January 4, 2010
The rapid growth of the African telecom industry over the past few years, has remarkably transformed communication infrastructure on the continent. Just a decade ago, Africa’s telecom industry accounted for only 2% of the worlds phone lines. Fast forward to the 21st century and the continent is almost unrecognizable. Mobile phones are ubiquitous and if current trends are anything to go by, 2010 is the year in which the continent’s nascent but burgeoning mobile telecom industry receives a massive technological upgrade.
The coming world cup games in South Africa could give the industry a bigger boost as consumer demand rises further, with an increase in people accessing the Internet via mobile phones. Recent figures show that the past five years has seen the use of mobile phones on the continent increase exponentially – the fastest in the world – with 38% growth in 2007, placing Africa ahead of the Middle-East which stands at 33%.
The launch of Africa’s first mobile phone assembly factory located in Lusaka – in August 2009 – is being viewed as a strategic move by entrepreneurs, to tap into the growing African telecom market. The establishment of M-Tech Mobile Telecommunications Limited in Zambia was hugely welcome and experts in the telecom industry predict that in 2010, we could see Middle East and Indian-based telecommunications companies continue their penetration into Africa. Plans by the telecom company Zain Zambia, to spend more on upgrading existing equipment and introduce new technology in 2010, reflects a trend of continued growth and expansion in the telecoms industry.
As smart phones – using operating systems like Google’s Android – hit the shelves in the west, it is hoped that this technological platform will eventually become widely available in developing countries as well. With internet-enabled handsets already being used on the continent to access websites like Facebook and Flicker, people now feel more connected to the rest of the world. A study by Opera, a mobile software developer based in Norway, recently revealed that news sources such as CNN and BBC are among the most viewed sites in Zambia, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana.
The success of the African telecom industry however, masks some disturbing realities about the living conditions most people have to endure. A study by the University of Sussex in England revealed recently that people in most developing countries were saving less because of high unemployment rates and are consequently living a hand to mouth existence. The poor state of both social and physical infrastructure in Africa continues to reduce productivity by at least 40%. There is growing sentiment that more needs to be done to enable the continent fully reap the benefits of technological advancements.
An entire generation has however, been transformed as technology slowly merges with culture. In Kenya for instance, a goat herder in a rural area can now negotiate the sale of his animals on a mobile phone. Continued technological development and the emergence of e-business could eventually decrease the importance of the size of an enterprise, as people promote and market their goods using e-business tools on mobile phones.
Africa does not have a Silicon Valley from which lots of companies are conquering the world with the latest software and hardware, but the increased use of mobile phones with their plethora of functions has empowered people and could close the digital divide between developed and developing countries.
Printed from an article posted at http://www.lusakatimes.com/?p=22752
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
How The Mobile Internet Could Change Everything
By Luke Allnutt
Speaking in June last year about how foreign policy had been changed by the democratization of the Internet, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, "You cannot have Rwanda again because information would come out far more quickly about what is actually going on and the public opinion would grow to the point where action would need to be taken."
Brown was wrong. By the time concerned netizens had turned their Facebook profile pictures red and the "Stop the Rwandan Genocide" campaign had found its 1 millionth member, the genocide would be nearing its end.
It would have spread quicker than it did in 1994, when it was fueled by word of mouth and state-run Hutu radio. These days, hate-speech would spread virally through text messages and social networks. A few video clips of Tutsi atrocities against Hutus -- unspeakable violence against worshippers in a church, for instance -- spread virally by mobile phones could enflame hatred more effectively than traditional media ever could.
While the defining technological shifts of the 2000s were the ubiquity of mobile phones and the growth of the Internet, in the next decade these two trends will converge: the rise and rise of the mobile Internet. It is a shift that will present great opportunities for prosperity and democratization, but also grave possibilities for tyrants and extremists.
According to a December 2009 Morgan Stanley report, the world is just starting "the mobile Internet cycle." It's the fifth information-technology cycle in 50 years and follows mainframe computing in the 1960s, mini-computing in the 1970s, personal computing in the 1980s, and desktop Internet computing of the 1990s.
