Adidas Puts HD Camera In World Cup Football

Come June 12 when the 2014 edition of the most glamorous global game, World Cup tournament, will kick off in

São Paulo, Brazil, another electronic wonder of our digital age will be on display on the pitch as a customised Adidas ball with six GoPro-style HD cameras inside, capturing 360-degree views of the beautiful game is booted around the pitch by first- class players around the world.

Christened the Adidas Brazucam World Cup ball, the white man’s latest digital witchcraft is packed with cameras, putting you in the centre of a kickabout with the world’s biggest soccer stars.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be part of a kickabout with Messi, Neymar, Xavi Hernandez, Dani Alves, Cristian Tello, Mikel Obi and the world’s finest footballers, now’s your chance to find out . Adidas has put HD cameras inside a high-tech match ball to get soccer fans excited ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The all-seeing Brazucam is decked out in colours inspired by traditional Brazilian Bahia with bands, made up of six pieces stitched together to give the players plenty of grip on the ball.

In the run-up to the World Cup, Adidas will show off videos captured from the Brazuca’s point of view on the Adidas Football YouTube channel and at the Brazuca Web site, as the ball journeys through footie-frenzied countries including Spain, Germany, England, Russia, Japan, the USA, and Mexico, along the way hoofed and headed by stars such as Manuel Neuer, Philipp Lahm, and David Villa.

Brazuca is decked out in colours inspired by traditional Brazilian Bahia wish bands, made up of six pieces stitched together to give the players plenty of grip on the ball.

As well as being the host nation, Brazil is the most successful country on this stage with five World Cup wins.

The 2014 World Cup kicks off in São Paulo on 12 June when host Brazil takes on Croatia. The world’s 32 best teams, including England, Australia and the USA, will then battle it out over 64 games across 12 stadiums to wrest the coveted World Cup trophy from holders Spain.

The ball could have more impact on the game than you think. The last competition in South Africa saw players criticise the Adidas Jabulani ball used in matches, describing it as “impossible” and even “supernatural” for changing direction unexpectedly -- prompting NASA testing of the controversial soccer sphere.

ISPON’ll advance local content software adoption –Okigbo Jnr

The newly elected president of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr. Pius Okigbo Jnr, who doubles as the chairman, InfoSoft Group, granted exclusive audience to our Group Executive Editor, REMMY NWEKE, a few days into his tenure. Aside lamenting the exclusion of IT professionals in the 2014 National Conference, he promises to work for the advancement of local content software, a more coordinated curriculum for Nigerian computer science students and leverage on achievements of Chris Uwaje in ISPON.

Excerpts:

What’s the status of ISPON currently?

I just took over from Chief Chris Uwaje as ISPON president and I will be in office for the next two years. So we have a new executive and we are here to continue with what our immediate past president, Chris Uwaje has been able to establish. Everyone agrees that he created a very strong brand and for us now to extend that brand and make the best of it.

Sir you have been actually a long standing active member of ISPON.

That’s correct.

At a time you were a vice president.

Second vice president.

Between that time and now, what do you think has changed?

Much may not have changed, but the direction changed. In terms of the awareness we were trying to establish in the beginning, we will continue with that but this time we need more focus in some specific areas. That’s what I talked about at the press conference. One such area will be the intellectual property and other will be the local content.

Yes, you have been a very big advocate of local content.

That’s correct.

What’s the inspiration like?

Well, first of all, we must continue with the dialogue. That’s very, very important. We must continue with dialogue at the highest possible level to bring to understanding, awareness and to some degree compassion to the whole concept of local content, vis-a-vis software. Can Nigerians deliver software solution, say for instance in Oil and Gas industry. I say the answer is yes. Well there are those who feel it’s not possible. So we need to engage and engage at every possible level to that fact that we got the talent and skill set and we also got the know-how. May be we do not have proper organisation. So, let’s put that organisation together and then strive to bring some relevance to the Nigeria software community, and to give some hope to some younger software companies coming up. I don’t want a small kid coming up today to set up a small organisation because he has an idea in oil and gas sector, not to have an opportunity to go in for such that is basically what we are trying to do.

Let’s look at adaptation now. Nigerians are known to being foreign freak. We very often find it difficult adapting to whatever is made in Nigeria. What’s your take on that?

Unfortunately, that’s the case and you can’t stop it, but what we are saying is that in that same space, give some recognition to those who can deliver a solution. In the United States, they have a policy where they encourage local software companies to do a lot of stuff and the people allow room for failure. They even allow for failure even if its government project or non-government project. I am not saying that Nigerian businesses will do the same thing, but we must be more supporting for the fact that there are opportunities for more Nigerian young software companies that can deliver solutions to some degree and can compete with foreign companies. Remember, it’s not all foreign companies and products are good for the Nigerian environment.

