VSLWJ-1 Where Are You?

I am calling this series The Very Short Long Winding Journey.
I will use the acronym VSLWJ
This is part 1, titles Where Are You?

To all the new members of Digital Africa, I welcome you.
The best way to describe myself is that I am a social scientist that has become very much into technology, and especially computer/internet/Web technology. 
Digital Africa is a collective vision I have with some friends, to help Africans of all ages and genders to discover the many opportunities I have found as a result of purposeful use of the Web. 

We want to help you learn the best way to use the World Wide Web to your advantage. 
I am not saying that the way I am suggesting is the only way to do it.
But I am saying that this way has been very very effective for me. 
If you know other ways, I will still suggest you add this to your arsenal. 

I am not claiming that everything I write here is the gospel truth and that you must obey them as the law. You are free to doubt and challenge my claims.
In fact, I hope you all do, because that is how we sharpen our brains: by listening to various view points and challenging all of them frequently.

So let's go!

Google Is Not Your Friend. 

You Are Your Friend.

Google is doing it's own thing. It doesn't care about you or me. It is just doing what it was programmed to do, which is to serve information.
There are rewarding and empowering types of information. But there are also damaging and destructive kinds of information.
Google can lead you to find info that can land you the wonderful job of your dreams. Google can also lead you to some terrorist websites that have led to the deaths of teenage girls in Europe. 

So let me ask you, Where Are You?

Everything you know and can do today are things that you gradually trained yourself to know since your childhood.
You might be thinking that your teachers trained you. But the truth is that most of the effort came from within you yourself as you were paying attention to the subject those teachers were teaching.

But then, why don't I understand Geography the way I understood Economics?
Maybe it was because I immediately loved hearing about Demand & Supply, and I instantly got bored when they were talking about glaciers. 

Sometimes somethings are more difficult than others to pay attention to, but that doesn't mean that those things are inherently harder than the easier ones you paid attention to. 
What it really suggests is that the new things that you are learning have a relationship (either similarities or interesting contrasts) with some of the things you already know inside you.

So where YOU ARE NOW is what will determine how difficult or EASY it will be to go to where you wish to be. 

So the next question to you will be, what do you WANT TO BE?

You pick up your smartphone, you open your laptop, you go to Google, then you search. For what?
"Chelsea vs Tottenham football?"
"Kyle Jenner dating Wizkid?"
What are you looking for?


Whatever it is, you constantly go to the zero moment of truth to find MORE about that thing. And you do this for the other things that interest you. This is the current reality the technology has brought the world to today. And it is not only Google. Facebook, Whatsapp, Youtube. All these apps serve you information in different ways.  

If you go to Facebook, it is because something kind of curiosity was on your mind. Maybe you want to know what your friend is saying today. Or you want to see what is happening in your Whatsapp chat group. Which ever way you look at it, you are still looking for MORE information.
When you open your Whatsapp, it is not to look for Rotimi's update. Because you are NOT thinking about my updates. You go to Whatsapp to CONTINUE what you are already familiar with. You keep up with people that you have already know before. People who are interesting to YOU! 

The zero moment of truth (ZMOT) is that EASY PLACE where computers/phones have made information instantly available. If information is power, then we have become many times more powerful than people of many decades ago. But what kind of power are we going after? That's the problem.

Google is a ZMOT. Youtube is a ZMOT. 
However, Facebook CAN also BE used as a ZMOT. Whatsapp CAN BE used as a ZMOT.  But these two primarily bring information to you. 
In fact, in most cases, the info you get on Facebook and Whatsapp usually leads you to search Google or Youtube for clearer understanding. 

And yet, this doesn't mean that the info you get from Google or Youtube is always the correct answer. Not necessarily. Getting the right answer usually requires more than one attempt. 

But the crux of the matter is that these platforms give you MORE information about some things YOU are ALREADY LOOKING for.   
ZMOT is a place where you go looking for answers (for information). On Google and Youtube and Quora, you go looking for answers. On Facebook, Whatsapp, etc, you might ask your friends or connections to answer a question you have.



Finally, in the next part of this VSLWJ series, I will show that whether it is football or entertainment news or technology you are learning online, there are good ways to learn them, and there are bad ways to learn them. 
Your use of Zero Moment of Truth can help you or hinder you. This is coming in "VSLWJ-2 How You Got There"
Please stay tuned.