For years, the mobile Internet was bogged down in WAP: slow, text-heavy, a return to the Internet of the late 1990s, but on a tiny screen. 3G always seemed like a distant, futuristic dream, something that only happened to Japanese teenagers. But then everything changed, largely because of the success of the iPhone and the proliferation of touch-screen technology. Five factors converged to drive the spread of the mobile Internet, according to Morgan Stanley: "3G adoption, social networking, video, VoIP [voice-over Internet protocol], [and] impressive mobile devices."
Finally the mobile web was like the real web, with pictures and video and intuitive navigation. The days of scrolling down a series of static HTML links were gone.
In the next 10 years, we will use our phones and mobile devices more and more: from managing our weight to finding the nearest user-recommended pizza joint to tracking our kids' movements. Our screens, full of third-party applications, will be a digital tapestry of our lives representing (not replacing) our loves, preferences, interests, tastes, and fears.
Third World Web
But perhaps the greatest opportunity for the mobile Internet lies in the developing world.
For years, there has been concern about the global digital divide: the vast disparity in access to the Internet between the developing and developed worlds. A number of Western philanthropic initiatives, most notably the One Laptop Per Child project, have had only limited success.
But where millions in the developing world remain without a laptop or access to a fixed Internet line, they might well have a mobile phone.
The growth of cell-phone networks has far outpaced the growth of fixed broadband or landlines in the developing world. In hard-to-reach places, it requires less investment from both the provider and the user. Pay-as-you-go programs have worked well in cash-based economies.
Mobile phones started the decade as an elite toy and ended as something owned by everyone from taxi drivers in Bangladesh to fishermen in Ghana. In 1999, around 1 billion people worldwide had telephone subscriptions. Now that number is more like 4 billion.
According to the World Bank and the International Telecommunications Union, in 2000 people in developing countries had one-quarter of the world's mobile phones. But in 2009, people in developing countries held three-quarters of the world's estimated 4 billion handsets.
Where philanthropy failed, the market succeeded. With Western mobile markets saturated, telecoms looked to the developing world. As economist Jeffrey Sachs has said, "The digital divide is ending not through a burst of civic responsibility, but mainly through market forces."
And with those phone towers came benefits. A 2005 study by Leonard Waverman from the London Business School showed that a 10 percent rise in mobile-phone penetration in developing countries could raise GDP by 0.6 percentage points.
2G mobile phones have already made crucial differences for people living in isolated societies: fishermen receiving weather updates by SMS, farmers checking prices before taking their goods to market, and so on.
In Kenya, M-PESA, a phone-based banking service, now has over 5 million subscribers, mostly people who have never had bank accounts before.
Just as developing parts of the world leapfrogged telephone landlines, they are well placed to leapfrog the fixed Internet. In the next decade, a farmer in Bangladesh or a taxi driver in Azerbaijan is more likely to access the Internet through his phone than through a computer.
More Freedom For All, For Good Or Ill
According to the Morgan Stanley report, not only are we now in the age of the mobile Internet, but globally it's ramping faster than the desktop Internet did, and "more users may connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years."
Other studies reach similar conclusions. According to Informa Telecoms, mobile broadband throughout the world will be dominant by 2012.
While the link between greater Internet penetration and economic growth is well established, what exactly the spread of the mobile Internet will mean for democratization is unclear.
Since the Enlightenment, technology has been equated with social progress. The Internet has spawned its fair share of techno-utopianists, confident that new technologies have the power to fundamentally change the way humans behave and interact. Unlike never before, they argue, the Internet gives people the opportunity to expand their personal freedoms in the face of meddlesome or authoritarian governments.
For example, in Iran, a combination of cell-phone cameras and social networking has sustained the opposition Green Movement. In Columbia in 2008, three people used Facebook to mobilize 1 million people to demonstrate against the guerilla group FARC.
And in authoritarian regimes around the world, the Internet -- more than any other medium -- has become the meeting place for dissidents and pro-democracy activists.
But where the techno-utopianists were limited in their vision is that in this great mass of Internet users, all capable of great things in the name of democracy, they saw a mirror image of themselves: progressive, philanthropic, cosmopolitan. They didn't see the neo-Nazis, pedophiles, or genocidal maniacs who have networked, grown, and prospered on the Internet.