A case in point is our own product in the local industry. In 1996 in the share registration market, there were only foreign products, may be one or two local products. That one local product was written in character mode in UNIX environment. Until we came into that industry, they did not have a Windows-based application in that industry and we came up with a current server product. Now, today, in the share registration market, it’s not easy to think of foreign products first. The tendency is that now when you look at the industry there are local products that can deliver solution they want.

So, if this can change in that industry, it means that it can change in any other industry. It’s matter of opportunity and taking advantage of opportunities and grabbing the bull by the horn.

This issue of local content patronage has been there for some time now. In the past the Federal Government at a stage sent out circular to that effect to various federal government institutions but it seems the implementation aspect became an issue. I don’t know how you intend to tackle that?

Well, the whole concept of local content as we know it now came out of the oil and gas industry and in coming out of oil and gas industry, the focus then was on engineering and rightfully solved. All the meetings I attended at a time, when the NLCD, that is the Nigeria Local Content Division was a department within the NNPC - Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation; the focus at that time was primarily on data and it continued to remain that for a while, but they have to some degrees try to extend it beyond oil and gas. they got involved in software as well and what we intend to do is to continue on that dialogue and extend what has already been started in software and move along to see how we can continue to dialogue to bring greater awareness to the oil and gas sector and hopefully to other sectors of the economy.

Are you satisfied with the adoption of local content even within the IT industry. For instance, if you look at the National Conference, there is no core IT person there?

That’s unfortunate. NCS - Nigeria Computer Society, should as a matter of right have the platform with which to speak on the role of IT in the development of Nigeria and should be part of the national dialogue to some extent, may be as a component, but there should be some voice, for instance, in terms of helping education and enhancing the reach of education, we have e-Learning (electronic learning). So, that is a platform for hardware, IT infrastructure and software. I don’t see why NCS as the umbrella organisation should not have a voice in that arena. We are discussing Nigeria today and future and we cannot do that without IT. We are discussing Nigeria’s future with the knowledge of the past. Knowledge of the past does not have IT in it, but today guess what; it’s the key component is IT. That means it’s recognised as part of everything we do, including social media. Can you take that away? The answer is no. Before you say anything it’s already on Facebook, it’s on Twitter or anything socially linked.

So, we can’t run away from the realities of today. We must as well incorporate those realties in our dialogue on how we want to live; on how we want to be Nigerians and how we want to move forward in the development of Nigeria.

Let’s come back a little to InfoSoft, tell us about InfoSoft?

InfoSoft is somewhat changing by becoming less software specific and more process driven; InfoSoft focuses more now on the Business Process Management (BPM). Back then, we used to do a lot of software stuff.

What do you mean when you say then?

That is about several years ago, but what we have done now is that we have spin off our software arm to set up Nitech Solutions, which handles all the software products we use to have in InfoSoft. I am just the chairman now, while InfoSoft focus primarily in the business process management.

So, we do a lot of process improvement, process automation and likes. We do a lot of seminars and conferences on business processing management; how it benefits governments and institutions and why you need business processing management (BPM) in the financial services, public sector and private sector.

Our last seminar was in Kenya and we are working very closely with Galaxy Backbone Plc in Nigeria and we are coming up with one in Ghana in a couple of months.

I just came back from Singapore. One issue that came up during discussions with some key Nigerian participants is that when you ask a student, especially difficult in connectivity. What do you think should be done?

There’re lots of issues around that. It’s not just only that. Like now, we have backbone submarine cables that came into the country and because of that we are now able to connect to the world. So, MainOne, for instance, has pulled that cable into Nigeria and through such cables will be able to reach more Nigerians effectively and faster too with the wider world. So, in terms of bandwidth we are now able to connect with the rest of the world and computing infrastructure. Very soon, we should not worry about broadband only as we should be able to connect using fibre connection and thereafter better connectivity to the rest of the world.

Our computer science students for instance, do you think they are living up to expectations in terms of software development and in the kind of graduates we are producing now?

Unfortunately, my answer for now on a general sense is no. but that can change and is one of things we talked about in the press conference earlier.

