My never-ending "alias" story

Dear friends and family,

This is a note of appreciation for all your efforts in trying to give me names that you thought befit me or names that you subconsciously felt describe me. It is also my way of reminding you that my baptism had no hitches.

It all started in primary school in Uganda, when friends (Duncan Kawooya and Paul Rugambwa et alia) called me "Italiano". OK, just so that we are clear, a child born of two white Italians can never be my colour. I'm told this was because they often saw me in the company of Italians and heard me speak the language as well. Also because, I had everything apart from my school uniform, made in Italy.

I went on to junior high school, where I was called "byala" (by Dennis Ssekitto and his cronies). Finger or toe nails in luganda are called "enjala" so "byala" would mean big nails or it could be the short form of one of my names Sebyala, which means chief of reaping since "kubyala" is the luganda verb for harvesting. Then came (Bisoto) who referred to me as Mr Bean; really? I neither look like one Rowan Atkinson nor did strange comedy for a living. I'm not a white man either! His name sounds like a misspelt "bisooto", luganda for mud.

Moving on to senior high school, where (Tom Eloyu et alia) called me "Kulezze" (read crazy). I was not crazy and I'm not. Also here, they (Keith Kayondo and other fools) called me "Frenchman"; what?!? I will reserve my comments since there is no space between French and man.

Into Kenya, in college, they (Ernest Sethieli and Oscar Chogo) decide to call me "Mr Pussy". I learnt that this was because I loved cats, I still do but if that was the reason, you could as well have called me "Leo".

"Yala" was my nickname at University level because one (Simon Githaiga) and I liked to use "just a little bit" which  would be "ka yala just" (a mixture of English and slang luganda).

After graduation, came (Edwin Kiptoo) whom I call "Chiputwo" because of one (Davis Ntare) who found it best to say it that way one Saturday morning or was it Friday night? Anyway, Edwin called and still calls me "kasepiki" and lately "kaseps" as a short form. This word means "small saucepan" in luganda spoken in some parts of Uganda. He might have heard this from a song by Ugandan artiste Bebe Cool (Moses Ssali), kasepiki, which he likes but I wonder why this should be my nickname. Ntare calls me "blood", luganda slang for your very close relative.

Some of the boys I used to play basketball with (Fredrick Mwaluda - RIP and others) used to call me "Allan noble". Fred still does; I must say this is one of the real descriptions of who I am!

Today, some Liverpool FC fans in Kenya (David Mjei, Josiah Karanja, Tush Ole Muyah, etc.) call me "D'Lubega" which sounds like "dilubega". I have no problem with that. Actual pronunciation is "Dhubega".

I cannot forget (Martin Ngatia, Wairimu Gitau, George Njuguna and Richard Munyao) who call me "Munosh"; I don't know why. I call George "Njagna" (that's Njuguna in a careless cockney accent) and for Martin, I maintain the good old alias "tin man" as opposed to the braw Latino one "Tinos". For Richard, I simply maintain "Munyao".

As for my adult friend (Baker Saku ), he has called me "AM" (for Allan Munobwa) and lately "Mr Munobwa", which another friend (Ann Matheri) calls me too, and that is OK. I just hope he can simply call me "Mr EM" as this is what is proving to be popular now, thanks to social media.

Family have tried all things: sister (Janet Ndagire) has called me "Kafumisi" (which means one who pinches?); I don't know if I pinched people a lot when I was a child. Once in a while she calls me "muganda wange" which simply means "my sibling".

(Paul Kabaale), whom I call "chipolopolo" or "papa vogo" (because of the powerful range rover he owns that ladies like) calls me by the first name of any girl I would be dating; so if I dated hundreds, I wonder how confused he would get.

As for (Luwambo), from junior high school to date, he has maintained "muko", luganda for brother-in-law, yet none of us will marry the other's sister.

At work, some people refer to me as "kamwana". This is a Kikuyu (Kenyan most popular local language) word for "young man". It could be attributed to what one immigration officer called me one day, during a "routine check" to ascertain that non-Kenyans operating business in Kenya have all requisite documents. The same in reference to the current president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta. His father, Jomo Kenyatta was the "baba" (big man).

Today, many new and great friends and business partners (Isaac Kyagaba, Isaac Sengooba, Ferguson Paul, Daniel Baguma, Naurice Balinda, Jamil Matovu, Charles Babumba, Martin Musinguzi, Hakim Salum, Hassan Kawesa, Hussein Kigozi and Charles Okubal) call me Mr M.

I hope in future people can address us (her and I) as "Professor and Mrs Munobwa".

