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Thoughts on Virality: #CallYourMum

2015-03-20T08:59:00.000+01:00

Great idea(or content) + Emotion evoking + tweets by influencers + Giveaway = Content Virality of life

Talking about Premier Cool's #CallYourMum app from Anakle. It has the same ingredients as the Bride Price app. This Genius isn't coincidence.

We dey learn new things everyday.

Monetising Pirated Content

2015-02-13T10:37:00.001+01:00

It has become apparent that it's impossible to stop Internet piracy. PirateBay was shutdown for about a month and piracy levels remained the same. Piratebay is up again. So are Eztv and Kickasstorrents.

Asides selling merchandise related to content(Bazinga! shirts and Big Bang theory editions of board games come to mind), another route is to have ads within content itself. So ads in movies or in TV shows would help.

This is the tricky part. Ads have to be created so that they can last the test of time. The Wire was a show nobody talked about and then it blew up on the torrents. Surely ads from 2002 are barely relevant in 2015.

What if we have product placements and name calling. So Louis Litt and Harvey hustle to defend Samsung in a suit against a patent troll. And we hear Samsung as many times as we hear Pearson-Specter-Litt. This isn't too far fetched. We already saw Samsung's dual screen feature on the Note in this season of Suits. After I typed this, I found an episode of suits where "Samsung" was in fact mentioned.

It also needs to be done perfectly like the Samsung execution. You'll notice the Galaxy Note wasn't mentioned so many times that it became annoying.

Advertisers are always looking for ways to display ads besides(within, inside, before and after) content anyways. Content creators just need to be more creative in delivery methods.

Yes it'll be incredibly difficult to monetize to monetize music.

On Reading And Its Importance

2015-01-10T20:00:00.000+01:00

"Readers are leaders"

This quote seems like one of the fake deep things on the Internet. You know those things you read that when you really think about them don't mean anything at all. But this is indeed a true statement. As a person can only be on top of their game if they read.

University requires that I talk to a lot of people about all sorts of things and it has become so easy to figure out people who do not read. No, we're not talking about the books in your school curriculum.

Reading is the most amazing act ever. It can open your mind to great ideas and can send you to places you never even imagined. Like Westeros or Narnia

How does one cultivate a reading culture?

I read because I've always read. My mother bought us books every holiday. My cousins sent books down when they had finished them. My friends in church read books and would lend them to me when they were done. My parents had more books than could fit in their shelf in Surulere. My dad had a cambridge dictionary and a small encyclopedia.

Sunnyfields Primary School made us read a book every two weeks and write a short report on the book. We would then informally discuss the books we read with our classmates. I remember this book(I found it so odd in Primary 4) where the characters were cutlery and house pieces. There were kings and queens and an army all out of plates, cups, pans and grandfather clocks.

It was also at Sunnyfields that I read about the South Pole reach of Robert Scott and the Australian discovery of Captain James Cook. Amazing feats!

By the time I got to Primary 5, I wanted to read more. My dad had to bring bundles of newspapers home from work because I wanted to read more. It felt like I couldn't be satisfied.

My sister on the other hand, finished from a different primary school and didn't have access to books as I did. A couple of years ago we noticed my sister started reading a lot. She would collect more books from her friends than she could read. She discovered Wattpad on her own and apps that let you download free Ebooks. The only books my sister did not read were the books she did not want to read. I recently saw her on the floor devouring old editions of The Economist.

Anyways, as a result of the above, everyone I know, henceforth, will get books on their birthdays. Not food or money or gadgets(LOL maybe a power bank sha). I will buy you a book and send it to you so thou mayst read.

No Excuses

2015-01-08T08:00:00.000+01:00

You are not too young
Or too old
Or too fat
Or too thing
Or too ugly
Or too stupid
Or too smart
Or too rich
Or too poor
Or too sick
Or too healthy
Or too religious
Or too nonreligious
Or too curious

It's not too early
Or too late
Or too sunny
Or too cold
Or too rainy
Or too windy

I've found that as young people we constantly make up excuses not to do the things that could change our lives. And these excuses are mostly lame, not-well-thought-out excuses.

Start today. Not tomorrow

Does the Nigerian electorate even think?