We will continue to dialogue with the authorities to help refocus their curriculum and I addressed that by sharing the fact that during ISPON software contest for students during our conference in Calabar; each one you ask how they learnt their coding language that they used in writing their products that they demonstrated at the competition, That programming language was learnt outside the university environment. All of them and the following year, it was about 95 per cent of them; when each person spends more time outside the university environment learning programming language. How does that help the business? How does that help the development of our industry? It doesn’t. So, you are taking in kids for a four-year graduate programme and they are learning most of the time outside the campus or university environment, yet the university does not address these kids’ problems or challenges, which are the most toolkits that a kid needs in the product economy. Now, I am not saying that there is anything wrong in learning programming languages outside, but if all those students who came to demo their products at ISPON event, all of them unanimously say they learnt whatever they used out of the university environment, that tells me that something is wrong. That’s what it tells me that definitely something is wrong.

Now, how do we address that? Well, we need to begin dialoguing with the necessary authorities to help address this knowledge gap or knowledge deficiency.

We need to change this and I said so at the press conference. You cannot expect businesses like ours to continue to re-educate someone who has gone through a four-year programme. You can’t because you will still be expected to be paying the person as well and we can’t continue to do that. So we have to refocus by dialoguing with the government agencies, especially the arm responsible for curriculum to find out how it will help to influence a change to give these kids something better when they come out from schools.

Remember, today, it’s all about skills. If you go through a four-year programme in the university and have not touched a computer, I don’t know how such a person will play his or her role effectively when they come into the work space. You might as well tell me that a medical doctor who went through a medical school didn’t touch a cadaver. That’s how bad it is. And if you that, I will tell you that guy will be a killer of people and that ‘Hippocratic Oath’ you can just throw it out of the window. It’s the same thing with the computer science; imagine how you will go through four, five or six years of college in your life and you have not touched a computer and you are telling that a cousin, mother, brother or sister bought a computer for your home personal use and you have gone to some private schools to go and learn programming language and some database concepts and you now start practicing on your own; which have no influences from the university property, that tells me something is very wrong with our system.

I have spoken to a few lecturers and few vice chancellors who tried to convince me that in their own university, which is private, the case is different.

I had an opportunity to talk to a few intern students who came through my organisations in the past couple of years, so I am still struggling to understand what the VCs and those lecturers are trying to tell me.

When I see the students, believe me, it’s not quite the same dialogue, but there are lots to be done which we must continue to do as ISPON, whether I am here or not, that work must continue.

It seems our curriculum is not coordinated or unified kind of?

Well, I don’t want to start this dialogue now, but will engage with the right authorities and see how this could be addressed, but believe me it’s a major challenge.

Published by DigitalSENSE Africa Media Limited, Block F1, Shop 133, Moyosore Aboderin Plaza, Bolade Junc􀆟on, Oshodi-Lagos, Nigeria. Tel: 234-8099400183, 7026272656, 8023122558, 8033592762. Email: info@digitalsenseafrica.com.ng, remnek@digitalsenseafrica.com.ng, remnekkv@gmail.com. P.O. Box 2823 Oshodi Post Office. Advert hotline: 08099400183. Editorial: editor_ls@digitalsenseafrica.com.ng.

ISSN: 2277-0437

 

#BringBackOurGirls: Ashoka Fellows seeks International Day of Action on May 14

DigitalSENSE Business News:

The abduction of the over 270 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) Chibok, Borno State on May 14, 2014 has continued to generate attention with the latest being that of Ashoka Fellows Network, who are seeking to internationalise the abduction in the calendar of global events for commemoration, DigitalSENSE Business News reports.

These girls, DigitalSENSE Business News recalls had resumed briefly, to take their examinations at the school, in a state that has virtually been a war zone for the past five years due to the menace of the group we have come to know as Boko Haram. For almost two weeks, there was deadly silence, until the world began to catch up and speak out, until social media came alive with fury about yet another injustice done to innocent children by the terrorist group in North-Eastern Nigeria.

Ashoka Fellows Network in Nigeria at the end of a session on the subject in a communiqué endorsed by 13 members of the group, wondered why the government reportedly took so long to respond, thereby allowing room for various atrocities against the girls continued unabated for over two weeks before the international outcry.

The group also attributed this to because those affected were mainly from poor families, after all, a serving senator was quoted as saying ‘only poor people send their children to public school’.

“Their parents were not senators or ministers, they had no one to speak up for them or offer a huge ransom in exchange for their return,” part of the communique read.

They also alleged that under a state of emergency, evidence has shown daily attacks on the lives of citizens continue unabated with mass killings, kidnappings, rape and other atrocities committed against innocent civilians daily in each of these states.

Ashoka Fellows Network equally quoted a recent report by Human Rights Watch in October 2013 and lamented the kidnappings of girls and other citizen.

Although decrying the neglect of the girls in Nigeria, the group said girls have less of a chance to go to school and are more likely to be sold in child marriage, according to the United Nations International Children Fund (UNICEF).

