In his first piece for True/Slant,  Internet wunderkind, Gaurav Mishra, takes aim at Thomas Friedman’s notion of flat, equitable world. Mishra says that the title is misleading, much the way most are, to sell more copies. Technology empowers the oppressors and the oppressed equally and, while the playing field might be leveled, the mighty get to keep moving the goalposts.

My research on the intersection of technology and society has shown me that the world is hardly flat, or even flatter than before. Internet and mobile technologies are like alcohol: they strengthen the tendencies you already have, give you permission to engage in behavior you already want to.

Mishra also said of technology :

They transform some of us into cosmopolitan, global citizens and others into entrenched nationalistic bigots. They makes open societies even more open and closed societies even more closed.

I like Mishra’s argument, though I question the notion that in all cases the Internet simply amplifies the existing; for every Great Firewall of China, there is a nation of bloggers, like Iran.

The only objection I would make is that technology creates opportunity where none existed beforehand. Corrupt, oppressive governments have a new means to snoop into the lives of their citizens. The citizenry itself has a new way to spread memes and share what they are feeling, as long as they manage to stay one step ahead of their leaders.

This afternoon I was interviewing the owner of Tuff City Tattoos about the global spread of graffiti art through the Internet. In many places where graffiti books aren’t sold, flourishing graffiti scenes exist because the painters can keep up on global trends via the Web. I recognize this is only one example, about art, nonetheless, but a flat world is not a zero sum game.

[Editor's Note: Nigeria is Africa's sleeping giant and it could one day be a global technology powerhouse. There are a number of factors that the country has in its favor. While numbers vary considerably, Nigeria has the largest university system of any sub-Saharan African nation, with more than 725,000 students on 76 campuses, according to AllAfrica.com.  In the U.S. Nigerians have highest rate of advanced degrees of any immigrant group and both abroad Nigerians are heavily represented in medicine, engineering, business and hard sciences.

Both at home and abroad, Nigeria's 150 million citizens represent tremendous untapped human capital. With a stable national government, Nigeria has much to show the world and one area of considerable promise is in the field of Web entrereneurship.

Chronicling the rise of Nigerian Web ventures as the stars of tomorrow is Loy Okezie, the founder of Startups Nigeria. Okezie has been featured on Global Voices,  White African and Appfrica, among others. Okezie is a serial entrepreneur and a bit of a practical joker. He really had me going on April Fools when he said that Startups Nigeria was shutting down due to criticism. Touchy.]

TechTrotter: What is your experience with startups in Nigeria?

Loy Okezie: I grew up with computers and although I didn’t have my first PC until I was in the University,  I have developed a lot of interest in the technologies, the companies, the people and in more recent times the developments in the new web space. And I follow all the major players – TechCrunch, Mashable, VentureBeat, GigaOM, RWW and more.

Tell me more …

Robert Neuwirth, the author of Shadow Cities, A Billion Squattes, a New Urban World, posted a story to his blog about computer sales in the Nigeria.

Tell me more …

CLICK the play button to watch the video. [From: WSJ.COM]

One of the places I considered visiting on this trip was Seoul, the capital of South Korea and the most wired city on the planet. Friends who have been, or are from Seoul tell me what an amazing place it is, though not always for its ease of connectivity.

My classmate Ko Im posted this ‘Frontline,‘ story on Facebook about Internet addiction in Korea and I encourage anyone with the time to watch. I learnt recently that wifi speeds in Seoul are faster than home broadband in the U.S. and I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case.

While the ubiquity of digital communication and cybergaming is a given in S. Korea, from watching the film,  something between people has been lost along the way. So much Internet access has led to over 800,000 young Koreans at risk of addiction, according to the video.

Here in the States, we’re not at that point yet, but I don’t know what is holding us back. Our consumer technology is laughable when compared with Europe and Southeast Asia, but when our broadband speeds increase and the Internet is available in every home, will we lose touch with reality and start seeking even more comfort from computers.

I know that could never happen to me, I’m just a news junkie.

I feel worthless if 3 AM rolls around and I haven’t worked my body into the ground. Call it an unfortunate side effect of being a graduate student. Although I spent the day on the couch, my fingers have wandered over the world’s vast surface, in search of a story and still, If I live to 150, I won’t have done half the things I hoped to accomplish today.

Today people paid good money to hear me speak about social media as part of a panel for the New York African Film Festival.  I hope everyone left feeling as though they got their $7 worth. I know I learned a ton.

A few weeks back I was contacted about sitting on the panel and I was later told my name came up because my dean could remember how to spell out my email address over the phone. However it came about, I can now call myself an expert ; ) My co-presenters, who had already achieved expert status through their various exploits were  Brad Balfour, panel organizer, Cheryl Duncan, Darren Ernest and Wilson Morales.

Although I was on the dais, I was taking copious notes about how to get Techtrotter moving, the same way a filmmaker would court his or her audience.As much as I would like to distill everything I learned into a post, the most important thing are the action steps I took as a result of the  day’s events. On the way home, I bought a Quamut search engine optimization crib sheet from  Barnes and Noble to get the traffic flowing. It may also be about time I put together a trailer for the project and listed myself on IMDB.

[update] I just listed myself in IMDB FWIW. LOL

After the panel was over, I spoke with a number of interesting people including director George Amponsah who is originally from Ghana and now lives in London. Amponsah was screening his film ‘The Importance of Being Elegant,” about the Congolese musician Papa Wemba and the Sapeur movement he created. The Sapeurs worship before an altar of consumerism, buying the most lavish clothes the streets of Paris and Brussells have ever seen. If you would like to know more, I encourage you to check out the full-length film here. On my computer the sound cuts in and out, but as I told Amponsah today, ‘The Importance of Being Elegant” is a remarkable documentary work.

If you love what you do, you never go to work. With that said, I’m ready to get cracking on this project. I haven’t felt this passionate about anything since I went off to college the first time at age 18.

My mission is to travel through the world of tech and visit the margins of innovation most people in the space ignore: South Africa, Nigeria, Argentina Brazil, Philippines and Ukraine.  In these countries is the potential for the next game changing technology, if the right conditions are met.

While we think of tech hubs in Silicon Valley, CA, Bangalore, India, or Silicon Wadi in Tel Aviv, there are thousands of competent programmers in Kiev–the fourth most in the world, Manila and Lagos. It is my intention to meet with them and discover their hopes for the future and uncover some of the obstacles that are holding them back from their greatest potential.

In Brazil, the rules for starting a new business are so convoluted that it may be hard to get a startup off the ground or keep it running. In Nigeria, with minimal in-home internet penetration, and frequent fluctuations in power, the thought of maintaining servers and computer labs might seem ludicrous. These and many others are questions I will address in the weeks and months ahead as Tech Trotter makes its way in the big, wide world.

If you live in Manila, Kiev, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, Lagos or Cape Town, expect to hear from me soon!

One of the most rewarding experiences of my life was my trip to India this summer to teach children at the Parikrma schools in Bangalore.

I spent three weeks teaching journalism and creative writing at three school across the city. In total I had about 120 students ages 9-16.

During my stay in Bangalore eight syncrhonized explosions killed two people and wounded several more. One of the blasts happened near one of the schools where I taught, but fortunately neither myself nor any of my students were harmed.

When I returned to school the next day, many of the children were rightly confused and upset by the violence that had struck their city and made them feel threatened. In response I asked them to write letters to the terrorists, both to channel their feelings and to express them in written form. A brief snippet of this lesson can be found in the video.