2014-12-18T18:18:00.001+01:00

I suddenly feel like the Nigerian electorate is unable to identify and vote for a good enough candidate. Not perfect but good enough.

A candidate/party(for some reason we think a person can rise through the ranks of a clearly corrupt party and not be corrupt because the Don of a mob rose became the Don by not committing a crime) decides not to do anything about the primary and secondary schools children go to. The schools have no windows with leaking roofs and no science or computer labs but we give this same candidate another four years in office because they planted flowers. They planted flowers across the city while your kid isn't learning anything in school and has to write WAEC five times and you vote the same government into office. With the same candidate and the same house of assembly.

I'm not sure if this is a result of the education system in itself but it's like the population is unable, again and again to select the right leader to fix the windows and roofs of schools.

Here's something that happens often. A candidate is pushed from XYZ East senatorial ward by his godfather into ABC South West senatorial ward. Let's say he's running for a house of assembly seat. Obviously the electorate in ABC South West do not know Mr. XYZ East so they grumble and grumble about the godfather's push because it seems like the godfather just does whatever he wants and we don't like getting pushed around(ha).

Anyways the election comes in April of election year and Mr. XYZ East wins by a landslide. There's no rigging or election violence. Over 90% of voters in ABC South West decided that the best person to represent their interests is a total stranger.

We also enjoy advocating and voting for people who seem to have poor backgrounds(hey I had no shoes. I'm your guy) and lack concrete plans(JK is OK. Oh no A+ is a higher grade than OK)

This doesn't make any sense.

We cannot continue to run a country like absolute idiots.

If the candidates in/from your area lack plans to fix the small problems in your locality, you should tell them when they come to dig commission the borehole that you would not be moved. You want a list of goals and reasonable plans to achieve such goals.

Or maybe we're just a country of intellectually lazy lazy people. Who don't want to think. Not because we can't but because the few minutes it takes to select a candidate in charge of our entire lives for 4 years will kill us.

Budgit is a great place to get information on the Federal Government's spending in the last few years. Why does every government renovate the state house?

Btw if you have links to any of the presidential manifestos or Lagos State manifestos you should drop them here in the comments. Thanks.

These are the kinds of thoughts you get when you watch The Newsroom.

The Nigerian Internet Content Gap

2014-11-29T08:32:00.001+01:00

I was in class yesterday morning and I realised there aren't places/platforms/pages you would go to if you were interested in reading about Nigerian related content. I won't state the type/categories of content for obvious reasons.

But I find that there is such a huge content gap. There is so much value we can create for people to consume that it doesn't make sense for there to be so many gossip and music blogs who churn out the same and exact content.

With regards to revenue, everyone I've met who's a gossip/music blogger keeps telling me about how fast they're able to rack up pageviews and I'm just like meh meh. Eventually your readers realise they've been getting the same content on Linda Ikeji and Notjusok and will go back.

Shoutout to TheNakedConvos once again. That's such a great website with awesome content. I discovered Kamdora over the weekend.

Do not blog about music/somebody else's life today.

Okay back to studying for Networking 1.

Why is there such great content on Medium?

2014-11-08T22:23:00.001+01:00

I started reading Medium about a week after it launched I think. If you don't know what Medium is - it's best described as a blogging and discovery platform. Medium was launched a couple of years back by Blogger and Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams. Visit Medium.com

In the first few weeks that I regularly visited Medium, I realised I was spending a ton of my time on the site(this also happens when I visit TheNakedConvos. I would spend hours reading content or clip to Evernote and read on the weekend. Eventually I dedicated Sundays after church to Medium.

Which brings us to the question: Why does medium have such great content?

At Medium's launch only a few handpicked people could post content. It was super exclusive. You couldn't even invite your friends to post content.

Now most of the content on Medium was professionally written. It was like a mix of feature articles from the Economics, The New York times and the BBC. All in one awesome website.

As time progressed I would like to think Medium became the default place to read and post awesome stuff. The precedence of great content meant that great content continued to flow even when Medium became open for public contribution.

It's such a civil site that I've never seen anyone act rude in an annotation. Medium is like some sort of foreign embassy. You know how you'll have to comport yourself and be polite when you're applying for that visa? That's exactly how people are on Medium.