Other parts of the communique read that the government should:

1.      Take full responsibility for the Chibok atrocity and its delayed response – it is not the responsibility of any other government and our government must be held accountable and apologize to the families and the world. It must act immediately to salvage what is already a very tragic situation.

2.      PURSUE THE RESCUE MISSION WITH MINIMUM USE OF FORCE – many have cried for military bombardment but we as social activists are acutely aware that war and more violence are not the answer and directly threaten the lives of the residents of the state. We ask the government get these girls back with use of MINIMUM USE OF FORCE to avoid casualties and death among the girls and the civilian population of Borno and surrounding states

3.      IMMEDIATELY CALL FOR QUESTIONING AND POSSIBLE DISCHARGE  of all defense and service chiefs charged to guard the citizens of the state but unable to protect these girls who have not been located for close to a month.

4.      IMMEDIATELY CLOSE ALL SCHOOLS IN BORNO AND SURROUNDING STATES until government is able to offer full 24 hour protection with FULL SECURITY to all school children

“5.      PUT IN PLACE WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT A TRAUMA SUPPORT CENTRE – where parents and girls that have escaped from the kidnappers can receive support, care and counseling. ALL RETURNED GIRLS must be given immediate access to rape support care and placed on all necessary medications free of charge. This support centre should be fully equipped with appropriate and culturally relevant services and families and victims must receive secure transportation to and from the venue as well as have full protection while accessing services. In addition, families of the victims should be place under protective custody of the state to ensure no reprisal attacks are taken against them.

“We call on Nigerians and the world to hear the silent cries of these girls as they weep daily and TO NOT RELENT UNTIL THESE GIRLS ARE BROUGHT HOME AND THE PERPETRATORS BROUGHT TO JUSTICE.

“We as Ashoka Fellows in Nigeria represent the community of social entrepreneurs that are committed to social change and Social JUSTICE in the country. We cannot sit by idly and pretend that all is well when the opposite is the case. We want to state that CHIBOK girls are OUR GIRLS. They are not just poor and nameless children. They are our daughters and our sisters. They represent what little light of hope is left in the country. They represent a dream dashed to pieces and we must do all we can to halt this tragedy that is occurring and find some way to reconcile these girls with their homes and families, while giving them the full and necessary support to put the pieces of their broken lives back together.”

Chuks Egbuna/GEE

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Wole Soyinka Prize 2014: Glo says top-up and be our Special Guests

Subscribers of the national telecom carrier, Globacom, who increase their airtime usage by 50 percent between now and 23 June, 2014 stand a chance to be honoured as Special Guests at the forthcoming event to crown the winner of 2014 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature.

The award, being sponsored by Globacom, is a biennial event staged to recognise the best literary work produced by an African. It was established by the Lumina Foundation in 2005 to promote literary excellence in Africa and has since become the African equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

Already, 10 African authors have been selected for the 2014 edition, which coincides with the 80th birthday of the Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka. Presentation of the prize is slated for 5 July, 2014 at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Speaking on preparations for the occasion, Globacom's Group Chief Operating Officer, Mohamed Jameel said in a statement in Lagos that, “Professor Wole Soyinka is a symbol of professional excellence, and we are always happy to be part of this momentous event which celebrates literary excellence. To add spice to the occasion,  Glo subscribers who increase airtime usage by 50 percent by 23 June will be our Special Guests on that special night.”

Apart from this honour, he said such lucky subscribers will also be entitled to other special perks.

The organisers of the award have released the names of the authors who made the longlist from where a shortlist and the eventual winner will be announced. They include Othuke Ominiaboha, Akin Bello, Soji Cole, Comfort Adesuwa Ero, Toyin Abiodun, Isaac Attah Ogezi, Moshood Oba, Mayowa Saja, Wumi Raji and Akin Adejumo.

The long list was made from a total of 163 entries submitted from 17 African countries in the genre of Drama, which is the focus of the 2014 edition.

The organisers announced that two entries each came in from authors in Algeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, South Africa, Tanzania and Rwanda. Three entries each came in from Angola and Namibia. One entry each came in from Cameroon, Liberia, Togo and Zambia, four from Kenya, five from Uganda, and 128 from Nigeria.

The five Judges are from Uganda, South Africa, Mali, Nigeria and Algeria.

The shortlist is expected to be announced in June 2014 and the ultimate winner will emerge and be presented with his prize on July 5.

Entries were invited from authors of any published play or collection of plays by the same author of African descent, published within the last two years (that is, a play published between 2012 and 2013). Globacom was also the main sponsor at the last edition.

