates (70yrs) by being worth over $90B. These guys are all super rich and guess what, they are because of Information Technology. What more is there to say? Oil, oil company workers no long rule the world so the dream of becoming a Petroleum Engineer or any oil driven profession with an eye for positions in oil and gas is fast becoming old school put your kids on the right path.. LET'S GET THEM STARTED AT K-KODERS! http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/richest-people-in-world-forbes

#KKoders #DemmoblastTechnologies #DemmotechSMS