@JohnDoe, you are welcome, I'll try and hang around as much as I can, though pressured by time. :-) Now you have hit the nail on the head about Solar Powered lamps. You see our problems and solutions are very different from the rest of the world and we should be using our own systems to resolve these problems. And which is exactly why we need incubators with financial backing for the initial 10 years or so, so as to create the right environment. Once we have such, the baton can be passed and we will be having a different discussion. And when you take the example of the digitization process, if it was done locally, there was a very good chance that someone locally would have created a scan script that would have increased performance. Its all inter-connected, how much we can do and to what level. When you have chances lost like the digitization project, we are going no where. This was my same comment on the KIE CD/DVD thread. We possibly may have created the first anti-piracy system for Africa, gotten it marketed and also gotten VC capital to really push the project. I can relate to this, I only get 3 hours per week to do any code or such, as bills and other things need to be paid so my focus is on my current career. I can imagine other developers facing similar problems yet are supposed to produce some great thing. We are in deep sh.t, the sooner we fix these problems and are serious in creating a high tech sector, the sooner we start the race towards the goals. Back in the 60s and the Race to the Moon, how much pressure was the US under from the USSR? How much finance did they commit to get a Man to the Moon? Just think about it. Linus would have never been able to send someone to the Moon. Rgds. On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 3:40 PM, John Doe <fivepings@gmail.com> wrote:
@ aki,
But is Kenya's problem social media? We should use all the technology at our disposal to solve roblems that affect us directly.
A good example is Wandongo solar powered lamps. IS this something we should patent and deploy enmasse in Africa? I believe yes. Its a no brainer to me.
Do we need a Kenyan facebook? I believe no. Its a no brainer too.
BTW, you should hang around the list more often. You catalyse interesting discussions....