The little children now have the potential to LEARN many times faster and more thoroughly than older generations. They can become geniuses so quickly that we would be astonished. This is because of the power of the learning tools they will be exposed to as they grow up.  

Meanwhile, I have introduced a term here. 
Some of you are probably hearing of the Zero Moment Of Truth for the first time today.
I recommend that you read more about it and start building your curiosity about future technologies.
I also want to recommend for future purposes, anytime you come across a new term in anything you are reading online. Quickly right click on that term (the link) and open it in a new window, so that you can read up on that new term, understand it (you don't have to finish reading the whole thing), then go back to continue reading what you were reading with the term in it. Hence, during my learning journeys online, I may start reading one article, but end up reading 5 articles in the process.

So like I said, this is about helping you developing the purposeful reading tools and a personal learning system that you can use to EMPOWER YOURSELF!   

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. 
I am very VERY open to contrary opinions, so please feel free.

Also kindly follow the Digital Africa blog by clicking here. 

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COP23 Despite Rick Perry

As COP23 (The 23rd Conference Of the Parties) approaches, this absurd episode occurs!  

The United States' Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, decided to drop a bombshell just a week before the event.(►click here◄) And to be honest, if he hadn't brought Africa into his absurd argument, I would have simply just laughed for a few seconds and let it go.  

The Perry Episode

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will commence in Bonn, Germany on November 6th 2017 and will last until the 17th. 
This meeting of world leaders and leaders in business seeks to continue in its resolve to (at the very least) remind its members about their commitments to take action that will reduce, prevent, and manage the effects of excessive CO2 gases in the earth's atmosphere. 

However, Secretary Perry felt this was the best time to launch his misplaced campaign for fossil fuels, and decided to involve something that is very dear to me in the process.

Now, the funny thing about this is that I normally wouldn't have written anything about this man's absurd comments if he hadn't mentioned "Africa" in his twisted logic.

But in order to let you know why I didn't find it all that funny, here is what he said: And here is a video of him saying it:

"It is gonna take fossil fuels to push power out into those villages in Africa, where a young girl told me to my face...[blah blah blah]....when you have light, it shines the righteousness, if you will, on those acts [the acts of sexual assault.] "

Hold On! Rapists Can Be Repelled By Fossil Fuels???

Well, that is amazing!
So, I really want to talk about why COP23 matters to us in Digital Africa, but let me just quickly unpack this man's depressingly disappointing argument for one moment:

1) Let us even assume that light (produced through electricity) can actually save this "mystery" girl from sexual assault. You know, let's assume that sexual assault cannot happen at noon in any part of the world.....Did she specify that she needs fossil fuel powered light, specifically, to save her?

2) If SHE did not say it was going to take fossil fuels per-se to protect her, but Mr Perry thinks this is the right solution, then how did Mr Perry arrive at this messianic ability of fossil fuels? 
I'm curious. Is it possible that Mr Perry could simply be using this young lady's fear to conjure up an illogical argument for justifying fossil fuels a week before COP23?

3) Which is more likely to penetrate African villages today?  Is it fossil fuels OR solar energy? Ask Akon. 

4) Now.
Please, can somebody tell me this man was joking?
Because if he is serious, then these folks weren't drinking the same schnapps he was. 

You know? I actually find it a bit odd that he choses to repeatedly use the term "fossil fuels" to classify them.
Considering the circumstances, I would imagine it is probably wiser to say, "power from natural gas or coal". I dunno.  

Anyway, back to the more important matter that should be trending at this time:
Why Africa needs to pay attention to COP23.
But quickly, a background.

What is COP23?

The 23rd Conference Of the Parties - a meeting that involves all of the member nations (or parties) that form the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 
Their purpose is to collectively and individually tackle human-influenced global warming. It is important to note that in the opinion of the parties, a historic milestone was achieved in the 2015 edition - COP 21; the much talked about Paris Agreement.

What Happened At The Paris Agreement?

Although it is widely regarded as a historic success, COP21  features commitments and promises to reduce carbon output and limit global warming to lower than 2%.
It should interest many of you reading this that a lot of the recent announcements by some countries to ban the sale of gasoline-engined cars, while at the same time investing heavily in a cleaner electric grid, can be traced back to their need to honour these commitments.  

What Is Happening Now?

