March 2008 - KICTANet

Re: [kictanet] [AfrISPA.Discuss] Head of WTO's oped on telecom in Africa
by Eric Osiakwan 13 Mar '08

13 Mar '08

Dear William, Thanks for bringing this to the fore as it is a welcome development for Lamy to recognise the strides being made in Africa. Haven said that i think it is important for the WTO to reckon that the conditions and terms underwhich the GATS was negotiated and establish have changed, so given that Africa has grown despite the fact that the detailing of the GATS was not favourable to us, can one argue support Lamy's call for "Committing to further open trade in these sectors will be investing in the future". I think it is fair to argue that though the GATS terms has not favoured Africa, some sectors have grown and could do far better if the terms were favourable (or at worse be revisted) and here i dont blame anybody but we as Africans must be better prepared and go to these negotiations to gain more mileage that we have done in the past. Am not a trade expert and i dont profess to be one but i think our country trade negotiators must engage internally with some of the sectoral business fronts and work with them in some of the far reaching negotiations that turn in some ways to undo the efforts of the private sector. Eric here On 12 Mar 2008, at 22:28, William Foster wrote: > by Pascal Lamy, WTO > In the last 10 years Internet use has increased by 1,500 per cent. > Mobile phone subscribers have increased 20 fold and world > teledensity has moved from below 15 per cent to over 60 per cent. > The rapid evolution of the telecommunication sector, both from > regulatory and technological perspective, has brought about lasting > changes to our economies and societies at large and is one reason > that this sector merits our special attention today. > > The dedicated negotiations on basic telecommunications - whose 10th > anniversary we had last month - were born out of an initiative > taken during the final year of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral > Trade Negotiations. > At the time, there was a very real prospect that basic > telecommunications might be carved out of the new agreement then > taking shape, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). > Very few governments had offered commitments on these services, > deterred by what appeared to be a yawning gap between the openness > of some markets and long-entrenched restrictions to trade in many > others. Though a number of major players were contemplating opening > trade in this sector at the time, these were still surrounded by a > considerable degree of uncertainty. > The momentum has continued since. At present, over 100 WTO Members > have commitments to open markets in some or all telecommunication > services. The commitments normally entitle new entrants to supply > the most essential services, such as fixed and mobile telephony, > Internet and leased-line capacity. > A great many Members have also committed to telecom-specific > regulatory obligations. These market access and regulatory > commitments permit global networks and facilitate the emergence of > global markets for the benefit of all WTO Members, and their > businesses and consumers alike. > Telecommunications are emblematic of the highly integrated nature > of modern economies: while the sector's own economic momentum > depends on the existence of dynamic user industries, world-class > communication links are today a sine qua non for a wide range of > economic activities within services and beyond. > The benefits from opening trade in telecoms cuts across developed > and developing countries. > Relevant Links > Economy, Business and Finance > Capital Flows > ICT and Telecom > Industry and Infrastructure > International Organizations and Africa > Sustainable Development > Trade > Urban Issues and Habitation > In recent years, information and communication technologies have > enabled economies from India to Ireland to develop and rapidly > expand international outsourcing. > Committing to further open trade in these sectors will be investing > in the future. > Lamy is director general, WTO. > > > William Foster, PhD > Faculty Associate > Social and Behavioral Sciences > Arizona State University Polytechnic > http://www.FosterandBrahm.com > 520-440-0807 > wfoster8560 (Skype) > blog: www.oresearch.net > > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. Eric M.K Osiakwan Executive Secretary AfrISPA (www.afrispa.org) Tel: + 233.21.258800 ext 2031 Fax: + 233.21.258811 Cell: + 233.244.386792 Handle: eosiakwan Snail Mail: Pmb 208, Accra-North Office: BusyInternet - 42 Ring Road Central, Accra-North Blog: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/eric/ Slang: "Tomorrow Now"

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Road Map to SME Symposium, March 22, 2008
by carthy 13 Mar '08

13 Mar '08

Dear All, Please find attached road map to SME symposium courtesy of Kimathi Information Centre. Carthy --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

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Writing for Change
by Edith Adera 13 Mar '08

13 Mar '08

This resource may be of interest to you and your partners. "Writing for Change" is an interactive, self-learning tool (guide) to effective writing, writing for science and writing for advocacy. It was developed, designed, and published by Fahamu, in collaboration with Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The CD is freely available online at http://www.idrc.ca/IMAGES/books/WFC_English/WFC_English/ In Writing for Change, you will learn the core skills of effective writing, how to write for scientific publication, and how to write for advocacy. Writing for Change will enhance your capacity to write in ways that promote action from your target audience. It is full of practical exercises and examples from the field of international development. A resource centre contains training materials and links to many useful websites. Site maps and a printed users' guide make it simple to follow. Writing for Change will prove useful to researchers, campaigners, scientists, fundraisers, project managers, social activists, and especially trainers in writing and communication skills. Edith