The combination of the cell-phone camera and the Internet has probably done more than anything to globalize the jihadist movement in the last decade. A generation of young men has been galvanized by grainy footage of "atrocities" committed by Western forces, "martyrdom operations," or grisly execution videos.
Mobile phones and the Internet have also brought us "happy slapping," random attacks on people filmed on mobile phones, and "sexting," where teenagers send raunchy snaps of themselves to friends, images that sometimes end up on pedophile websites.
Technology's Not The Answer
And as the blogger and author Yevgeny Morozov argued in a March/April essay for the "Boston Review," "Cyber–utopians' biggest conceptual mistake is treating cyberspace as some kind of anarchist zone, which the authorities dare not enter except to shut things down."
The history of technological innovation has shown that tyrants and authoritarian governments have found that co-opting technology is often better than banning it.
Morozov continues: "The Soviets did not ban radio; they jammed certain Western stations, cracked down on dissenting broadcasters at home, and exploited the medium to promote their ideology. The Nazis took a similar approach to cinema, which became a preferred propaganda tool in the Third Reich."
Increasingly, tyrants will find creative ways to co-opt the Internet, like the Chinese authorities who have created the so-called 50 Cent Party, a group of pro-government netizens who seek out political forums to promote the party line.
And while Iran's blogosphere is admirably "democratic," for every young liberal cosmopolitan blogger, you'll find a conservative ready to die for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
In the future, old forms of repression -- closing down publications on trumped-up tax charges, beating and imprisoning critics -- will exist side-by-side with the new -- infiltrating opposition movements through social networks or government-sponsored cyber-vigilante campaigns.
Just as dissidents find more innovative ways to beat the system, so the governments will fight back with both increasing sophistication and the same old brute force.
The mistake both the utopians and neo-Luddites make is by giving too much credence to the idea that technology can fundamentally change human nature. For every article about how Twitter will save the world, a cyber-fatalist will argue that smartphones have turned us all into zombies.
Both are wrong. It is not technology per se that has the power to change the world (for good or bad), but rather the innovation and creativity of the people enabling and using it.
Article published on Radio Free Europe website at www.rferl.org
Speaking in June last year about how foreign policy had been changed by the democratization of the Internet, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, "You cannot have Rwanda again because information would come out far more quickly about what is actually going on and the public opinion would grow to the point where action would need to be taken."
Brown was wrong. By the time concerned netizens had turned their Facebook profile pictures red and the "Stop the Rwandan Genocide" campaign had found its 1 millionth member, the genocide would be nearing its end.
It would have spread quicker than it did in 1994, when it was fueled by word of mouth and state-run Hutu radio. These days, hate-speech would spread virally through text messages and social networks. A few video clips of Tutsi atrocities against Hutus -- unspeakable violence against worshippers in a church, for instance -- spread virally by mobile phones could enflame hatred more effectively than traditional media ever could.
While the defining technological shifts of the 2000s were the ubiquity of mobile phones and the growth of the Internet, in the next decade these two trends will converge: the rise and rise of the mobile Internet. It is a shift that will present great opportunities for prosperity and democratization, but also grave possibilities for tyrants and extremists.
According to a December 2009 Morgan Stanley report, the world is just starting "the mobile Internet cycle." It's the fifth information-technology cycle in 50 years and follows mainframe computing in the 1960s, mini-computing in the 1970s, personal computing in the 1980s, and desktop Internet computing of the 1990s.
For years, the mobile Internet was bogged down in WAP: slow, text-heavy, a return to the Internet of the late 1990s, but on a tiny screen. 3G always seemed like a distant, futuristic dream, something that only happened to Japanese teenagers. But then everything changed, largely because of the success of the iPhone and the proliferation of touch-screen technology. Five factors converged to drive the spread of the mobile Internet, according to Morgan Stanley: "3G adoption, social networking, video, VoIP [voice-over Internet protocol], [and] impressive mobile devices."
Finally the mobile web was like the real web, with pictures and video and intuitive navigation. The days of scrolling down a series of static HTML links were gone.
