Most Powerful!

I simply can’t imagine a world without photographs, yes! OK, so you hold on and just think about this for a minute; the internet had only text, no images on TV and newspapers, magazines or any other media…imagining the world with no photos. It’s hard, right? I know. But obviously the world sometime back existed without any form of photos, yet man survived, so photos are not necessities of life, even though today, photography is part of our lives almost on daily basis, from still photos to motion (video). We are immersed in the ‘photography ocean’ from selfies, candid photos to professional photography photos.

From the time our baby is born until the time they get their own smartphones to take selfies, we mostly document their biography in photos and videos. Same with our own lives. From time to time we keep photos for memories at good times and at not so good times. 

It is a fact that photos easily enable the mind to recollect than words. No wonder it is popularly known that a photo speaks volumes than thousand words. We keep photos of loved ones inside of our wallets and purses or decorate the walls at home with photos. We live around photos and they have become an intricate part of our lives. As we are exposed to so many photos in our daily lives, we tend to take it for granted, and often underestimate its full impact.

Photography classification in itself covers every aspect of our daily lives, take; Street Photography, Portrait, Landscapes, Seascapes, Travel, Adventure, Documentary, Marco, Wildlife and the list goes on and on, you, let’s leave these for another time. Yet, except some few schools who offer some form of photography courses, we are still waiting to see photography entering the main stream higher educational system as a degree program.

Photography has the power to change perception (mind and heart). Photography has the power to influence emotions (senses). And if there is something in this world, that has the power to control senses, mind and heart - in my opinion, it is the most powerful tool of man. I think it is fair to say that photographers are powerful. Photographers have the skills to determine scene, which lens for which lighting for which moment…let’s leave this one too for another time.

Whether it's a photo that deeply saddens you or that which gives you extreme delight, the fact remains that photography is a powerful medium of communication. What is so difficult for photography to communicate? Is it wealth, poverty, terror, war, or peace? In fact, photography can transport us to the unseen part of the world.

And have you ever wondered why computers were reinvented from command based to graphic user interface, to really see photo representing icons to inform functionalities? Most often a photo without accompanying content, leaves a lot to imagination, and this fact tempts us to dwell more into this media to unearth its latent implications.

The world today, has many catalysts for change, one of them certainly is photography, the most powerful invention of man in this 21^st Century!

Photo Credit: 

Emmanuel Bobbie (Bob Pixel), 

Kofi Motivation.

Kojo Eyshun

©Harry Tetteh

Happy Holidays!

It is Christmas eve, yet the financial jargons have joined the Christmas carols on the news wave, flying around again amid the stock market fall. The FTSE Index, The Dow Jones, NASDAQ, S&P, MTD, YTD…the list goes on and on. I am sure you have come across the hullabaloo of the stock market fall in your news feed by now.

Raila Odinga, a former Prime Minister of Kenya, once said “…they say that when America sneezes, Europe catches cold, Asia develops pneumonia and Africa’s tubercolosis gets worse.” 

But I know my uncle Agyemfra will not agree with Raila.

My uncle Agya Kwaku Agyemfra, who lives in a very modest, simple house in my village (not mortgaged, of course), with his wife and six grandchildren. He does not draw a pension. He lives off his small farm, has never held a bank account, and has never sought or been offered a bank loan for obvious reasons. Of course, all those other fancy financial jargons do not mean anything to him, for he lives entirely outside the system. Since he enjoys no electricity, he has no TV or any other modern gadgetry, his major luxury being a constantly malfunctioning battery-operated transistor radio. The concept of rising bills is therefore beyond his grasp. He only relies on a trusty, if rather charming, rickety bicycle to get along, so rising fuel prices are not much of an issue for him. Whiles others toss in bed at night worried about the security of their home, their savings and their jobs, My uncle Agyemfra, in contrast, continues to sleep soundly at night.

