Mworia's article is great and I might add a few pointers as well. Am glad that Mworia has mentioned the need for right education etc and I will not go back to that. My point is that the fibre will be useless ...unless the entire business community realign their business processes towards IT and the web for that matter. e.g 1.I dont see why I cannot get my bus ticket to the coast or migingo online!!!!! 2.Why do all ministries waste alot of money putting tenders on the newspapers? 3.What stops Kenyatta Hospital to store their records on a searchable database....... 4.What stops a police station from having a simple excel sheet for an OB....... I guess what am trying to say is that the landing of the fibre will not solve our business process issues. You will be suprised,that even big technological companies/ISPs dont have web based processes. The other day I was so shocked when a receptionist at Nokia EAst Africa and HP respectively told me that I need to drop a proposal to their offices.When I asked if there is an e-mail address I can at least send the proposal to.They said no......so how will fibre optic help this people!!!!!!! In this day and era..you still tell people to drop proposals.And this is Nokia and HP we are talking about. People talk of developing local content,as if it is a product you will buy from the shop!!! no! local content will auto-generate if you align your business process with IT and the web and if you constantly make people visit your website. If the business community does not do this then I guess we will just go to facebook,yahoo,tweeter,gmail FASTER with the fibre ...and nothing else. On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 8:23 AM, Tim Kamau <maqtim@gmail.com> wrote:
I agree. Great article. Serves as a great pointer(and a reminder for some) of the fundamentals.....
On 6/5/09, Dennis Kioko <dmbuvi@gmail.com> wrote:
Mworia's paper is really on point. Sad fact that most Kenyan companies are not exploiting the large mobile audience that we have on the internet, that has been left to facebook to take care of.
Adding to that, i think that the potential is far from reached, especially with many people buying powerful phones that they just use for messaging and calling.
I think that CCK and the mobile phone companies should invest in educating the public on how to utilize mobile data. ther is also the fact that many kenyans are unaware that ther phones have the ability to work as modems without any additional investment.
Being a consultant, I have encountered situations where many people invest in the famous chinese phones, which are largely crippled by the lack of j2me. the problem with this ommisiion is that the phones inbuilt browsers are not powerful enough for normal mobile surfing, with problems such as running out of memory and inability to process web languages like opera mini, ucweb and bolt do.
this is a good place for CCK to srat off.
As for ICT firms, the best way they can monetize their content is by moving to mobile advertising . Facebook & Google stabnd to make a lot of money if they could come up with mobile advertising specifically for the African market.
As for local content developers, I would suggest that you invest in mobile sites for your domain. There are many free tools on the net that enable you to make your site available in both PC and mobile versions, without you putting in a lot of work.
I hope you are all ready to take the challenge!
2009/6/3 Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com>
great article :)
On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 4:46 PM, Mworia Wilfred Mutua <wmworia@gmail.com>wrote:
Every once in a while I do something that puts me right in front of the firing range, literally. This could be one of them. On Monday I had the chance to talk with some people, and found I was raising some matters I have raised several times before, so when I got home, I decided to sit and write down my thoughts. This is what I came up with. Criticisms good and not so good are all welcome. :) These are just my thoughts in the form of a paper: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16043810/The-Making-of-a-Revolution
I am not saying I have it all figured out, I am sure there are people on this list who are greater authorities on this issue than i am, I'm just saying hey, this is what i think and i am sharing it... lol
-- Regards,
Mworia Wilfred Mutua
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