In the next 10 years, we will use our phones and mobile devices more and more: from managing our weight to finding the nearest user-recommended pizza joint to tracking our kids' movements. Our screens, full of third-party applications, will be a digital tapestry of our lives representing (not replacing) our loves, preferences, interests, tastes, and fears.
Third World Web
But perhaps the greatest opportunity for the mobile Internet lies in the developing world.
For years, there has been concern about the global digital divide: the vast disparity in access to the Internet between the developing and developed worlds. A number of Western philanthropic initiatives, most notably the One Laptop Per Child project, have had only limited success.
But where millions in the developing world remain without a laptop or access to a fixed Internet line, they might well have a mobile phone.
The growth of cell-phone networks has far outpaced the growth of fixed broadband or landlines in the developing world. In hard-to-reach places, it requires less investment from both the provider and the user. Pay-as-you-go programs have worked well in cash-based economies.
Mobile phones started the decade as an elite toy and ended as something owned by everyone from taxi drivers in Bangladesh to fishermen in Ghana. In 1999, around 1 billion people worldwide had telephone subscriptions. Now that number is more like 4 billion.
According to the World Bank and the International Telecommunications Union, in 2000 people in developing countries had one-quarter of the world's mobile phones. But in 2009, people in developing countries held three-quarters of the world's estimated 4 billion handsets.
Where philanthropy failed, the market succeeded. With Western mobile markets saturated, telecoms looked to the developing world. As economist Jeffrey Sachs has said, "The digital divide is ending not through a burst of civic responsibility, but mainly through market forces."
And with those phone towers came benefits. A 2005 study by Leonard Waverman from the London Business School showed that a 10 percent rise in mobile-phone penetration in developing countries could raise GDP by 0.6 percentage points.
2G mobile phones have already made crucial differences for people living in isolated societies: fishermen receiving weather updates by SMS, farmers checking prices before taking their goods to market, and so on.
In Kenya, M-PESA, a phone-based banking service, now has over 5 million subscribers, mostly people who have never had bank accounts before.
Just as developing parts of the world leapfrogged telephone landlines, they are well placed to leapfrog the fixed Internet. In the next decade, a farmer in Bangladesh or a taxi driver in Azerbaijan is more likely to access the Internet through his phone than through a computer.
More Freedom For All, For Good Or Ill
According to the Morgan Stanley report, not only are we now in the age of the mobile Internet, but globally it's ramping faster than the desktop Internet did, and "more users may connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years."
Other studies reach similar conclusions. According to Informa Telecoms, mobile broadband throughout the world will be dominant by 2012.
While the link between greater Internet penetration and economic growth is well established, what exactly the spread of the mobile Internet will mean for democratization is unclear.
Since the Enlightenment, technology has been equated with social progress. The Internet has spawned its fair share of techno-utopianists, confident that new technologies have the power to fundamentally change the way humans behave and interact. Unlike never before, they argue, the Internet gives people the opportunity to expand their personal freedoms in the face of meddlesome or authoritarian governments.
For example, in Iran, a combination of cell-phone cameras and social networking has sustained the opposition Green Movement. In Columbia in 2008, three people used Facebook to mobilize 1 million people to demonstrate against the guerilla group FARC.
And in authoritarian regimes around the world, the Internet -- more than any other medium -- has become the meeting place for dissidents and pro-democracy activists.
But where the techno-utopianists were limited in their vision is that in this great mass of Internet users, all capable of great things in the name of democracy, they saw a mirror image of themselves: progressive, philanthropic, cosmopolitan. They didn't see the neo-Nazis, pedophiles, or genocidal maniacs who have networked, grown, and prospered on the Internet.
The combination of the cell-phone camera and the Internet has probably done more than anything to globalize the jihadist movement in the last decade. A generation of young men has been galvanized by grainy footage of "atrocities" committed by Western forces, "martyrdom operations," or grisly execution videos.
Mobile phones and the Internet have also brought us "happy slapping," random attacks on people filmed on mobile phones, and "sexting," where teenagers send raunchy snaps of themselves to friends, images that sometimes end up on pedophile websites.
