You must have heard of Susan Boyle and her competition, 12-year-old Shaheen Jafargholi. I bet you also followed the twattle (did you ask if that meant ‘twitter battle’?) between CNN and Ashton Kutcher. You knew when Barack got a book gift from Hugo Chavez and you’re probably sure you know South Africa’s next president. I won’t be surprised if you also know the exact number of friends you have! We clearly live in interesting times, and no one can deny the fact that we are exposed to much more information that at any other time in history. That’s right, it’s why we refer to it as the Information Age. And if you found out that you had actually set up an account while trying to sign up for a new web service, you are not alone. Welcome to the club! In fact, when you log out on your desktop at work, you work the blackberry on your way to the car park and the laptop is waiting for your rushing hands (and roaming fingers) at home.

The question on most minds today is how anyone can get any work done with all the information that is directed at you. Even if you move away from the internet, news channels on TV welcome you with open arms. And to make it worse, your mentor asked if you had read the new book! While information can be very empowering, it can also grind your walk to a halt if you don’t manage the overload properly. Imagine what would happen if you spent time with your eMail, did some little FaceBooking, responded to the LinkedIn messages, caught up on your favourite blogs, scrolled through online newspapers, gave a few minutes to Twitter, did some twittering from your brain (seriously, see http://is.gd/u7rx)… and you wonder why the day rolls by so fast these days? No thanks to the mobile phone that won’t even stay silent — and you can’t leave it behind because it has all your appointments listed.

On-the-job productivity does not have to go down while your information intake goes up. How to manage the overload is what I hope to share in as few paragraphs as possible (so I don’t add too much more to the information you have to process today). So, let’s get to the 6 tips that keep me — and many others — ahead of the looming overload.

1. Push and Pull Deliberately
   If you don’t deliberately push and pull the information that you want, you’re waiting to be flooded. Push information by adding content to the web too, and pull information from carefully selected sources. What takes most time is when you follow hyperlinks in an unorganized way. For example, I choose my news updates from specific alerts, eMails, blogs and websites — and I make sure I limit the number of secondary links I follow. What I’ve also learnt from pushing information out is that people direct you to more specific sources when they notice what your focus is. More on focus later.
2. Create a Funnel
   Note that noise is different from information, so create a funnel to help you seperate the chaff from the wheat. You may choose to indulge yourself when you’re ahead on your schedule, but ensure that you take advantage of subscription services provided by your carefully selected websites and blogs. You can also create alerts using such services as Google Alerts or set up TweetDeck which allows you have a quick scroll-through of Twitter/FaceBook updates on a single page (and you can now post to both services from TweetDeck on your desktop.) Personally, I use NaijaPulse as my primary update channel — and it’s linked to my Twitter page, which then broadcasts updates to FaceBook, this blog (see the right sidebar) and my website (see left frame).
3. What’s Your Online Agenda?
   If there’s a central secret to managing information overload, this must be it! Your online agenda cannot be divorced from your life’s agenda, so it helps to know what exactly you’re doing on earth so you can define better what you’ll be doing on the web. Does that mean you’ll be tied to that space? No, but it help you know when you get lost. Imagine a football match on a field without goal posts… that’s right, you’ll probably see Okocha run off to the tracks and showing off his skills in the middle of an important game. Remember the time you had a deadline and wanted to squeeze 5 minutes of FaceBook time in but you ended up with a not-so-nice presentation. “Why can’t anyone just understand how busy I am, jeez!” Really?
4. Control Search Results
   Because information travels so fast these days, you also need to be sure that what the world reads about you is what’s best for you. If you’ve never Googled your name, you should probably take a break to do that now. Have you? Welcome back. And for those who do it everyday, isn’t that a bit too much? Many people have found out that the information that search results throw up about them are scary. While you obviously can’t dictate what is thrown up each time your name is Googled, you can at least have a say. How about a personal website or blog with your own name? That is always a winner with search engines, and it’ll at least show the world your preferred information before they see the unguarded statement you made while in elementary school. By the way, the rule of the web is: “If you don’t want it showing up everywhere, don’t put it anywhere online - eMail, blog, website, comment on another blog, anywhere”. It also helps if you set up profiles on Google, MySpace, Wikipedia, YouTube, Linked In, FaceBook, Tweeter, NaijaPulse, Xing, etc, even if you’ll never use them. They are very dear to the heart f search engines, trust me. Proof? Search for ‘Gbenga Sesan in any search engine.
5. Give Time to New Knowledge
   While I agree that there’s no time, I also think it’s important that you create time to catch up with new knowledge. It may cost you a lot of money because what we pay for is clearly proportional to our level of ignorance in that subject area. You may laugh all you want, but I can’t forget how much some friends paid to open hotmail or yahoo accounts in 1999! You can use popular technology (or innovation) sections of popular global magazines or newspapers — or set up an alert for technology or innovation.
6. The Pipe will be Flooded
   I’m already taking so much of your time, so let me bring this to a close. Warning: more projects are underway, so get ready. We all got caught up in the FaceBook frenzy and almost all your friends are now on twitter (which means you’ll soon get an account). Trust me, many labs across the world are coming up with services that will soon call for your attention. Don’t say I didn’t tell you when you get close to spending all morning on various websites and then wonder why everyone’s going on lunch break when you’re yet to tick off the first to do item of the day.

