On the first day of Social Media Week Lagos 2016, several events were held, one of them focused on The Future of Digitization, it was hosted by Brand Soulhouette Limited.
The session ended with panelists and attendees shedding more light on the budding conflict between humanity and digitization. They discussed the threat that will probably be posed by digitization in the future against the opportunities if digitization is properly leveraged.
Some participants opined that humanity is being eroded with the advent of digitization, while another popular school of thought argued that elements of humanity could be digitized so as to leverage fully on digitization. This led to an intellectual debate led by Jide Taiwo, a travel enthusiast and writer, versus Prince Ozodinobi, an IT enthusiast and innovator.
Panelists, Timi Olagunju and Emmanuel Agha, discussed the potentials of digitization and how the marketplace will be changed by digitization in the nearest future. Olagunju clamoured for digital consciousness which he said will produce demand and supply for digital solutions.
Emmanuel Agha opined: “You cannot provide people with digital solutions in time; you provide digital solutions for the moment. Because people don’t live in time; they live for the moment”.
Agha enjoined local innovators to strive towards excellence in order to compete favourably with foreign innovators.
According to the official host of the event, Brand Soulhouette Limited, summations of opinions at the event are categorised as Digital Policies which include: ICT should not be a selective course at schools; 7-year-old pupils should be taught how to write codes; and government should support local innovations.
The Chief Strategist of Brand Soulhouette Limited and moderator of the event, Olufemi Babalogbon, explained that a decision has been made to push the ideas to the legislative arm of the federal government as bills for subsequent legislation.
Organizers announced there will be a social media debate by 6pm today between Jide Taiwo (@TheJideTaiwo) and Prince Ozodinobi (@tazer_ccc) with the hashtag #DigitalHumans. They will be debating the need to retain elements of humanity in the face of digitization.