Technology's Not The Answer
And as the blogger and author Yevgeny Morozov argued in a March/April essay for the "Boston Review," "Cyber–utopians' biggest conceptual mistake is treating cyberspace as some kind of anarchist zone, which the authorities dare not enter except to shut things down."
The history of technological innovation has shown that tyrants and authoritarian governments have found that co-opting technology is often better than banning it.
Morozov continues: "The Soviets did not ban radio; they jammed certain Western stations, cracked down on dissenting broadcasters at home, and exploited the medium to promote their ideology. The Nazis took a similar approach to cinema, which became a preferred propaganda tool in the Third Reich."
Increasingly, tyrants will find creative ways to co-opt the Internet, like the Chinese authorities who have created the so-called 50 Cent Party, a group of pro-government netizens who seek out political forums to promote the party line.
And while Iran's blogosphere is admirably "democratic," for every young liberal cosmopolitan blogger, you'll find a conservative ready to die for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
In the future, old forms of repression -- closing down publications on trumped-up tax charges, beating and imprisoning critics -- will exist side-by-side with the new -- infiltrating opposition movements through social networks or government-sponsored cyber-vigilante campaigns.
Just as dissidents find more innovative ways to beat the system, so the governments will fight back with both increasing sophistication and the same old brute force.
The mistake both the utopians and neo-Luddites make is by giving too much credence to the idea that technology can fundamentally change human nature. For every article about how Twitter will save the world, a cyber-fatalist will argue that smartphones have turned us all into zombies.
Both are wrong. It is not technology per se that has the power to change the world (for good or bad), but rather the innovation and creativity of the people enabling and using it.
Article published on Radio Free Europe website at www.rferl.org
Monday, January 18, 2010
CDD Spring 2010 Tea-Reception Fundraiser
CDD 2010 Reception
Architectural Tour
What: Spring Tea-Reception Fundraiser
Where: Private home in Los Angeles
When: 2:00 to 4:00pm Sunday, January 24th, 2010
More Details: Join us for CDD’s first fundraiser of the New Year will take place on January 24th. Afternoon includes a Presentation about CDD along with a slideshow of some of our successful Alumni followed by a tour of one of Los Angeles most well known and beautiful Victorian Mansions. This will be a rare opportunity for an inside tour of the home specially offered to CDD supporters by the owner. We will cap the afternoon with a formal tea. Don’t miss this great event. RSVP today for the few remaining openings by emailing kpatton@cddnp.org.
Architectural Tour
What: Spring Tea-Reception Fundraiser
Where: Private home in Los Angeles
When: 2:00 to 4:00pm Sunday, January 24th, 2010
More Details: Join us for CDD’s first fundraiser of the New Year will take place on January 24th. Afternoon includes a Presentation about CDD along with a slideshow of some of our successful Alumni followed by a tour of one of Los Angeles most well known and beautiful Victorian Mansions. This will be a rare opportunity for an inside tour of the home specially offered to CDD supporters by the owner. We will cap the afternoon with a formal tea. Don’t miss this great event. RSVP today for the few remaining openings by emailing kpatton@cddnp.org.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
CDD Keynote Speech at 12-15-09 Grad Ceremony
Vision Plan Execution (VPE)
by Duane Cofield
Like my introduction stated it has not always been this way. And I wondered what kind of story I could tell you today that would inspire you to achieve more, do more, and be the person you are destined to be. I was a little of everything:
Childhood- disrespectful to parents, low self-esteem, school nightmare, thought I knew it all. I got involved in Gangs and selling drugs at a very young age.
Early Adulthood- Drinking a fifth of Cognac every night, In and out of jail going t
Final Straw- Landed in prison (For only one thing of many that I was guilty of).
I was stuck, felony on my record, no job experience, and on parole with $200 to my name.
