Terkura
A 14 year-old boy, Terkura Unongo, has launched a website, http://www.theimongo.com, for social networking. Though the website might not be as sophisticated as the likes of Facebook, seems as a good invention coming from a young Nigerian.
The early exposure that Terkura, an eighth Grade Student of Hillcrest Middle School, Jos, Plateau State, had to the Internet seems to have paid off. His parents gave him the support to explore his talents in the digital world, and provided him with gadgets. As a result of this he opened his first e-mail address at eight, joined Facebook two years after and other popular social networks in quick succession.
Apart from the fact that his parents gave him the support to explore his talents in the digital world, his computer science teacher also inspired him.
Terkura, who hails from Benue State, says, Well, I think I became IT-savvy right from the day I started using a computer, as my parents provided the atmosphere for me to acquire various computer devices. But my potentials got sharpened in 2011 when my computer teacher basically showed me the fun in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).
It was during a class where we were told to make a website based on any topic of our choice, he taught the class the basics, e.g. images, colours, fonts, etc. of the language and I was challenged to go on and further my knowledge on the language.
He explains that after being fascinated by the workings of various social networks, coupled with the knowledge of programming languages he had acquired, he felt he could also make a difference by starting a social network of his own.
According to him, the name, Imongo, is taken from the Tiv native dialect which simply means, Gathering, He explains that he picked the name because he feels it really described his main objective of connecting people to enable them to meet one another, keep in touch with those they already know, and make new friends at the same time staying entertained and informed.
He adds that he was fascinated by what he could do with HTML so he immediately decided to learn Cascading Style Script and other languages, including JavaScript, Java, and VB. He created various websites for school projects, and for fun though never published them.
I felt I could do something positive, and then I decided to create something that would impact the lives of potential members from all over the world. So I went on to work on Imongo, and I am still working on it to take the online social experience to a whole new level.
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Boy, 14, launches website for social networking