A significant event that was initially expected to have a mostly adverse effect on the COP21 resolutions was US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the agreement.
However, something else seems to be happening as a result. This. 
In fact, some would argue that Trump's decision is only going to make governors, mayors and corporate leaders in the country more resolved and more fired up to do what they believe is the right thing.

The Renewables Revolution Is Still In Full Swing

Regardless of what Secretary Perry says, the world is embracing this change, and therefore, everyone of us members of Digital Africa must be alert to this. 

Rick Perry's voice is certainly not loud enough to affect this global tide. Therefore, it will not likely be fossil fuels, as he thinks, that will "rescue" African girls from "sexual offences". (tongue-in-cheek btw) 

On a more serious note, the evidence is strongly piled up on the side of solar energy and storage (google the hashtag #StoredSun) having greater penetration in rural areas in Africa. 

But I am, however, going to warn that solar may not easily or quickly overcome the role of fossil fuels in African cities and larger towns that are served by an electricity grid.

We should understand that the revolution in Africa will start outwards and slowly extend inwardly. 

Take Away For Digital Africa?

I keep saying, "Be informed. Stay in the know. pay attention."

Knowing what the leaders of the world are up to is never a waste of your time. Neither is knowing how your leaders in Africa are responding to these policies and changes.
Digital Africa is, among other things, a community of Africans who are future oriented. We do not want to be left behind. We want to know what direction the world is headed. 

So if you have been following the stories from the UNFCCC since COP21, you would know that the major climate policy topic that was found to be the most important to African leaders, was that of "Capacity Building".


Therefore, as many of you that have been listening to my advise; either here on this blog, or in real life, my tip for you (for now) is to tune in to the COP23 Youtube channel.
Also consider doing google searches like, "COP22 Capacity Building in Africa" or "COP22 Capacity Building in Nigeria".
Also consider taking a look at my previous article about Climate Change. 

Always learn to variate your keywords when using Google. Reading one document is never really enough to get the full gist of a topic/idea. Always try to converge information on that topic from several different sources. 

Tell me what you think in the comments section.  
Also link up with me on LinkedIn or on Twitter.
You already know where to find me on GooglePlus.
And click here to keep up with this blog.

Here Comes The Sun

Electricity is the biggest challenge we have in most of Africa. And yet right now, the rest of the world is transitioning into using electricity as the only source of power for everything. Electric cars like Teslas, are quickly becoming the norm.

So what would Africa do when the only cars left to import are electric cars?


Let us start with an illustration that I like to use to explain my case for solar energy to my fellow Christian brothers and sisters.

So, my favorite illustration for renewables is as follows:

Above VS Below

Do you remember when Jesus said the following statement to the Jews who did not believe in Him?

And He said to them", “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world." John 8-23

Now, let's take the two types of energy sources used these days, renewable sources (mainly solar and wind) and fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas). We can also talk about hydroelectricity which still supports my argument, but I'll leave it out for time.

BENEATH:
One type of energy source comes from deep under the ground. 
4000 to 7000 feet.
We dig into the ground in order to extract the dead. 
I meant that literally.

Fossil fuels are actually the remains of dead creatures and plants. Hence "the dead".

Anyway, it turns out that men have been powering the world using the dead for a long time now. 
Men dig up the dead from around 6000 feet beneath the earth, and BURN them to use as energy and transportation.

Wait! Did you catch that? 
We burn them. 
The dead. 
And we get them from way beneath the earth. 

But you never thought of it that way, did you? 
And then how about the evil things that have accompanied oil and gas for all these years?
How about the wars? How about the Niger Delta in Nigeria?
How about all the suffering and poverty that has come out of conflicts related to oil and gas?

No?

Not enough?

Okay, let's move unto the counterparty.

ABOVE:
What is physically above all within the realm of this Earth? 
Good guess. The sun. 
A gigantic ball of blinding light. "Unapproachable light" when you really think about it. 
A "consuming fire" if you will allow (Bible reference: book of Hebrews).

We are talking of a kind of fire that was not "discovered" by men, because it has ALWAYS been there. Hahaha! 

Again, it was put there long before there were men. 

...AND science also tells us that it is the sun's heat that is even responsible for the large winds that also produce another kind of renewable power. (see John 3:8).
The Sun causes the winds to blow. 

Hmmm! Coincidence?