Vision
When I first decided that I wanted more out of life, when I first realized that the results I was getting were directly related to the mental picture that I had about success and myself. At that point all that I knew was that I had to change. I needed to establish a new vision of success, I need to find out how CEOs, athletes, actors, authors, basically everyone that I see achieving what some call impossible. I started my research by studying successful people, studying their habits, reading the books that they read, and doing the things that they do. I also read several self-help, motivational books, and autobiographies. The one thing that I immediately identified with, the one thing that reached out a grabbed me, they all had a vision. They had a vision of themselves in the role or job they are in many, many years before they were actually there.
Take a moment and close your eyes and visualize what your picture of success looks like. (Take 1 Minute)
What are you doing?
Who is with you?
What do you look like?
What are you driving?
Where do you live?
Where do you work?
This day, this graduation, this celebration of your accomplishments was vision of the founder (Kathleen), instructors. However it would not be possible without the Vision followed by the plan.
Plan
Once you have a vision of where you want to go and who you would like to become, you must put together a plan or establish goals.
Henry David Thoreau says “If one advances confidently in the direction of his or her dreams, and endeavors to live the life that which he or she has imagined, he or she will meet with a success unexpected, in common hours.
So we need to continue what got us here today, setting goals, believing that you can accomplish those goals, and working hard to achieve those goals.
Brian Tracy wrote a book that I read not too long ago called “Goals”. In the book he suggested a strategy that I use and have used with many of my goals. He suggested that you create two lists. The First list writes all of you major goals in order of importance, the number one goal being the most important. Transfer that number one goal to continue to explain the process.
Execution
This is by far the most difficult of the process of change. The actual work,
I had to change:
My Habits (I could no longer hang out every night)
My Internal Conversation (I had to speak belief and in the affirmative)
My Circle of Friends (Certain people were not good conversation or association)
Who I shared my dreams with (Dream Killers everywhere who will give you more reasons that you can give yourself on why you cant accomplish your goals)
My Inputs- Television, reading, topics in conversation, music, etc.
Why technology and computers are important?
Benefits:
Information- Whatever you need to know at the touch of a button. How to start at Business, Learning a New Language,
Education –Web based courses, get your PHD on-line.
Web Based business- E-Commerce, Clothing, Web Design, (You can be a big as you want on the internet). Video Production and editing.
In closing I would like to recite a quote from OG Mandino.
The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams.
Og Mandino
I wish you the best on your journey, and I will see you at the TOP.
by Duane Cofield
Like my introduction stated it has not always been this way. And I wondered what kind of story I could tell you today that would inspire you to achieve more, do more, and be the person you are destined to be. I was a little of everything:
Childhood- disrespectful to parents, low self-esteem, school nightmare, thought I knew it all. I got involved in Gangs and selling drugs at a very young age.
Early Adulthood- Drinking a fifth of Cognac every night, In and out of jail going t
Final Straw- Landed in prison (For only one thing of many that I was guilty of).
I was stuck, felony on my record, no job experience, and on parole with $200 to my name.
Vision
When I first decided that I wanted more out of life, when I first realized that the results I was getting were directly related to the mental picture that I had about success and myself. At that point all that I knew was that I had to change. I needed to establish a new vision of success, I need to find out how CEOs, athletes, actors, authors, basically everyone that I see achieving what some call impossible. I started my research by studying successful people, studying their habits, reading the books that they read, and doing the things that they do. I also read several self-help, motivational books, and autobiographies. The one thing that I immediately identified with, the one thing that reached out a grabbed me, they all had a vision. They had a vision of themselves in the role or job they are in many, many years before they were actually there.
Take a moment and close your eyes and visualize what your picture of success looks like. (Take 1 Minute)
What are you doing?
Who is with you?
What do you look like?
What are you driving?
Where do you live?
Where do you work?
This day, this graduation, this celebration of your accomplishments was vision of the founder (Kathleen), instructors. However it would not be possible without the Vision followed by the plan.
Plan
Once you have a vision of where you want to go and who you would like to become, you must put together a plan or establish goals.
Henry David Thoreau says “If one advances confidently in the direction of his or her dreams, and endeavors to live the life that which he or she has imagined, he or she will meet with a success unexpected, in common hours.
So we need to continue what got us here today, setting goals, believing that you can accomplish those goals, and working hard to achieve those goals.