Christmas back home throws up its own gastronomic delights. In some households, this is one of the occasions when the long-suffering chicken makes a rare appearance on the household menu, with the succulent thigh reserved for the man of the house, of course. Other rare treats, especially for children, include ‘chips’ (the flour variety, mind you), cakes and salad. The kids tend to linger as long as possible over these delicacies, for the next Christmas is twelve distant months away. It is easy to take these for granted when living abroad, in which case Christmas treats include mince pies, Christmas pudding and turkey.

For some workers back home, Christmas starts around the 23^rdDecember, through to the 3rd January or thereabouts. The system almost literally shuts down throughout this period. After all, who wants to go off work for Christmas, be back for a few days, only to go off again for New Year? By contrast, at overseas, it may make financial sense to be available for work even on Christmas Day, since the pay rate for that day is usually double, in some cases even triple the normal rate. 

How you celebrate Christmas holidays depends on your location and social media feeds influence, but if you’re like my Uncle Agyemfra, the former will be your only option.

Happy Holidays!

©Harry Tetteh

Flipping The Script

Barbering Shop

I’m here for a haircut but it looks like I would need to wait in a queue longer than expected, due to many people in line here for their turn. I’m the sixth person now. What a way to start the New Year, probably everyone here had haircut as their first New Year resolution.

First of all, I see the cleaner with his white earphones on, connected to his phone, nodding his head as if he’s enjoying the dusting more than the music – obviously some good music is beating in his eardrum. Everyone, except the kid sleeping on his mum’s lap is engaged on their Smartphone. The newspapers and magazines lying on the center table for customers and visitors are just for decorations, at least, for now.

This makes me wonder; would there ever be a generation who would read only digital content from school text books, novels, etc.? Yes I suppose. OK, then how would the physical libraries and bookshop function? 

Digital Natives vs. Immigrants

But make no mistake, we live in a world of digital natives and digital immigrants. 

The former are made up of Mavis Beacon typing students and alumni who prefer typing to writing. They also prefer reading all materials on screens while flipping, tapping, scrolling and performing all kinds of finger gestures on the screen. The latter tries to adapt to their environment but always retain, to some degree, the "accent" that reveals they keep one foot in the past. Examples are people who are not fully comfortable reading books on screens but prefer books they can physically touch, smell and taste. 

Digital immigrants print out e-mails (or have a secretary print it for them —an even "thicker" accent); print a computer-composed document in order to edit it; and bringing people into their office to see an interesting website (rather than just sending the URL to them). I hope you get the point I’m putting across. I agree with Marc Prensky that digital natives cannot go backward, so digital immigrants have no choice but to migrate, adapt, and innovate. If anyone should come back alive from say early 90s, the mention of Facebook may end the person in a local bookshop or library to get a copy. 

CVs

Do you agree that CVs (Curriculum Vitae) may fade away soon? Well, not the name CV but the traditional way of building the CV. I’m referring to the one, two, or even more page document divided into educational and professional written experiences. Look, if you want to stay competitive today and tomorrow, you’ve got to be present online. I’m not talking about only appearing in search results after your name has been entered on a search engine. You need to find a way to demonstrate your experiences, skills or interest online.

For example, if you write, you can blog – if your skills can be demonstrated, show it on your YouTube channel. Beside been part of a professional network site like LinkedIn, you could also join and engage in various discussion groups of interest or forums online. These social tools are free and most recruiters or managers first search to find out more information about potential candidates before even inviting them for interviews. CVs now are turning into documents with hyperlinks to publications or featured skills. Very soon if no one finds you on Google, then you do not exist in the 21^st Century.

Look, school is no more within a block structure with a teacher in front of a board. School today is with us anywhere there is internet, same with jobs. And if you think education is expensive, wait till you see how much ignorance cost. Some of us spend our lives acting rationally in response to a world we recognize and understand but which no longer exists.

Big Data

Are you aware of big data? Well, Big data has arrived and not a fad. Hold on, I’ll explain in brief shortly. 