So it gives us light to see, keeps us warm, and also causes the winds to blow the clouds that give us rain. Trifecta! 

And NOW, my brethren, I tell you, it promises us unlimited, sustainable, and somewhat FREE energy.

A photo of the sun as a mighty and giant angel. Picture credit: https://www.guideposts.org/inspiration/angels/angels-escort-a-loved-one-to-heaven

So once again, one power source comes from beneath the Earth, and is made up of the dead that are burned.

The other power source comes from above. (GEN 1:16) It gives light and life freely every day.

I am sure that those of you who are bible-reading Christians understand why I kept emphasizing the words "dead" "below" and "burn") Lol. 

Anyway, let us leave bible class, and look at the global understanding of the problem...

The Scenario

Paleontologists teach us that the crude oil, natural gas and coal, that most of the world uses for energy today, are derived from fossils. Fossils are the remains of dead animals and plants that died millions of years ago. Don't shoot the messenger.

Scientists tell us that when animals die, they very slowly decay,  and as they are exposed to heat, along with plants around them, they are gradually broken down into large deposits of carbon and hydrogen - called hydrocarbons. The stuff that we get from coal, oil and natural gas.

This is why they are called fossil fuels, because the remains of prehistoric living things are burned in order to generate electricity for our use.

However, scientists believe that burning them is causing a dangerous problem known as climate change.
And if you haven't heard about this phenomenon before or have never paid attention to it, they warn that it is really bad!

So here is a big picture intro from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,  along with my own layman's explanation of how climate change is happening:

Illustrating The Problem:

Adaeze is hungry. She decides to start cooking bitter-leaf soup with a kerosene stove. Kerosene is gotten from refined crude oil (a fossil fuel).
As she cooks, Adaeze's room gradually starts to get warmer and warmer.
She quickly opens her two small windows and the door, and the room quickly cools down as a reasonable amount of the heat escapes from the small room, and some cool breeze enter.

Unfortunately, two minutes later, her sister and her 2 cousins enter the room as well. And they are also hungry. So they start to cook their own food with a larger pot and a larger burner.

Despite the fact that the door and windows are open, there is more heat being generated by the larger fire (since it is a larger heat source), and also by 4 people breathing in the remaining cool air in the room and breathing out their warm CO2 in that small room that Adaeze lives in.


This is a caricature of what scientists tell us is happening to the earth through Global Warming. The CO2 that we are pumping into our atmosphere is growing rapidly as more and more people burn more and more fossil fuels to create more and more electricity and to drive more and more cars. There are other generators of CO2 (like belching livestock) but those are not important for this particular article. 

The Solution

Because mankind has finally realized that we cannot go on destroying the earth with excessive CO2 gases, and because we also know that these fossil fuels will eventually run out, mankind is now moving aggressively towards renewable energy generation.

Massive scale use of clean renewable energy to generate electricity, plus a massive shift to people using electric powered vehicles is the revolution that is desired. And there is strong political will around the globe driving this change.

And eventhough a lot of people still erroneously think that renewable energy sources like wind are solar are too expensive, those who are paying full attention to the details are marching on fearlessly into the future. 
I want you, young Africa (Digital Africa), to be a part of that march.

Your Role In The Revolution?

Okay, so now that you are on board, let me tell you what you need to be doing...

As a young woman or man (boy or girl) who subscribes to the Digital Africa way of thinking, who is future oriented, and who is always eager to learn, you need to be actively keeping up with what is happening in the renewable energy industry around the world, in modern energy storage, as well as in the world of electric vehicles.

Whether or not our governments in Africa, or our big businesses are paying adequate attention to these three massive future arenas should not affect your resolve to take this piece of advice.
Because, if you think about it, when has the rest of the world ever asked for Africa's permission or input before it moved on to the future?

So I am asking you to prepare yourself.
Now, some of you that are not yet familiar with my writings may ask, "why should we prepare?" or "prepare ourselves for what?" 

Well, it's not that easy to explain....

Think back to 1990 or thereabouts, when you first heard some people in Lagos going around saying that everybody needed to become computer literate or be left out. 

Or, around 1996, when many people started talking about the internet, the global village, and the "information super highway". Many of those folks never truly understood what they were talking about, because many of them did not actually practice what they were preaching back then. 

