‘Facebook’ shows depth of human creativity

If an Internet news report is to be believed, Facebook has in its six-year lifespan registered 500 million members. It goes on to say: "To put the number into perspective, the population using Facebook now equals that of the United States, Japan and Germany combined.

"Or two Mexicos and a Brazil. The universe of Facebook membership is less than half the population of India, but in the last year the social networking Internet site has doubled in size."

That is not just a huge responsibility for Facebook’s 26-year-old founder, but also an outstanding example of innovativeness capturing rapt world market attention. But this is also a Silicon Valley concept that allows people from any corner of the globe to ‘meet’, chat, share, trade, gossip, flirt and even be anonymous at the same time.

What became of the Safaricom solar-powered cell phone? What about the student who made remote-control gadgets to make tea, open doors and perform other chores? Did the young inventor of the bicycle-charging gizmo make any headway against a phone manufacturer? What of the professor with a portable laboratory?

Global Audience

How many other inventors have blown a chance to make a real difference in the world by not putting their vision out there? And will the proposed technopolis on the outskirts of Nairobi make a difference when bureaucrats, vested interests and NGOs will not even let the project get off the ground?

Like the discovery of fire or the mirror, the pot of creativity appears bottomless, and that any object is capable of drawing a global audience. What Facebook has done in six years, is a toast to humanity’s quest to continually broaden the boundaries of knowledge.