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KENYA ICT FEDERATION - KENYA ICT BOARD LUNCHEON 18/03/2008
by nancy bosire 12 Mar '08

12 Mar '08

Kenya ICT Federation * * 12th March 2008 Dear Members and Partners, RE: KENYA ICT FEDERATION - KENYA ICT BOARD LUNCHEON 18/03/2008 This is to invite you to the second of a series of luncheons that KIF will be organizing in partnership with The Kenya ICT Board. The Luncheon will take place next week on Tuesday, 18th of March 2008. The venue is *THE NAIROBI SAFARI CLUB, LILIAN TOWERS, on University Way *from 12.30pm to 2.30pm. Charges: Ksh. 2,000 for Members and Ksh.3, 000 for non-members. We will have a session on Progress made by KICTB in their strategic plan implementation process (part of the PowerPoint presentation at the first luncheon by Mr. Paul Kukubo) and an update on CEBIT (World´s largest Annual trade show for information and telecommunications technology). The final agenda will be distributed by Thursday end of business. Book early to avoid disappointment (seats will remain reserved for those who had made early bookings and paid in advance). Contact details are below for early reservations and any queries. PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY. Sincerely yours, Nancy Bosire *Secretariat Manager* *Kenya** ICT Federation * *Tel: 020 4440102* *Mobile**: 0721907995* *secretariat(a)kif.or.ke, info(a)kif.or.ke* *http://www.kif.or.ke* <http://www.kif.or.ke/>** "Whatever your mind expects and demands, it will find a way to produce it." - Napoleon Hill

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Yet another chance to have your say: Say No to OOXML
by Judy Okite 11 Mar '08

11 Mar '08

Check out the latest development as concerns this matter.....You have yet another chance...Use it wisely. http://www.noooxml.org/start Kind Regards, -- Judy Ann Okite, +254-721237507,+254-734252336 P.O. BOX 2228 00100, NAIROBI,KENYA. 'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. ' Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Verisign's Domain names brief report
by alice 11 Mar '08

11 Mar '08

Dear all Attached Domain Name industry brief from VeriSign best alice _______________________________________________ AfrICANN mailing list AfrICANN(a)afrinic.net https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/africann

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[Fwd: [AfriNIC-rpd] Call for Volunteer: 2008 Board election Nomination Committee AFRINIC
by alice 11 Mar '08

11 Mar '08

Dear colleagues, This year, during the upcoming Members Meeting in Morocco, 4th June 2008, we will have the renewal of seats 5 (Central Africa sub-region) and 6 (Indian Ocean sub-region) of the AfriNIC board of Directors. According to our election policy, the election process must be supervised by an Election/nomination committee composed of: o 1 Member appointed by the board (the CEO or one elected from the board - From an non-open seat) o 2 Member volunteers from the community (from two different sub-regions other than the opened seat's one). We are hereby calling for two volunteers to seat on the 2008 nomination committee. If you are interested, please send your details with the following information: Full Name: Full Address: e-mail: to members-contact(a)afrinic.net by 13th March 2008 at 18:00 UTC. Kind regards. ______________________________________________________________________ Adiel A. Akplogan Tel. +230 466 66 16 Chief Executive Officer, AfriNIC Fax: +230 466 67 58 adiel(a)afrinic.net - www.afrinic.net sip: adiel(a)voip.afrinic.net _______________________________________________ rpd mailing list rpd(a)afrinic.net https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/rpd

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FW: search for new Executive Director, Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI)
by Edith Adera 11 Mar '08

11 Mar '08

In case it might be of interest to you or someone you know ... (See attached file: ED profile.doc)

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Re: [kictanet] Fears About Safaricom (was M-PESA for E-Commerce)
by Michael Joseph 09 Mar '08