Brian Tracy wrote a book that I read not too long ago called “Goals”. In the book he suggested a strategy that I use and have used with many of my goals. He suggested that you create two lists. The First list writes all of you major goals in order of importance, the number one goal being the most important. Transfer that number one goal to continue to explain the process.
Execution
This is by far the most difficult of the process of change. The actual work,
I had to change:
My Habits (I could no longer hang out every night)
My Internal Conversation (I had to speak belief and in the affirmative)
My Circle of Friends (Certain people were not good conversation or association)
Who I shared my dreams with (Dream Killers everywhere who will give you more reasons that you can give yourself on why you cant accomplish your goals)
My Inputs- Television, reading, topics in conversation, music, etc.
Why technology and computers are important?
Benefits:
Information- Whatever you need to know at the touch of a button. How to start at Business, Learning a New Language,
Education –Web based courses, get your PHD on-line.
Web Based business- E-Commerce, Clothing, Web Design, (You can be a big as you want on the internet). Video Production and editing.
In closing I would like to recite a quote from OG Mandino.
The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams.
Og Mandino
I wish you the best on your journey, and I will see you at the TOP.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
CDD Graduation Ceremony 12-15-09
CDD Graduation Event Wrap Up
Session Beginning Date: November 10th 2009
Graduation Date: December 15th 2009
Location: Santa Monica Recreational Center
1450 Ocean Avenue Santa Monica, CA 90401
Time: 7:00 to 9:00pm
Emcee: Erick
Guest Speaker: Duane Kofield
Our graduation ceremony began at 7:00 pm at the Santa Monica Recreational Center with over a hundred people in attendance. The evening’s emcee and current CDD Instructor, Erick, kicked off the ceremony with a few opening words and an overview of the evening. He congratulated the graduates and wished them all continued success. CDD Director, Kathleen Patton, then took the podium to talk about CDD’s mission and its impact and importance in the community.
Ms. Patton then conducted the annual CDD Awards Ceremony in which CDD honors volunteers who have shown exceptional dedication and devotion to our students over the past year. Shahab Inamdar was awarded CDD Volunteer of the Year for his tireless work as web team lead in maintaining the CDD website. Special Volunteer awards were handed out to Derin Oyekan, Katy Porter, and Chris Tyler. Derin was honored for his dedication to the organization as an instructor for the past three years, teaching and graduating dozens of the underprivileged at the Walden House. Katy was honored for her work as a motivational speaker and general supporter to CDD for the past three years. She has spoken at a number of graduation ceremonies and has offered consultation to CDD. Chris was honored for his work on the install team over the past two years as well as for arranging for his company to donate dozens of computers to CDD. Each shared a few words with the audience after receiving their City Certificates signed by the Mayor.
Motivational speaker, Duane Cofield, then delivered the ceremony’s keynote speech. Duane engaged the audience with his own story of how he turned his life around. He spoke about how he grew up being obnoxious and careless. He had been in a great deal of trouble in his youth leading to his being imprisoned. While in prison, Duane, with the help of his mentor and by doing a lot of reading, realized that he can change his life by investing his energy on positive rather than negative goals. He now travels around giving motivational speeches to those with similar backgrounds trying to help them get their lives back in track.
The audience showed their approval for all of the speakers with a loud round of applause. It was then time for the Student Presentations. One student is chosen from each house to read the essay they wrote during the course. The first student speaker was Stacey Ward from the House of Uhuru, then Denise Howe from Cri-Help, and last was James Sykes from Walden House. Each talked about their past experiences and the steps they were taking to achieve a more positive lifestyle. They all acknowledged that computers skills were important in helping them become successful and recognized CDD’s role in getting them started. Stacey and Denise both delivered emotional speeches about how they plan to turn their lives around. James concluded by motivating his fellow students to change their lives for the better, which earned him a huge ovation.
Suddenly there was a stir at the back of the room. Who would appear than non other than Santa Claus himself who looked jolly indeed! Old St. Nick shouted Merry Christmas as he strode to the front of the room with cheers in return from the crowd. Santa explained that he had heard there were some very good boys and girls in the room tonight and he had to stop in to sing a carol. Santa then brought out his accordion! He knew Santa played the accordion? Well, he does and he played Jingle Bells, beautifully while everyone sang along with great joy. That was sure nice of old Mr. Claus to take the time out of his busy schedule to share that treat and it will remain in our memories.