PR:

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i-Leaders insist on open, bottom-up process @post NETmundial’14

DigitalSENSE Business News:

The leaders of the organizations responsible for coordination of the Internet technical infrastructure also known as i-Leaders, ended its meeting at the just concluded NetMundial commended the Mundial meeting, reiterating the importance of open, bottom-up process, reports DigitalSENSE Business News.

Arising from a-day meeting of i-Leaders on 25 April in São Paulo, Brazil following the NETmundial meeting, the group considered a range of issues where dialogue among Internet technical organizations is useful.

DigitalSENSE Business News also notes that the group highlighted that the NETmundial meeting has energized the multistakeholder discussions and model in a positive fashion. 

The leaders underscored the importance of open, collaborative, bottom-up processes across meetings and organisations dealing with the Internet.

During the meeting, the group reflected on a number of other topics as well:

Transition of NTIA's Stewardship of the IANA Functions (http://www.icann.org/en/about/agreements/iana/transition) and review of ICANN accountability processes;

The announcement made by ICANN CEO of the launch of a process to review and improve ICANN's own oversight/accountability mechanism and how it is complementary to the IANA function's stewardship evolution process.

Upcoming Internet Governance meetings including the Internet Governance Forum (http://www.intgovforum.org) and the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (http://www.internetsociety.org/plenipotbackground)

Coordination of experiences, plans and resources to further deploy DNSSEC via the ccTLD community

Identification of issues and players to further enable adoption of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) toward accelerating their adoption in communities that don't use the Latin Character sets

The group bade farewell to Raúl Echeberría, CEO of LACNIC and Leslie Daigle, Chief Internet Technology Officer of the Internet Society.

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50yrs: IDC inaugurates West Africa CIO Summit in Lagos

DigitalSENSE Business News:

As part of events marking its 50th year of delivering leadership in global IT advisory services, IDC Tuesday inaugurated a West Africa CIO Summit, held under the patronage of Mr. Adebiyi Mabadeje, Honorable Commissioner for the Ministry of Science and Technology, Lagos State, reports DigitalSENSE Business News.

Delivering the Summit's keynote address to the senior technology decision makers in attendance, Mr. Mabadeje noted this gathering represented the largest social network of CIOs, IT thought leaders, and vendors in West Africa, with industry experts on hand to explore the pivotal role of the CIO in the new business world of technology transformation.

DigitalSENSE Business News was told by Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC's group vice president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey that the last five years have seen the emergence of a new era in computing, called 3th platform.

"We call this new era the 3rd Platform. Harnessing the power of key technology pillars such as Big Data, mobile, cloud, and social media, this unstoppable force is driving an evolution in the role of the CIO, transforming entire industries, and empowering customers in new ways," Lalchandani said.

The day's proceedings got underway with an assessment of the ways in which this new era of transformation will impact the West Africa IT landscape over the coming years. This was followed by an eclectic mix of insightful presentations and informative panel discussions on everything from Big Data analytics and datacenter strategies to CIO best practices and ICT predictions for West Africa.

"Our extensive research shows the region's technology leaders are primarily concerned with driving innovation through IT, managing growing expectations from users, and measuring the ROI of their IT initiatives," says Bola Adisa, country manager, IDC West Africa. "The coming years will be a fascinating period for the development of West Africa's IT and communications markets. While some organizations are still building their infrastructures, others are surging forward, implanting cutting-edge technologies that disrupt traditional business and work models while creating opportunities in lines of business and in the optimization of workflow.

"The proliferation of 3rd Platform technologies is not only changing the solutions that CIOs need to implement, but also fundamentally affecting the role of IT in the organization, the tasks and responsibilities of the IT department, and the skill sets required by CIOs and their IT staff."

The delegates in attendance represented a variety of industry sectors, including banking and financial services, government, oil and gas, construction and real estate, utilities, and healthcare. Senior IDC analysts from across the globe were available for private one-to-one meetings throughout the course of the Summit, offering strategic advice on the most pressing business and technology concerns facing the region's CIOs today. The event came to an end with a lavish gala dinner and evening of entertainment laid on for the CIOs and technology partners.

To make sure the very latest technology developments were covered at the Middle East CIO Summit 2014, IDC partnered with some of the world's foremost ICT vendors, including: Microsoft and EMC (in partnership with Resourcery) as Summit Partners; HP, Huawei, and MTN Business as Platinum Partners; Oracle, FireEye, APC by Schneider Electric, CommVault, and SAS as Gold Partners; MainOne, Global Knowledge, and Check Point Software Technologies as Silver Partners; and  IT Edge Magazine as the event's official Media Partner.

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