IN THE NAME OF PASSION: IT Youth Ambassador Trades PC for Internet AccessIn a world where information and knowledge drive the economy, where the relevance of countries — and its peoples — is measured, not by how much concrete wealth they have, but by how much relevant information they could use to aid development. One cannot rule out the importance of the Internet as a medium for Information creation and dissemination. The Internet has come a long way and people the world over are today leveraging on its power to connect with other people that have access to it — for the purpose of knowledge sharing. The importance of the Internet cannot be overemphasized in our contemporary world.
The Internet is however expensive, especially in a developing nation like Nigeria. Access of an average of $1 per hour is relatively expensive taking into consideration the “per capita” income of the country. The cost implication is more pronounced when you have to constantly keep in touch through emails, when you hold online meetings as a subtitute to physical meetings, and when you have online content to manage and keep up to date. Summing all that up could cost up to an average of $10 per week!
Sometimes, sacrifices must be made for the greater good. As much as accessing the Internet is taking a good chunk of my finances and the effect telling on my expenses, I find it hard to seperate myself from this newly found love. Its a place where my career intersects with my service to the young people of my country as Nigeria’s Information Technology Youth Ambassador. I find it difficult to convince my parents on why I spend so much of their hard earned money on the Internet and not on food or clothes. As a matter of fact, an explanation will do more harm then good — especially having understood that they attended school when the “black and white” television was the most popular representation of telecommunications....
To read more on how I exchanged my PC for access go to
www.edwardpopoola.com/blog/?p=9