This same thing happens on Question and Answer site Quora.

If there's anyone out there who's trying to create an online community, it's safe to say people are naturally going to act based on what they see on your website. I wonder if there's research to back this up.

Rust

2014-11-03T19:03:00.001+01:00

Earth. Dust. Like water on unprotected metal after two days. The color of the axe and the tree and the ground were all the same. It hadn't rained in three months. At least there was wood.

He would stack the brown wood up in three layers. Each piece criss crossing the other in bundles of two. And light them up under a black pot. He remembered when the pot was new. And silver. Bright and shiny. He could even see his face in it.

I'm trying to work on my descriptive writing. So there'll be short pieces here from time to time. Your comments would be of help.

2 Things I Did This Year That Completely Changed My Attitude Towards Money

2014-09-23T08:19:00.000+01:00

Clickbait. I gatchu now! No, okay, seriously. Here are 2 decisions I made this year that increased my responsibility tintinlin

1. I stopped collecting allowances.

This obviously means I was cash strapped at the beginning. What do you do when you have a laptop ati internet and you don't have rich niggas wanting you? You start a small business. I found that small business owners(and a bunch of large ones) do not have the time to manage Social Media pages for their businesses. They also don't understand such media and cannot accurately target their preferred customer on the Internet.

Small small money every month.

2. Hired 2 People

I was talking to my ogas during my internship last yea and they were like "Dude, You would have to hire people to run this thing if you eventually run it". Which I did. I have to pay these 2 people every month.

What does this mean?

It means I literally have no chance for stupid spending of money. Wait for 70% off sale and buy everything. No overpriced meals. No random and stupid KFC burger cravings. No showing off to women by buying expensive things. No space for such Chale. Before I buy something, I ask myself what true value it can add to my life. I can honestly live without a $40 charger that goes from 0 to full phone charge in 15 minutes.

There's this great article by Paul Graham on spending unnecessary money on 'stuff'.

Image Source: Someecards

And if you'll like to follow the stuff I read, you can subscribe to my Flipboard magazine.

The Problem With "All Round Education"

2014-08-21T08:30:00.000+01:00

"All round education" is what a lot of educationists that run schools promise across the world. There are simple reasons why this in itself is a major flaw.

1. Knowledge is Infinite

It is impossible to know everything about everything.

2. What do I do with this knowledge?

Knowing too much about too much creates a problem between Secondary School and University/Post - University. So what am I going to do with all this knowledge? What do I want to be with all this knowledge? Can I use it all?

3. What's the point of Expertise?

A semester long accounting course does not adequately prepare me for building accounting software. I think it's better people are encouraged to work with(or hire) field/knowledge experts. This I know-it-all thing doesn't work in real life.

You can keep up with the stuff I read by subscribing to my Flipboard magazine.

Unfair Internet Speeds. I'm going to cry

2014-03-10T19:12:00.001+01:00

I've been trying to get my Airtel Ghana modem to give me proper internet on my laptop all day. Then someone tweeted this.

What have I done to not deserve such internet speeds 😭😭😭😭

Technology and the eating of jobs. No Steve

2013-12-16T10:21:00.001+01:00

So there's this idea that technology is going to continue to grow at the pace it is and it's going to eat people's jobs up and create unemployment.

If I can hail a driverless car that drives better than a person, why should I hail a car that a person is driving? And there are stats about how people are buying stuff from larger corporations online than their local retailer.

If I wanted to type this 8 decades ago, I would need a typewriter and a secretary. That entire industry has been replaced by smartphones and computers.

So here's what I think. I strongly feel that because we're human and we're smart and our brains don't stop running out of ideas, when these jobs are eventually wiped out, as a collective race, we are intelligent enough to discover new careers and invent new fields.

I mean people weren't driving cars and trucks a thousand years ago. That entire industry didn't even exist.

The UP NEPA! Technology Podcast 1: Phonebloks

2013-11-02T19:30:00.000+01:00

Tunji had this idea the other day that I should put my thoughts and opinions on Technology stuff into a podcast or a series of podcasts.

Here's the first one about Modular Phones and Phonebloks.

P.S: There's no guarantee on how often these podcasts will be published or how long they'll be. If you've got any ideas you can leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter @UPNEPA. Yes, you can get in on one of the recordings over Skype.