“Who here uses the cloud? Please just raise your hand”, this was the question I asked my audience (about 50 in number) during one of my business presentations. Surprisingly, no one showed up, even though it was an audience of IT professionals. So I assumed either they didn’t hear my question or they were not paying attention. So I asked again, “who among you uses a Smartphone or any smart device?” Well, you probably know the feedback now, everyone showed up with hands. If you have a smart device and you use it connected anyway for data from the internet, most, if not all of the data is in the cloud.

The fact that so many people are connected onto the cloud via Smartphone also means a whole new generation of apps around entertainment, education and social life, affecting the way we live, communicate and learn. We forget too soon; the mention of gigabyte some few years back was like “Wow! The whole world information could go on it”. 

These were the days of floppy disks, but time has changed that we now put gigabytes in our pockets. Every data accessed on a screen resides on a memory or disk. So more access to the internet means more information with more different data sets which eventually lead to more memory and disk capacity requirements. These different data sets gave birth to big data, as I mentioned earlier, it is one of the new terms in computing. Now the interesting challenge is the ability to perform analytics on different data sets to discover patterns for decision making in various field of endeavors. 

Consumers Today

If you’re a company offering products or services and you do not pay keen attention to social media, start counting your doom days if not dead yet. As Gary Hemel put it, “somewhere out there is a bullet with your company's name on it. Somewhere out there is a competitor, unborn and unknown, that will render your strategy obsolete. You can't dodge the bullet – you're going to have to shoot first. You're going to have to out-innovate the innovators.” Look, technology puts power in communities not institutions anymore. 

What I mean is that, consumers trust word of mouth and consumer generated media more than any other information source. Customers today are more in control of their media experiences than ever. They decide what they want to hear, see or read and when they want it. Technology tools including Really Simple Syndication (RSS), enables consumers to choose and subscribe to the information that interest them. With the global expansion of internet access and smart devices, consumers are looking elsewhere for information; from print to online and from institutional media to online consumer communities. If you are the type of person like me who first check online for consumer reviews or ratings of new product regardless the brand or company, before committing to purchasing the product, you’ll get what I’m trying to put across. 

Beyonce

The basic rules or norms we used to have are changing. A very interesting one just occurred in the music industry with Beyonce’s new album release. Did you hear about that? She changed the rules completely; let me be more urban here, she “flipped the script”. 

The initial rule was that, first put the music on radio, followed by promotion and a big release day. But Beyonce surprised the entire music industry by releasing her latest album “Beyonce” on iTunes – with no initial radio play, no promotion and no launch parties. But her new album quickly became number one selling on iTunes, selling more than 1million copies worldwide in just the first week (more of this story on CNN). Think for a minute how much money Beyonce saved from promotions and launching, yet making it hit on top of the chart. 

Barbering Shop

Well, it’s almost my turn to get my long awaited haircut. Would you consider yourself as a digital native or immigrant? And what else do you see as technology changing the way we live our lives? Please share your feedback. 

Thank you.

Harry Tetteh | .

Follow @harrykt

Paradigm Shift?

   

It is becoming more popular now as it makes life easy or perhaps for convenience sake if not just show off. The first time I experienced it was at church service when the Priest asked everyone to open their bibles but realised few church members pulling their mobile phones from their purse and pocket. Interestingly, one old folk tapped the shoulder of a young lady who had a phone and then pointed his hand to the notice “Kindly switch off your mobile phone, thank you.” The old folk stared astonishingly after the lady whispered quietly “it has a bible”. On Palm Sunday, the Priest used an IPad for his sermon, prayers and bible readings. A few years back this would have been entirely impossible.

“He is not poking back my pokes after leaving the message on his wall, I wish I didn’t tag him on that album” – “I followed his twits after googling his company’s name” – “facebooking is restricted during working hours, we mean business not pleasure”. If it was easy to understand the scenarios above, I guess you’re a 21^st Century citizen, if not, why not? I believe you’re getting the point I’m trying to make now. The way we live our lives today has changed radically, leaving technology to take control of most of our time.

