Its a wet, windy afternoon and i'm seated at a park somewhere inside the central business district impatiently waiting for communication about a business deal from a colleague. As i watch hordes of people - as diverse and numerous as the insects that inhabit the earth - going about their business, i can't help but imagine the torrent of electronic messages, email or otherwise, that traverse the world's communication systems and infrastructure and how, as a double-edged sword, this invention has both been instructive and destructive.
Consider some of the statistics:An April 2010 estimate by Radicati Group put the total number of email messages sent daily at 294 billion! This means that, on average, 2.8 million emails were sent every second in 2010 and 90 trillion that same year. But here's the punch line: 90% of these messages were spam and viruses!
The number of text messages sent daily is just as gargantuan with some sources claiming that 4.1 billion text messages are sent every day in the U.S.
In Kenya, the numbers may not be as large, considering the smaller number of subscribers and mobile networks providing the text messaging service.There is, however, little doubt about the content of the bulk of text messages sent everyday and there needs to be developed an electronic way to curb the illegitimate use of this service. Personally, i have experienced a lot of 'bullying' via text messages, an occurrence that many a Kenyan will corroborate.I have always wondered how some third parties end up sending me messages about a promotion or party that i have no interest in whatsoever. I have tried to use a block list feature in vain because the originators of the text messages change their numbers about as often as i blink my eyes!
That much-anticipated text from my colleague finally made its way out of the queue into my inbox amid a sea of promotional and fraudulent text messages. As i stroll out of the park to my next engagement, i can't help but imagine how much more efficient, safe and private our methods of communication would be, devoid of the 90% or thereabouts of illegitimate content. We have to find an ingenious way to tackle this problem. We need to. Like an immigration official meticulously scanning the passports and belongings of thousands upon thousands of individuals aspiring to enter a country's borders, we need an electronic solution that combs through the multitude of SMS messages (and Emails) and weeds out the 'interlopers'. The current solutions have only scratched the surface.
Who will be the next Gates or Zuckerbug? A fortune awaits the innovator who can solve this conundrum once and for all
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