hallo the bbc are coming to town see below ; We're very pleased to say that we will be coming to Kenya from 8-15th Sept to make a programme about the how the SEACOM cable will affect the country. We will be based in Nairobi but will be able to make short trips out to different regions. I'm emailing to see how your Leo noticeboard project is progressing? I'd be interested in hearing more about it, and possibly arranging a visit to see them. Also, are there any other hot topics in Kenya in the digital world that we should cover while we're there? Best Wishes, Michelle do find time to read through this article and would be glad if you be on the gap and help launch this initiative: THE COUNTRYSIDE IDEA THAT MAY CHANGE AFRICA FOR THE BETTER The idea of Leo network of notice boards came to me out of a problem I had on a half acre potato farm in rural Kenya. My healthy crop of potatoes was suddenly dying one after the other much to the puzzlement of our local Agriculture officer and me. A search on goggle for potato pests and diseases finally identified the problem-ants! They had infested the farm to suck the sap of the potato stems and finishing them of one after the other. The solution suggested was simple and environmentally friendly – sprinkle wood ash at the base of the stems. After a few days of this treatment the ants disappeared and I was able to harvest a bumper crop two months later. An unexpected bonus to this story was that I was able to sell my crop at a good price to a local restaurant in the nearby town of Eldoret. This customer came to me from the initial goggle search that had the contacts of the Kenya Potato growers Association who connected me to the customer. Going online also enabled me to get high quality seed potatoes and technical advice from the Kenya potato research station at K.A.R.I Tigoni. Intrigued by the unique way in which the internet and mobile phone had added value and knowledge to my enterprise I was challenged to share my experience with my fellow small scale farmers. They are much better than me at farming all they lack is a digital know-how. The question was how best to reach and interact with a farming community of 10,000 residents in an area of 50 km radius. The Leo network can be adapted to any rural community in Africa, China or Alabama U.S.A .in my rural community it is about is about making use of simple wooden notice boards put up in public places in market centers. The display information in A4 paper the boards will consist mostly of print outs of test messages, e-mails and local photos illustrations and articles all talking of local issues. Important to the success of this enterprise is the active participation of the community either by placing advertisements on the board or sending text messages that will be posted on the local board in printed out form some minutes later. More exciting is the opportunity to collect Data on a village level. The Leo board is a Trojan horse that introduces the common mwanainchi to the digital space It will provide space to track the large amounts of money (200 millon ksh for C.D.F) to village level as it will post regular updates of expenditure by politicians and government Every advert is as little as ten shillings enabling small business people to expand their business. Many people love this concept I have so far been unable to launch Leo and have the idea of constructing a prototype with the help of interested skunkers and others. A unit will cost ksh 14,000 .i am able to raise half of this thereafter it can be launched at my local market centre in soy road block near Eldoret possibly as the BBC digital planet team is in town Do join the leo networks group on face book to see my illustrations of a leo board known as a yellow junction T notice board thanks