Thursday, November 26, 2009

LIGHTUPNIGERIA FLASH MOB

What is a flash mob?
Remember them from five years ago?
This is just the flavour of madcap hilarity we need to energize #lightupnigeria. One person picks a date, a time, and a funny central place, emails/texts race across the town within hours, and a crowd of thousands (or maybe just fifty) materializes somewhere: in VI, at a park in Ikeja or Maitama, or in Houston or London. A lightupnigeria flash mob. Hey, why don't you do it, be the first, don't forget to text me oh (my number is on my fb page)

http://www.wordspy.com/words/flashmob.asp
flash mob
(FLASH mawb) n. A large group of people who gather in a usually predetermined location, perform some brief action, and then quickly disperse. —v., —adj.
—flash mobber n.
—flash mobbing pp.

Example Citation:
The Internet has spawned a gaggle of new verbs — Googling, surfing and flaming are words most of us are used to hearing in everyday conversation. Now you can add "flash mobbing" to that list.

In recent weeks, New Yorkers have been using forwarded e-mails to coordinate "flash mobs," or not-so-random crowds that appear and dissipate within a matter of minutes. Is it performance art? The cutting edge of a new social movement? Or just an easy way to flummox carpet salesmen?

To protect the planned serendipity of each event, participants aren't told exactly what the mob is supposed to do until just before the event happens. For the most recent New York happening on July 2, participants passed around an e-mail telling them to assemble at the food court in Grand Central Station, where organizers (identifiable by the copies of the New York Review of Books they were holding) then gave mobbers printed instructions regarding what to do next.

The result: Shortly after 7 p.m., about 200 people suddenly assembled on the mezzanine level of the Grand Hyatt Hotel next to Grand Central Station, applauded loudly for 15 seconds, then left.
—Maureen Ryan, "All in a flash: Meet, mob and move on," Chicago Tribune, July 11, 2003

Earliest Citation:
As proof that some people have way too much time on their hands, consider the "flash mob" phenomenon.

Organizing a "flash mob" basically involves e-mailing a bunch of people with instructions to show up at a certain place for a few moments, then disappear.

According to www.cheesebikini.com, salespeople in New York were a bit confused when there was a huge, instant gathering around a particular rug. The flash mobbers agreed to tell the salespeople they all lived together in a warehouse in Queens and were thinking of buying a rug. The crowd dissipated after precisely 10 minutes. Poof.
—Kim Lamb Gregory, "Briefs," Ventura County Star, July 1, 2003

First Use:
Our senior Manhattan correspondent David Danzig reports that New Yorkers are using e-mail to coordinate "inexplicable mobs" — huge crowds that materialize in public places and suddenly dissipate 10 minutes later.
—Sean Savage, "Flash Mobs Take Manhattan," cheesebikini.com, June 16, 2003

Sunday, November 22, 2009

www at work

Googled "I Hate Criticism" today. Got some helpful, and funny, articles that helped me relax after being criticized with nowhere to turn for relief.
You can search *anything* to suit the situation you're going through, and it helps so much to find immediate help from virtual friends.
Comment if you tried it...

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Fine Boy, No Pimples :)

Please read the WIRED Interview of Dr. Balagadde at TED

I was just clicking around the web, saw this picture, stopped to look and who was it but dear former Caltecher, Frederick Kigali Balagadde, PhD, and now TED Fellow.

I happen to know that he don try! Remember when he was getting stupid questioning for theft and the like, because he was working all hours of the night and being black looked suspicious. (Like the renowned scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr.) I even lent him a book once. And shouted "FKB" really loudly when he graduated. Yes, yes, I'm claiming to know the guy :) I don't understand how they do all that fancy micro-fluidics stuff that they do, but I do know that he is a lovely young scientist, who is already doing great things. More power to him.

Please also read his TED Fellow profile and interview, it's a little easier to understand :)

Friday, November 13, 2009

Don't just rebrand, do something!

Nigeria is hosting U-17. Got stuck in traffic last night because the match was in Lagos. Up Naija!

I'm linking to this video of Jay Jay Okocha because the guy has a heart of gold. He just got done training dozens of young Nigerians in an intensive camp for a promotional for Oceanic Bank called Talent Hunt. He is down-to-earth and just great. And in addition to name recognition: when you travel and say you're Nigerian, don't people immediately start naming football players - that's what happens to me o. In addition to that, now he's given more to those youngsters that he trained, and to their families.

Enjoy Okocha's game

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Careers in Africa

Career Fair in Houston
November 20-22, 2009


UPNAIRA. Read More on Money Talk at www.UPNAIRA.blogspot.com

Saturday, November 07, 2009

AJEGUNLE.org

I just can't keep this to myself.
Echoes from Ajegunle reports on Ajegunle.org, a Nigerian NGO which seeks to create better livelihoods for young people in Nigeria’s underserved areas through ICT opportunities, entrepreneurship training, short-term internships, and a Graduate Loan Scheme.
Project Video.
Meet the People
Ajegunle.org

UPNAIRA. Read More on Money Talk at www.UPNAIRA.blogspot.com

Previously on UpNaira

 

Followers