Follow Me on SoundCloud for Instaupdates

What I Learned Growing Up[A Kinda Guest Post By Ahmed Adeyanju]

2013-10-27T21:45:00.000+01:00

Stumbled upon this while I was on a short troll around the Twitterverse. @AhmedAdeyanju has given me permission to post excerpts from his Medium post: What I learned while growing up 10 things that have helped me gain balance.

Medium is easily the best place to find the most interesting and thought provoking articles on the internet so you should check out Medium.com and tell your friends to tell your friends to sign up and read it.

I turned 25 last week. In the past three years, i have had to walk home from work because i didn't have any money, flown a few times in a private plane (not mine), slept in five star hotels (not on my bill) and had to come home to what i romantically call my “man-cave” — a single room in Ebute-Metta. Earlier this month, my team took a day aside to get to know each other better and I learnt a few things from that experience. About myself and about getting better. Then i made this list:

a. You have to earn it
“It” here refers to anything you want. Respect, a career, fame, fulfillment, love, money, vacations, a dog. This does not mean that you should stay in a crappy job or relationship but it does mean that you need to realise that you have to work hard to get anything.

b. Think about what your peers are doing but set your own paceHow else are you going to get better if you only “run your race”? The people running with you are not just the ones you grew up with, went to school with or work with, they are all the smarter, more good-looking, more experienced people that are the same age with you or even younger.

c. Don’t have sex
Kidding! If you choose to have sex with someone, make sure it is someone you do not have to burn bridges to get away from.

d. Start saving for retirement
It is the farthest thing from your mind right now, I get it, but financial security is not stumbled on. It is actively sought out and carefully cultivated

e. Be fiercely proud
Just don’t show it to other people. You will need your pride to overcome your self-doubts, the people who will put you down with their words, the people who will tell you to slow down, those who say you’re “trying too hard”. Keep your pride or ego in. Let it be the fire that drives you. Be humble to everyone you meet, be kind to those that need your help. Believe in yourself.

i. Pick your friends

If this sounds cliched, it is because it is so true. The people around you affect you. they influence how happy you are, how driven you are, how ambitious you are, your interests, your eating habits, the network you build. They influence what your brand is.

j. It is okay to not have a car
Thing is, if a girl won’t date you because you don’t have a car, she’s not really dating you when you do have one.

Again, You can finish the post on Medium and follow @AhmedAdeyanju on Twitter

If you'll like to be in the loop of stuff I read, you can subscribe to my Flipboard magazine.

GH Conversations 3: I Knock For Fun

2013-10-11T22:23:00.000+01:00

I needed to get something from TT at around 11PM. So I left my room and walked to his.

Me: *Knock Knock Knock* It's Binjo

TT: Do you want to come in?

Me: No, I just like knocking on people's doors for fun

SMH. Mr. Mensah. SMH

GH Conversations 2: We're Free On Wednesday But Tuesday Is My Resting Day

2013-10-09T09:00:00.000+01:00

It turns out that the T.A for Sociology set a day and time for an extra class because we're behind schedule.

I bumped into Michael around 5:30PM and we had this convo.

Michael: Binjo wassup?

Me: I'm Good.

Michael: Did you go for the Sociology tutorial?

Me: Wait. What? When?

Michael: It was at 12.30.

Me: I didn't know. I was sleeping at that time. Did you go?

Michael: Naa meen. I'm busy on Tuesdays.

Me: Oh. Did you go for another class or something?

Michael: Tuesday is my resting day meen. I have to rest.

Michael and I have the exact timetable and we have no class on Wednesday. Our only Tuesday class finishes at 9.30AM.

I will never understand my classmates.

Image source: Someecards

An Untitled Comedy by Olutunu Oyelola

2013-10-08T19:30:00.000+01:00

Tunu wrote a funny play and she's given me permission to reproduce part of it. It's a short play about... no, read it.

You can read and download the full play here. Checkout her Blog, The Wedding Addict, The Love Cynic & The Hopeless Romantic She also recently got published on ThoughtCatalog.

I hereby dedicate this play to all the yellow Igbo girls that like me. Or not.

