>From another thread, Ndungi said:

A more practical approach to tap the sub-saharan potential would be to create incentives for developers from third world countries to contribute their modifications/hacks/bug fixes back to the community at the `eureka` moment. Seeing that the incentive is obviously financial (or the prospect thereof) , the question is whether it can be met for the African developer. Or do we just leave it to those among us who have plenty of time on their hands ?

What would make any of these ideas work? IMHO, none of them pass the incentive-test. They depend too much on goodwill, they depend on undefined/unproven monetization strategies, they are gut-level responses that need much much more refining. Sorry to appear too negative, but I'd hate to see skunk-ke go down a wild-goose chase (especially if others have been down a similar path, with unpleasant results).

I honestly don't know/have the answers to these questions either. But I think it's always better to stay still and contemplate some more rather than head down a path that has a *high probability* of failure (given similar other attempts elsewhere).

I vaguely recall someone this list lament the lack of action on skunks-ke (I forget his name but I think he works with/for Zuku). I think the biggest reason is that there appears to be little or no incentive for most ppl to get behind the ideas. The ideas are great but the incentives within those ideas appear not to have been considered much.

Perhaps that's where skunks-ke should focus their energies? Not on new ideas but on refining existing ideas and properly "incentivizing" them?

"just my thots" (to borrow aki's flame-suppressing sign-off)

saidi

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 2:26 PM, Steve <sikileng@gmail.com> wrote:
let the nominations begin...........

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 1:05 PM, Peter Karunyu <pkarunyu@gmail.com> wrote:
We could have skunkers who are not regular bloggers to contribute articles once in a while; for example, i think Wash would have a few things to say about DTMF, aki would not miss a few things to say about e-commerce. Each skunk here has a unique skill-set and thus a unique perspective.

That way, there is variety. Variety is good. Different points of view on the same issue are also good.




On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 11:30 AM, Jacob Ayienda <jacobayienda@gmail.com> wrote:
the blog can make money but not immediately with really good planning.

Advertising
----------------
this can be both direct banner ads to mentions but of course this
would depend on the amount of traffic driven to the site.

Consultancy
------------------
If you are an authority on issues...then most people both
proffesionals or not are likely to consider it for advice

I totally disagree charging membership fees...its tempting but no
Kenyan will ever pay for such a service...and the point here is to
maximise traffic to the site.

The other issue is the content. As much as the SKWs forum focuses on
FOSS or Linux this are topics that should just be left to the
forum...reason being if one intends to get a wide audience then the
focus should be limited to topics understood by the majority.

I think thats enough talk. Time for a Plan of Action...

Step 1
----------
Identifying the Chief Editor ... roles are to:- draft guidelines for
post, ensure consistency and relevance in post, remove / ban posts
that do not comply

Step 2
---------
Get volunteer bloggers for various key topics ... roles are to:- each
blogger will post at least once a day on the subject matter they are
most comfortable with and must conform to the set guidelines and the
post must either be fact or if fiction must be specified as such

Step 3
----------
The blog needs to be redesigned to meet the new conditions. As it
currently is the font design appears to be smaller and the colours
darker

Step 4
-----------
ive run out of ideas somebody else can continue from here.....

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