We closed the evening with the Walden House Ladies Choir sharing some beautiful harmonies and then, the big finale, awarding the certificates to the graduates. Each graduate was called to receive his or her certificate and was congratulated with handshakes from CDD and Staff Members. We all then shared laughs, hugs along with cake and refreshments, to bring to close the final session of 2009. What a special event and a wonderful way to end the year
Session Beginning Date: November 10th 2009
Graduation Date: December 15th 2009
Location: Santa Monica Recreational Center
1450 Ocean Avenue Santa Monica, CA 90401
Time: 7:00 to 9:00pm
Emcee: Erick
Guest Speaker: Duane Kofield
Our graduation ceremony began at 7:00 pm at the Santa Monica Recreational Center with over a hundred people in attendance. The evening’s emcee and current CDD Instructor, Erick, kicked off the ceremony with a few opening words and an overview of the evening. He congratulated the graduates and wished them all continued success. CDD Director, Kathleen Patton, then took the podium to talk about CDD’s mission and its impact and importance in the community.
Ms. Patton then conducted the annual CDD Awards Ceremony in which CDD honors volunteers who have shown exceptional dedication and devotion to our students over the past year. Shahab Inamdar was awarded CDD Volunteer of the Year for his tireless work as web team lead in maintaining the CDD website. Special Volunteer awards were handed out to Derin Oyekan, Katy Porter, and Chris Tyler. Derin was honored for his dedication to the organization as an instructor for the past three years, teaching and graduating dozens of the underprivileged at the Walden House. Katy was honored for her work as a motivational speaker and general supporter to CDD for the past three years. She has spoken at a number of graduation ceremonies and has offered consultation to CDD. Chris was honored for his work on the install team over the past two years as well as for arranging for his company to donate dozens of computers to CDD. Each shared a few words with the audience after receiving their City Certificates signed by the Mayor.
Motivational speaker, Duane Cofield, then delivered the ceremony’s keynote speech. Duane engaged the audience with his own story of how he turned his life around. He spoke about how he grew up being obnoxious and careless. He had been in a great deal of trouble in his youth leading to his being imprisoned. While in prison, Duane, with the help of his mentor and by doing a lot of reading, realized that he can change his life by investing his energy on positive rather than negative goals. He now travels around giving motivational speeches to those with similar backgrounds trying to help them get their lives back in track.
The audience showed their approval for all of the speakers with a loud round of applause. It was then time for the Student Presentations. One student is chosen from each house to read the essay they wrote during the course. The first student speaker was Stacey Ward from the House of Uhuru, then Denise Howe from Cri-Help, and last was James Sykes from Walden House. Each talked about their past experiences and the steps they were taking to achieve a more positive lifestyle. They all acknowledged that computers skills were important in helping them become successful and recognized CDD’s role in getting them started. Stacey and Denise both delivered emotional speeches about how they plan to turn their lives around. James concluded by motivating his fellow students to change their lives for the better, which earned him a huge ovation.
Suddenly there was a stir at the back of the room. Who would appear than non other than Santa Claus himself who looked jolly indeed! Old St. Nick shouted Merry Christmas as he strode to the front of the room with cheers in return from the crowd. Santa explained that he had heard there were some very good boys and girls in the room tonight and he had to stop in to sing a carol. Santa then brought out his accordion! He knew Santa played the accordion? Well, he does and he played Jingle Bells, beautifully while everyone sang along with great joy. That was sure nice of old Mr. Claus to take the time out of his busy schedule to share that treat and it will remain in our memories.
We closed the evening with the Walden House Ladies Choir sharing some beautiful harmonies and then, the big finale, awarding the certificates to the graduates. Each graduate was called to receive his or her certificate and was congratulated with handshakes from CDD and Staff Members. We all then shared laughs, hugs along with cake and refreshments, to bring to close the final session of 2009. What a special event and a wonderful way to end the year
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