On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 7:44 PM, Chris W.
<dabnix@gmail.com> wrote:
Ndungu Steven / Josiah Mugambi,
Salute to you guyz.Man cant imagine u managed to draw all this back from your memory.
Having been there,I call this the real representation.
Good work!!!
Chris_w.
dabnix@gmail.com
Thanks Clement,
We can add a few summaries
[pls pardon any misquotation, there was alot of info passed and im drawing this frm memory] :
-There was a promise by Alex Gakuru/ICT board for support of IT community through a 3 stage funding by the World Bank
1) training for a 1000 software managers - to be determined by a criteria
2) provision for 1,000,000 laptops to kenyans - to be determined by criteria
3)
i cannot remember the third point - but it has to do with support of
IT/ICT/Development projects [which I would assume includes the support
for content generation for local use]
DR. Ndemo
-The digital villages did not take off
as expected. The youth despite the urgency to create jobs did not
respond to calls for training and taking up ownership/running of the
digital villages
[the northern part of kenya (that claims to be marginalised) - only 8 participants showed up --- 8 participants !!]
-One
of the reasons for digital villages was to make available "content" for
kenyans through gathering of grassroots statistics like population,
facts, economic dynamics - etc - In turn, due to support for electric
self sufficiency of these digital villages [solar, wind, etc] - the
owners can garner income thru:
mobile charging, photocopying, printing government documents [like P3s, job applications for government], hosting workshops,
folks can call thru Voip to distant relatives, cyber cafe services - and etc etc
(thru
such services, the digital village provides justice, reduces
corruption, collects information, makes business, creates youth
employment)
-The current events for building infrastructure like the fibre is
inline with the vision 2030 for Kenya. The government cannot help you
set up an enterprise - it can only enable you to do so thru such
projects as fibre, and creation of friendly policies that protect your
intellectual property, enables your work [eg software] to have value,
etc etc
-The vision 2030 covers 3 main pillars - aside from the popular 'economic' renaissance
->economic pillar
->social pillar - equity [not the 'members' bank] but equal opportunity for all
->political pillar-politics to be issue based, politicians to take risks and not fear lack of re-elections
-example - politics based on popularisms e.g passing the "maternity
leave for men" bill make politicians popular but affect our economy...
CONTENT
-Dr Ndemo talked about preachers appearing on
our own version of 'youtube' so that those of us in diaspora can catch
up with home sermons. This also includes those who pretend to work in
the office and love the gospel - they can catch up with more
constructive episodes online.
-The provision of local and accurate videos online for example
traditional dances that can be sold to those studying culture. This can
be sold !
I know of a Kenyan studying in Japan a few months ago
who was hired by a kindergarten school to show the kids an 'african
dance'. [pics on facebook]
He found a kikoi in a crafts shop that had maasai patterns. Then he and a friend performed an 'isikuti' dance in maasai attire.
But how could they ever know the difference ? The kids were quite happy to see an 'African dance'.
-We can also throw Kamaru and Mike Rua, Sukuma Bin Ongwaro etc on
our own version of youtube and charge subscription for those in
'diaspora' - think USD. 5 dollars for 1000 kenyans for a period = USD
5000 dollars.
-In summary the world needs our content - and we need our content
-Digitising
of government information and putting it online for easy availability.
This alone can create numerous jobs and revenue.
Dr. Ndemo talked of trying to do a research one day to find out the number of Internet users.
He was directed to a mountain of files [am sure you have a picture,,,
the dust, the makonge strings, the musky odour] and he was told to look
through those.
Now imagine if this was searchable through a computer database after categorising and serialising the documents [jobs].
-Registration of phone numbers - to identify a user to a number
-Product
information online and pricing, aside from availability - eg for
pharmacies, electronics etc.. this can save one alot of driving around.
-Exams, pass papers, research papers provision online, online
assignments - you can charge per download [or per click :) ] thru
deals with institutions like the university.
Students globally are always repeating the same things we did 15 years ago... why not charge for content provision.
-However, Dr Ndemo warned on pricing - charge cheaply and the masses can afford. ksh 2 X 1 million = 2 million.
-The
problem with some content/services pricing is someone trying to pay
their rent/car loan with a few big sales - this discourages buyers, and
encourages piracy
-Digital TVs - provision of over 1000 channels . This provides a
huge market for advertising. I was also thinking - what about building
the database ?
-The AGOA issue is well covered by Josiah on his blog -And yes its true - there is no native word for 'enterpreneur' or 'breaking even' or 'positive productivity' in our languages
-Example of some of our decisions : Policies such as land division
are flawed. The farmers have subdivided their land so-o much that they
are no longer viable to support food for the normal 1 year of crop
production
-It took some of us 40 years to realize that coffee and tea are no
longer profitable [think small scale farming] - we stick to various
businesses that barely break - when in reality, their time has passed.
[google
"the 5 stages of small business" - the last stage is not very good news
for those of use with small businesses, but changes do happen and will
happen - we need to change too]
Bret Bullington
Bret
is from silicon valley and is on kenya for a while. Joe Mucheru called
him a capital venturelist [who could actually fund/promote your ideas].
Bret's short speech advised us not to re-invent the wheel because
most of the opportunities we are looking at now have been tried and
tested in the USA since the advent of computers in the 70s, the
internet bubble in the 80s and now the age of the portability.
We should look at what is working else where and try it here. [This
reminds me that Japan began as copiers, now they are the leaders.]
He
advised to borrow ideas and sell them in our own country. For example,
he quoted two German brothers whose keeness [is there such a word?] is
to 'borrow' new ideas and adapt them in Germany.
They took 'facebook' and tried to introduce it in Germany. A television
company bought 'their' idea - and they moved on to fetch and adapt
another,, and another,,,
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