I am very drawn to large cities. Having lived majority of my growing up years in very quiet Nigerian cities like Akure, Idoani and Ile-Ife (a university town that only got noisy when students raised the tempo a bit), loving the first taste of the chaos that Lagos threw at me during my first visit was quite a surprise. But that connection has manifested itself each time I find myself in a busy city: at home in Lagos or away in London, Cairo, New Delhi or New York. Maybe it’s the unplanned rythm of voices or the beauty of seeing how each person in a crowd can be so focused on their own agenda. Could it be the expectation of running into someone I know, somehow, or the fact that large cities present a central metaphor of life best captured by William Shakespeare in his 17th century comedy, As You Like It:

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances…

That metaphor came to life again last week as Temi and I made our way through London’s Mind the Gap zones, after my amazing meeting with the staff at Ashoka’s London office. The breath of the crowd was heavy, as thick as the variety that jumped at you from each face that either walked or literally ran past. Dressed in various garbs, I couldn’t help wonder what role each person played on the stage. No doubt, some were only ticking another day off the calendar while some others were in search of anything to give each day a unique meaning. Unfortunately, some are so busy trying to live that they fail to realise that they’ve now become mere statistics - just another one of earth’s 6.77 billion occupants whose presence on the stage is not different from that of those who have already exited.

We need to stop and reconnect with the dreams, activities and values that confirm that we add value to the stage before the inevitable exit. I couldn’t help thinking to myself: “how many of us in this crowd have lost our bearing in life and are actually Lost in London, only taking each moment as it presented itself.” Not just in London, or even in the major cities that clearly allow you see the daily mad rush, but everywhere. It will be a shame if we just wade through life only to find out close to our exit (and that does not necessarily mean death) that all we did was attempt to make all else but ourselves happy. Truth is that those who find the hapiness of playing unique roles on the stage of life are best equipped to make others happy. You can’t give what you don’t have, and I love the way an Igbo proverb puts it: “a naked man can not put his hand in his pocket.”

My Reply to X’s eMail may be useful follow-up reading even though he wasn’t Lost in London, I met X in Lagos.

Young Activists Initiative Nigeria (YAIN) in collaboration with Microsoft Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative Nigeria (MISSPIN) is organizing a seminar on Youth and Cyber crime to be held on May 23, 2009 in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

The Seminar would cover the following presentation topics:

• Cyber crime and Youth
• Alternatives to Cyber crime
• Youth as Development Actors
• How youths can contribute to Re-branding Nigeria.

Each paper should be able to state specific and practical components as it relates to youth.

Criteria for selection will include:

• Originality
• Practicable
• Level of application by youth

Interested youth leaders should send papers in any of the topics listed above.

Paper format: MS Word or Power Point

Deadline for submission of papers is May 01, 2009.

Papers would be reviewed till 9th May, 2009 and selected persons would be contacted from May 11, 2009.

Please note, presenters are to bear cost of travel.

Please provide the following information when you submit your paper:

• Name:
• Date of Birth:
• Phone Number:
• Contact:
• E-mail:
• Short biography about yourself.

For more information, contact: youngactivists [at] gmail.com or call +234 802 249 37 98.

Connect Africa is looking for a short slogan that promotes the beauty of Africa for its maiden T-Shirts. Readers are therefore invited to suggest cool slogans of not more than 3 phrases. The author of the best slogan will get 3 shirts for free and profile will be featured in the Connect Africa Magazine. Four other finalists will receive one complimentary T-shirt each. All users will be invited to vote for the best.

Rules:

Slogan should state something unique about Africa and slogan must reflect an African theme
• All Africans and lovers of Africa are invited to participate
• Users can suggest as many slogans as possible but only the five top rated slogans will be selected for the final voting
• Slogan should not be more than 3 phrases
• Slogan can also be in a local African language but with interpretation
• Make it clean and simple… no use of foul language

Submit your suggestions to Connect Africa using this link.

Working so hard and not telling the world about your project is like winking in the dark. The GAID Committee of eLeaders for Youth & ICT, in partnership with TakingITGlobal, present an opportunity for young people to showcase their work in using ICTs for development. We believe that there are many young people doing amazing things in various corners of the world and we wish to bring them to light through a publication of best practice efforts. Sharing the stories of the work you do will also help others know that the power of one is bigger than we often assume, and we hope that your stories will inspire many people who will have access to the publication at this year’s UN General Assembly in New York – and those who will read the stories online.

What’s next? Click here to submit your best practice effort.

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