But imagine if your parents or older siblings had heeded their call, or if you yourself immediately got up and worked very hard to learn all you could possibly learn about computers and about using the internet. 
Imagine if you applied yourself day and night to the idea that what you were learning then was going to help you get some strategic advantage in that time's future.......i.e. TODAY! 

What if you had already learned HTML and CSS to a competent level by the year 1998? Imagine how good your web design skills would be by now? Most likely, you would have gone way beyond web design to adding other skills like Python, Javascript and SQL to your arsenal by now. And perhaps you would not feel even the least bit intimidated about Machine Learning by now- which is regarded as the highest paid skill in the developed world today.

This would have made you in very high demand all over the world, and a candidate for some of the highest paying jobs on the planet. 

Yes, what if?

So again, I am asking you to prepare yourself. Because what is happening now in the energy and transportation world is similar to what happened with the dawn of the internet.

Revolution simply means change!

How To Key In To The Revolution

Use the free information on the internet to dive into the facts behind the fiction that fashions the future.
Go beyond the superficial layer. Beyond the hype. Learn about what is really happening. I can't stress this enough.
This is one of the reasons why, for those who know me, I am so passionate about Tesla. I have been paying attention! Most other people have not! Especially many of those that you see on TV claiming to be experts.

Don't just be like the majority of people that like to state meaningless cliches like, "Oh, for sure, solar is the future", without actually knowing what they are talking about. 
Be eager and determined to get a clearer picture of what are these things that are supposedly coming. This will, without question, lead you to a massive wealth of entrepreneurial ideas and economic opportunities. 

And even if you are not an engineer (let's say you are a bloody social scientist like myself) you can still discover paths within the coming renewable revolution, that do not require you to have engineering skills. 
It is all about using what you have (your enriched mind) to get what you want (a good seat at the table in the future).

I will include this powerful comment that I came across by a gentleman on Facebook...

Okay, you know what? If that didn't make much sense to you.... Or if you think there cannot be any possible opportunities for you in a future energy related industry, then tell me in the comments section below, and I will prove to you that, even if you are an undergraduate in English Department, you can still learn enough about the future of sustainable energy and transportation to give you opportunities when the time comes.

Conclusion

So, going back to my illustration, the next time you see the sun rise in the morning, remember what I told you about energy from above and energy from below.
If you are a Nigerian, consider how much and for how long you have suffered at the hands of NEPA.
Ask yourself, is it so difficult to see a future where the whole world is powered by the sun and the 4 winds of heaven?

My next article would contain more specifics:
I would talk about the solar energy business in America, I would talk about battery storage, and I will talk about the world changing Tesla electric cars.
Do check back here in about 2 weeks.
But until then, you can go through my old article about a statement from Bill Gates that has created a dangerous mistake made by some Nigerian billionaires, even though Gates himself no longer holds the position. See that here ► Article about Bill Gates And Energy.

Also consider following this blog for monthly updates if you are not already following it. Click here  ► to follow the Digital Africa blog

Also connect with me on:

Google Plus (my office) ► Google.com/+RotimiOrims

Twitter ► RealOrims, 
on Facebook ► Solar Plus Power
and on ► Quora

Use my hashtag to keep up with my renewable energy and electric car related posts on social media = #StoredSun

The African Smart City

“Smart people, places, communities, businesses and governments work together to use the modern technologies that are changing our world to make it fairer and more sustainable in the process, giving everyone a better chance of a longer, healthier, happier and more fulfilling life.”

- Rick Robinson

Now Is The Time For Africa To Join The Smart Cities Revolution!

Which of these future scenarios would you prefer?

A) One future where the super rich politicians in the highest levels of government in Nigeria are chauffeured around in luxury cars that drive themselves while a robot nanny babysits their children at home?

Or B) Would you prefer a future where even the poorest people in Mushin (rugged town within Lagos, Nigeria) enjoy the most comfortable air-conditioned public transport buses that run, not on petrol or diesel, but run mostly on the energy gotten from the refuse that is collected day to day in that very town?

I would go for the second scenario. 

But it is not like I have something against robots or self-driving cars. Nor do I have anything against the super-rich merely for being rich (I hate the kleptomaniac politicians in Nigeria though). 
It is because I agree with the Smart Cities ideology that technology should improve the quality of life for all people.

Smart Cities Are About People

Along with renewable energy and storage, the Semantic Web, and the future of farming (powered by data); the concept of building smarter cities has become one of the topics I am most interested in. 