Digital piracy is good for artistes

What is digital piracy? Taking a premium product and using freely and gladly? Circumventing payment in a smart way? Is it good or bad? Is it about payment or authority-to-use? I call digital piracy sharing for fame and good business!

What is piracy in the artistes' world? Artistes "make money" and "earn fame" with the help of the public so they should love it if their work is shared widely among people. They need two things: money and fame!

An artiste will arguably sell the same number of copies even if thousands of people enjoyed their stuff freely. The more something is heard or seen, the higher its chances of being bought. We pay for things we like, things done by people we like or things we have heard so much about. Therefore, it will never make complete sense to "force people to pay". Artistes do not make all their money from musics sales. They make a lot at concerts and tours.

Before the internet revolution of the 90s and computers becoming household items, we used magnetic tapes and phonograph records - sharing was cumbersome.The advent of modern disks, flash memory and the internet greatly contributed to the growth of piracy and FAME!

Piracy is free practical marketing. Piracy contributes to real fame. Piracy is a way to taste the whiskey before liking the whiskey. Imagine how many bands, performers, songs or movies you would have known about if piracy never existed? Imagine a good TV show in the UK, which does not show in Phnom Penh - wouldn't piracy make the show and its artistes more popular?

Popular Colombian artiste Shakira said: "it's the democratization of music in a way; and music is a gift, that's what it should be, a gift."

Canadian music legend Neil Young said: "Piracy is the new radio."

"Touring makes up for piracy...you know how much you can earn off touring, right?" - American sensation Lady Gaga.

My friends, digital piracy is good for us all!

Social networking: emerging "war" of two forces

Social networking is slowly becoming a war between Google and Facebook. This can easily generate a huge debate among many professionals, bloggers and proponents of particular social networking websites, however, we shall examine the facts.

A few years ago, Hi5.com (2003) was looking to be the king of social networking as it was the first truly global social networking website. Its functionality then wowed many a blogger. It seemed to make everything look simple and "all-in-one". In fact, the membership numbers grew fonder and faster. Where as there were many social networking sites, most of which were culture, region or profession based, such as Bolt.com (1996), AsiaAvenue.com (1997) and HR.com (1999), general (photo sharing and blogging) social networking was arguably given prominence by Hi5, Perfspot and Bebo.

Facebook (2005) started off as "another" attempt at social networking but its vision was clear and perhaps the individuals at Facebook Inc took this kind of business a little bit more serious as opposed to just a simple revenue-generating venture on the web. Facebook came with Google's style of simplicity and focussed its strength on the almost real-time updating function; Facebook had very well mastered the dangers of giving some functionality as a premium service to members in social networking (this had led to the stagnation in growth of many "people" websites); Facebook employed real experts; overall, Facebook was patient. Facebook is the force it is today because of all these.

Twitter, which grew mainly after Facebook (The latter should be credited for its stability during testing times) also gained its fair share of users which is larger than most other "people" sites thanks to its micro-blogging innovation. However, it looks like Twitter used the micro-blogging strategy for penetration. In as much as social net-workers just want to write a few things on their spaces (walls), there is still need for more space in case one has a lot more to express; this explains why Twitter might end up in the path of Facebook in one form or another.

Google on the other hand already had its muscle in web search and online advertising (this, they probably knew better than anyone else). Google had email (a tool that can effectively be used to profile people's behaviour online as we've already seen) - the same can be used intuitively by any smart product manager. Google was already familiar with social networking with Orkut (2004), popular in Brazil and India which are very populous nations. Their subsequent acquisition of YouTube was such a killer. Google was and still is used to competition (it never destabilises them, in fact they always seek to compete with none if their attempts at acquiring Yahoo and Facebook are anything to go by) but most of all, Google "the name"! Google's brand did not boast being the biggest in the IT industry but was and is easily the brand that can resonate anywhere in the world. Google introduced their own social networking site Google plus which is gaining cognisable growth in numbers due to its simplistic yet graphical look, not forgetting its power to give users loads of control.


The Facebook brand could easily go head-to-head with the Google brand in the US but on a global level, Google is more profound and respected. While Facebook constantly make improvements to their tool so as to keep members in an ever-changing and exciting environment and probably maintain its bargaining chip in the online advertising business; and twitter will continue its relevance especially among socialites and media personalities, Google plus has a concrete stepping stone and a stronger membership retention base if not wider growth opportunity.

When we speak of social networking sites today, we stop at Facebook, Twitter and Google plus. A wise person once said: "there was still a lot of room for growth in social networking..." With the groundbreaking emergence of Google plus, as it is now there is only enough room left for war!