Kamsi and Ekene are seated on the stage when the play begins. They are washing clothes in a stream. There is banter and laughter.

K: The exams were not a joke my sister. Ah! I read and read till my clothes were unable to fit me properly again. (Pointing at her collar bones) Look at my neck! See. Bone everywhere. (Gesturing to her bottom) I already don’t have bom-bom; I will now be looking dry like crayfish.

E: (Laughing) You will not kill me Kamisiyokosiyem! Is exam ever that serious? I did not even stress myself o. One nice boy in my class offered to give me expo and who am I to turn down such an offer? (Smiles coyly)

K: Of course! You see am? (Claps hands) Abeg, no talk to me again! (In mock annoyance) It is that serious for me o. Me, I don’t look like you, so I cannot afford to wait for boy to offer my examination to me on a platter of gold. When you look like me, and you have no body at all like me, you will understand that exam is that serious.

E: Oya! Oya, no vex. Ahn ahn. See as you just switch. Is it not you again? (Nudging her jokingly) Efiko mama! The WAEC markers will not even know what hit them! (Gets up to demonstrate) When all the A1s come out now, you will be doing yanga all around the village o! Neni will not hear word. In fact, the whole of Anambra will not hear word!

K: Ah! Of course o! Maybe I will even beg the Igwe to send the town criers out and call the whole village to the market square. (Laughing) You, you don’t understand. You’re used to the word of your beauty travelling the villages; my ticket to fame has finally come! I must use it o! Maybe book will find me husband!

(Both laugh very hard)

Click Here To Continue Reading And Download. Don't forget Tunu's Blog, The Wedding Addict, The Love Cynic & The Hopeless Romantic and her ThoughtCatalog post.

GH Conversations 1: Is there a short form of the short form of your name?

2013-10-06T12:32:00.001+01:00

I've had or heard the most ridiculous conversations in my short time in Accra. I want to share them in a place where they can be read a the time. GH Conversations will be random and will come as the conversations come.

Programming 2 TA: Hey you what's your name?

Me: Binjo

Programming 2 TA: Is there like a short form of your name?

Me: Would you prefer Olabinjo?

*These posts would likely come via email. I'll edit and format the text later*

We're Up All Night To Get Funding

2013-09-18T22:43:00.000+01:00

Super Story: Clive And Two Mad Men

2013-07-19T20:00:00.000+01:00

Here's a short and hilarious Story from Clive, about an encounter with a person with a mental disability and a maybe normal person.

Still wondering how Clive watched everything in sanity sha.

Hodor[INFOGRAPHIC]

2013-06-29T19:05:00.000+01:00

If you watch or read Game of Thrones, you definitely know Hodor. Hodor is Bran's giant and quite dumb protector. I found this small Infographic on Facebook that explains in detail the answers you can get from Hodor.

Then someone said Hodor still has more expressions than Kristen Stewart. LOL

Kristen Stewart Image: Misshermionee, deviantart

Journal Number iDontRemeberWhereIStopped: This Competition Thing They Make Us Do In School

2013-05-02T23:01:00.001+01:00

My roomate's called him about two days ago. His dad told him something about taking something from whoever was leading the class.
I dunno how this happened but it took me back to primary 1.

After primary 1, my primary school had the prize giving day. It just so happened that the person that was awarded the first position wasn't the first person to submit in any of the exams.

Now I left nursery school about a year before. There was so sort of competition in nurse school. Suddenly, it's prize giving day after primary 1 and they're saying Tofunmi is first. Tunde submitted first. I was genuinely confused.

I didn't get the concept of grades, recording and position until I moved to Sunnyfields in primary 3.

My 4 year old mind just couldn't understand the point of positions. In my head, 'carrying first' meant doing something and finishing before others. Like during inter-house sports.

What I read today?
Just check @seyitaylor's timeline http://twitter.com/technesstivity. Everything is there

Flipboard is saying they'll give us version 2.0 on Android soon. So I can do a magazine of stuff I read.

Journal 16: Do We Decide Who We Become Or Do Our Parents Mess Us Up?

2013-03-30T23:52:00.001+01:00

So I've spent about 2 months in Uni and I'm beginning to draw some conclusions. There are people who always take other people's stuff without permission. No, you can't take my only slippers and USB cord out for the weekend without asking me first. Kweh.