I strongly believe that African political and business leaders should be incentivizing business and entrepreneurship around these and other areas in transformative technology. 

And as usual, in the spirit of Africa Rising, I am here to help stimulate the discussion for smart cities in Nigeria and all around Africa. This indeed falls into the mission of those of us who care about a Digital Africa, since the process of planning and implementing smart city projects would certainly cause a tremendous increase in employment, skill acquisition and prosperity for the African youth. 

YESSS!!!!!!!!!

But first, we must understand the reality and the prevalence of the problem. 

Defining The Problem: 

Urbanization

Man can control how he plans a city. But man cannot yet control how people migrate from rural areas into any city they want to migrate to.

When urbanization gets out of control, no matter how well the city was planned, bad things start happening.
Slums develop. Then crime. Costs of housing, transportation, and food go up. Collection and management of refuse (or waste) gets increasingly difficult. A lot of strain is put on clean water resources. It's all pretty bad. 

It would be wonderful if we could build cities with infrastructure that can be functionally "elastic" enough to stretch to fit the challenges of urbanization, wouldn't it?

Defining The Solution: 

Smarter Cities

A Smart City is planned primarily to improve the quality of life of the citizens that dwell (and will dwell) in it. It is judged to be "smart" because it relies on the use of digital technology to bring about such life's qualities.

Each smart city should share this common objective, yet different smart city projects would be planned and implemented differently from one another.
However, most smart city projects commonly focus on 5 main areas:
Transport, Waste Management, Energy, Food and Water Supply.

I should also mention that so far, I haven't come across any smart city project that doesn't assume that a smarter city must be a green city (i.e. powered primarily by renewable energy). I would imagine that climate change skeptics may not be quite as big on that particular pre-requisite of smart cities though.

Smart Cities Should Convert Refuse To Energy

Mitchell Joachim, an architect at Terraform One, considers the most crucial technological piece for a smart city to be a central system for converting waste (or refuse) to energy.

When you really think about this (especially those of us who live in Lagos, Nigeria), that would be a fantastic solution to have at the heart of our cities. We would be killing two really really ugly birds with one stone. 

Anyway, this "spirit" of getting power out of waste, or of bringing good things out of not-so-good things, is what smart cities are ultimately about.

Cheong koon Hean compares a smart city (or town) to a human body. She likens the buildings where activities take place to muscles, the roads to the veins and arteries which move traffic (like blood) from building to building. She also compares trees and parks to the human lungs which help to cleanse the air and give oxygen.  

Mrs Cheong then compares the sensor layer of a data-driven intelligence system to the five senses of the human body, which works with our central nervous system and brain by providing information about what happens in the environment so the human being can learn how to adapt.

Then there is Dr Rick Robinson (The Urban Technologist)

The Social Scientist Not Forgotten

I first got interested in the topic of smart cities through my friend, an architect and a lecturer at the University of Lagos, David Adio-Moses. Yet, it was while reading Dr Robinson's blog that my eyes truly opened to the necessity of the idea.
This article from Robinson's blog could open your eyes as well. 

It is possible, perhaps, that the main reason why I like Dr Robinson's guide to smart cities so much is because of his regard for social scientists (of which I myself am a natural progeny).
Indeed, like the professor and father of artificial intelligence's Deep Learning, Geoffrey Hinton, Robinson favours a world where social scientists take more significant roles in the advancement of our species.   

The fact that the problem of urbanization, slums, crime and the spread of diseases are human problems means it is a social problem. I would say it is certain that no amount of technological magic would truly solve social problems without a strong participation of those who truly understand those problems. The social scientists. 

So in conclusion, we are now no longer indifferent; in that we realize that the problems that come with urbanization are real. We also know that there can be solutions that can help our cities adapt and learn how to tame these problems of urbanization. 

It all requires lots of planning and smart technology to get on top of these problems. And the best way to begin this planning and to learn to use this technology properly is to join the global smart cities conversations. 

I will be writing more about smart cities in the future. I will also be thinking of ways in which the technologies that I am interested in, like the Blockchain and the Semantic Web can help solve some of these problems. 

Thanks for reading. 
Please offer your contributions to this topic below. Also link up with me on LinkedIn or on Twitter.
You already know where to find me on GooglePlus.

I leave you with this video for more on smart cities.