As a final contribute for a while as I need to focus on my other stuff, I'd like to put this forward to the listers. *- The Birth of a Kenyan High Tech Company ( in relation to this thread and why it is important to develop locally--something I thought of when stuck in traffic this evening )* Had KIE and content developer used a local company to generate the cd/dvd content management technology system, we would have been looking at the creation of a high tech kenyan company in the process. I've not had a look at the cd/dvd myself, but these points below would make the content management technology (CMT) system created locally by a developer/software company such a success for VCs, investors and eventually become a KE Silicon Valley company : a) Anti-Piracy : How is the current content developer protecting the KIE syllabus DVDs discs from copyright abuse? - The local developer/company would have created a Unique ID serial number that would be typed into a box when the DVD was inserted for installation of the viewer. This Unique ID can be locked to a MAC hardware address of the machine to be installed. Each machine has a unique MAC address, thus duplication is almost impossibe. For software developers and coders, you know that this procedure is not difficult to code probably into the Auto-Run script. The Unique ID can be burnt into the DVD upon creation, and the end user basically uses the external ID provided with the DVD disc. There are many ways to do this anti-piracy adaptation. - The anti-piracy industry is big business. What is stopping us from developing a CMT system to compliment the holograms and electronic signatures with serial numbers? Could we hold the future of digital media security? We only have ourselves to blame for not creating such platforms and holding patents for such. Imagine the future where Hollywood or other content makers use our CMT system as part or protecting their content rights. Can we make a deal with DVD player manufacturers to chip our versions of the anti-piracy schemes implemented in the CMT. - We could even produce a fully functional web system that integrates into the CMT for end user to upgrade and register for variuos future DVD media to be released by KIE. b) The various languages option: How much is this benefit? Since the entire coding of the CMT is done locally, we have absolute control over the structure of the code. We can code the way a computer thinks, works and even accepts the DVD discs. We can also customise the language options and the CMT system can be used globally on almost any Digital Media. c) Security : Another big business industry As an example, If we were to code a PG or parental block for DVD disc media, with our coded CMT, we are now able to provide granular access to the users of the medium. Imagine a DVD disc media inserted into a computer checking the status and prompting for the code to open the content. So, in summary, I feel we have once again cheated ourselves of an opportunity to grow by not creating our own CMT system. While it may not matter to many, I hope the above provides a small insight of how much potential we have missed out on a single product. Sad day for KE developers and the local ICT community to move towards high tech companies. Thank you.