By the end of the first month, people touching my property became a trend. I realised it was happening on a large scale. At first I thought my roommates were being plain annoying, then I realised guys from other rooms will come to my room and be opening up my butter and be spreading it inside their bread. I don't even know you man. No, you can't ask in Twi.

There are the kids who are obviously just tasting freedom for the very first time in their entire life. They're excited about going out at 4pm. Or that we're outside till 8pm. Ajustdongetit.

Then there are the people who study a lot because somebody has put it in their head that they're sweating in Lagos on their behalf. I don't know how Baba did this but everytime I'm working on an assignment or studying for a test and I'm about to sleep. I ask myself if the man paying my school fees is sleeping. Then I laugh at myself and my father's bald head.

On the other hand, there are kids I know, whose parents definitely instilled super-discipline into them and the merits of hardwork and stuff but they've just refused to budge. Or they've refused to remember. Or some stupid reason.

Like, why would you sleep from 8PM and still not wake early for your 7AM class. Then the lecturer talks about stuff that no one in the entire class writes down. It shows up on the test and you don't know it. Odo.

Okay so basically, I'm saying as much as our parents drill us and bring us up in 'the way of the Lord' or Darth Vader, we owe it to ourselves to decide to go in that way or not. Like, there's no one here to make me work on my project but it's something I have to do. Apart from the fact that I like facing such challenges, the Baba that has called me 5 times this weekend, deserves a nize fuxt clazz zatific8 yanaah.

So emm, Mummy and Daddy, if you guys ever decide to be Internet addicts and you find this, you people did a great job bringing me up. You deserve a Nobel Laureate in parenting. E kare laye.

Image: Someecards.

Umm, I've figured out that copying and pasting links of all the stuff I read is tedius and I don't always remember to bookmark them or send to evernote. So you can check my bit.ly profile here for all the links I've tweeted in recent times. I might delete that page soon though.

Journal 15: Selling Pure Wateh In Foreign Kawntry

2013-03-11T00:49:00.000+01:00

I might decide to write this post entirely in a Ghanian accent beces, Nana won't let us hear word on this thing.

Okay.

In my second week here, it suddenly occured to me that we'll usually go to the grocery store downstairs to buy water. Plus, the sales guy doesn't interact with us foreigners. He's not deaf and dumb.

It also occured to me that a bag of water cost 1.50 cedis. Each bag contains 30 sachets and each sachet costs 0.10 cedis. The grocery store probably buys the bag between 1.00 or 1.20 cedis. Anywhichway, buying a bag for 1.50 and selling the contents will result in revenue of 3.00 and profit of 1.50. Almost enough for two super yogos and an unlimited daily data plan from Tigo.

To test this out, TT Mensah convinced us to buy a bag of water. I'm in a room of four[it's not as bad as it seems] and we finished an entire bag in less than 24 hours. It's insanely hot here in the afternoons. We're on the equator.

There are at least 8 rooms on my side of the first floor. You can do the math.

There's also no running cost and there's not staff. The water isn't cold but the plastic material used for sachet water here is quite different. It's always cool.

I'm also not opening shop when I have classes.

I'm excited to see how this goes. As long as Nana and TT stop buying pure water on credit.

What I've read recently.

These 8 Mac Characters Will Crash Most Mac Programs - Mashable

Here Are The Top 10 Super Bowl Ads According to 30K Tivos - TechCrunch

Eric Schmidt - A week of Africa

Apple Falls Far From Tree: Seven And A Half Things To Know - Huffington Post

MySpace Squandered The Only Thing It Had Left - TechCrunch

ReadWrite - Why Do Americans Hate Android And Love Apple?

The Rise Of Entrepreneurship on College Campuses[INFOGRAPHIC] - YoungEntrepreneur

Someone took off the "Pure Water Available For Sale" paper off the door. The competition is tensioned or people can't just respect property of others.

The Ultimate Guide To Beating Lagos Traffic In 2013 And Beyond Forever

2013-01-08T19:30:00.000+01:00

Here's how to get ahead of all the lazy fatasses in the city of Lagos.

1. Get out of your house before 7.30AM
2. Leave work before 4PM.

What else did you expect?