Time to check a quick email turns to hours on social media websites, if not on facebook. My grandmother would certainly agree with you about this change because even though she appreciate the fact that she can talk to us anytime through my uncle’s phone, she has no idea how this is possible. Possibility is what technology stands for.

Yes, we’re in the social media revolution, the digital age where uprising in our (physical) societies easily sparkle from the (virtual) internet. We’re in the knowledge age where the role of the teacher in the classroom is not just providing information but guiding and empowering students to be creative and innovative because most (if not all) information is available online.

Right, it’s quite obvious about the encroachment of technology in the 21^st Century but keep in mind that not all nations or societies in the world are experiencing this paradigm shift. Therefore any attempt to revolt against the Chief in my hometown via facebook or twitter would not be only in vain but inconsequential. If you doubt, try! Many societies still live outside the system even though technology keeps travelling on a top speed.

America still remains leaders in technology innovation in the world – designing technology tools and applications for the internet are based on their lingua franca, culture and ideologies. And this is influencing other cultures around the world. Typical examples are freedom of association, freedom of information (sharing), transparency and respecting individual privacy – this have played major role in effecting the uprising of nations through social media websites.

Today, we need 21^st Century leaders’ not just leaders leading in the 21^st Century. We need leading experts in Change, Innovation and Strategy like Dr. Dave Richards, who is a globally successful senior executive, serial entrepreneur and intrapreneur, innovator, author, inspirational speaker, and advisor on strategic innovation and leadership -  Desi Lopez Fafie, who is a highly capable business executive and leader, with excellent skills to build relationships and manage large groups of people with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and has the eyes to unearth the potentials, opportunities and possibilities in the African continent (http://dfafie.wordpress.com) and John P. Kotter, a Professor of leadership, emeritus, at Harvard Business School, who is widely regarded as the world’s foremost authority  on leadership and change (http://blogs.forbes.com/johnkotter/).

Just as social media has opened a dialogue between businesses and consumers, its value is apparent to those in political office, whose work and very professional survival hinges on the needs and perceptions of their constituents. But when was the last time a local politician garnered the same social media buzz as a hip start-up, or a savvy online retailer?

We need a government that embodies the paradigm shift of the 21^st Century like President Barak Obama. There’s still an entire year and seven months until the U.S. presidential election on November 6, 2012, but social media has already played a huge role in the burgeoning race.

About three weeks ago, Mitt Romney had already announced his bid on Youtube. and Tim Pawlenty had already joined the race through his facebook page. President Obama also kicked off his re-election campaign with a number of digital initiatives.

President Obama continues to leverage IT leaders’ role to grow the American economy. No wonder he created the Chief Technology Officer position in his government, which Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google) was mentioned as a possible candidate.

Increased mobility, immigration, intermarriage, and access to job opportunities worldwide have led to another kind of blending and mixing-communities across the globe are becoming ever more culturally diverse in the 21^st Century. Even though I’m not an American citizen, I concur the speech by President Obama on “Building a 21^st Century Immigration System”. In his speech President Obama said, “…it doesn’t matter where you come from, doesn’t matter what you look like, it doesn’t matter what faith you worship, what matters is you believe in the ideals on which we were founded.”

The 21^st Century challenge for each of us is to build and maintain our own identity from our given traditions and from the wide variety of traditions all around us. At the same time we should all learn to apply tolerance and compassion for the different identities and value of others.

With growing diversity of global traditions and values that now surrounds us, the challenge to maintaining social harmony is great, but the opportunities for richer, more creative, and vibrant communities are even greater.

That’s the way technology is affecting the way we live and work today.

Is this a paradigm shift? Your comments are welcome.

Thank you!

© Harry Tetteh

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