09 Mar '08

One very important correction - I am apparently a Board Member of the KCCT not CCK. Please correct this. I did not ask for this. We are helping with the ICT development and I guess this is why I was appointed.. It is most unfair to continue to bring up the sms and sms connection to TKL. We refunded all who we charged incorrectly and we explained the lack of connectivity. I think debating issues this way when one can blatantly say things which are misleading does not encourage real debate about real issues. I will say no more on this list Michael Joseph CEO Safaricom Limited BlackBerry powered by Safaricom ----- Original Message ----- From: kictanet-bounces+mjoseph=safaricom.co.ke(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke <kictanet-bounces+mjoseph=safaricom.co.ke(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> To: Michael Joseph Cc: skunkworks(a)my.co.ke <skunkworks(a)my.co.ke>; kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke>; ke-users <ke-internetusers(a)bdix.net> Sent: Fri Mar 07 12:17:13 2008 Subject: [kictanet] Fears About Safaricom (was M-PESA for E-Commerce) Indeed Washington you listened and captured my response correctly. However, Michael Joseph has asked a new very worthy question to respond to "Alex: Why are you afraid?" 1. Michael Joseph, among other big Telco faces successfully made baby steps into government and so you will now be getting income and emoluments from taxpayers kitty! Nation cartoonist last year had an "MJ for President" cartoon and in retrospect I wonder how much of a joke that really was. You are now Board member appointed under State Corporations Act through Kenya of Gazette dated Friday, 29 February, 2008. He will be a colleague serving in a Board chaired by his "independent" market regulator CCK. Should not any right thinking person have reasons to be afraid? 2. Today, CCK in Kenya Gazette of 7th March 2008 notice, publishes by two companies ( Cykim Limited and Intelligent Contacts Solutions) applying for the protested VAS license. Why did CCK not wait for the issue to be first resolved before publishing this notice, unless it had already been decided? 3. Current CCK annual report says that the commission received just 17 consumer complaints in their last reporting year of which they were able to resolve only four. Perhaps its only me but, I find 17 complaints statistically abnormal considering the industry had over 10 million mobile phone users and 2.7 million internet users. Would anyone know if CCK were ISO 10002 compliant? I would appreciate that information very much. > > Why is everything we do bad? Just because we are big? We got that way by > > listening to our customers and delivering products and services that > > they wanted and would use. > > 4. There have been very dark clouds over your past path. These include Mobitelea (and others whose fate now hangs in the balance without an opposition and now you in government now...), charging for undelivered services (such as sms) blocking access to other networks' services etc.. I have a couple... The problem is that Safaricom morphed into a scary uncaring giant fish swallowing anything on its way and CCK sits watching. Proposed solution: The continued loss of faith and now confidence in CCK demonstrated through above few examples is sufficiently compelling to warrant its disbandment and to be replaced by another Board made up of persons with consumer, public, wider industry, business, and particularly encouraging to SMEs. A new board that will prove beyond a shadow of doubt that they represent the new Kenya we need where genuine Fair Play is practiced, everyone small and big have access to prosperity. The current CCK Board endorsed Michael Joseph to serve with them.... i.e. Regulator and regulated merged. I shall not be afraid for consumers and myself thereafter. Alex On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 8:19 AM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 6:46 AM, Michael Joseph <MJoseph(a)safaricom.co.ke> > wrote: > > Alex: > > > > Why are you afraid? Bill asked a question and we answered it. We could > > have ignored it but we felt it was good to contribute. We are continuing > > to develop M-Pesa and this functionality has been in development for > > some time. We even see a direct connection to the internet for customers > > to pay on-line just by clicking a link to M-Pesa. > > > > Why is everything we do bad? Just because we are big? We got that way by > > listening to our customers and delivering products and services that > > they wanted and would use. > > > > Regards, > > > > Michael > > > > CEO > > Safaricom Limited > > > > > > > > > > Hello MJ, > > I think you slightly missed the point there. Gakuru is obviously right. It's > only you who may not admit the facts regarding his fears, but I want to > believe his fears are well founded. > I am not playing Alex Gakuru's advocate but what I believe he meant to say > was the fact that Safaricom would not be willing to let entities like the > original poster of this thread to take advantage of a service like M-PESA in > a way that Safaricom would feel is in direct competition with it. > When I initially responded to Harrison Karanja Kairo, the OP, and mentioned > that he could consult with the product's R&D team at Safaricom, I did say, > in my initial response something like "I am not sure they are > allowed/willing to work with you on this as I already see securityissues > coming up". I was expressing the same fears as Alex in a "diplomatic" > manner. Perhaps you can prove me wrong, but what Harrison Karanja had wanted > was something akin to grabbing that magic code that accompies an M-PESA > transaction and use it to validate a transaction. So, if only to prove > Gakuru wrong, could you kindly ask Pauline Vaughan to help the OP (one, > Harrison Karanja) with the necessary advise regarding his query? I don't > think that will be easy for you, as you are likely to let go of something > you see already as a great business product, no? > > Gakuru did not at all say Safaricom is bad. Well, Safaricom is big, for sure > as you say, and since you know it, let me also tell you that it's so big > that it's getting out of control as you are no longer quite capable of > efficiently "listening to the large number of clientele whenever they have > problems". This has come up before during a discussion on outsourcing. So > when you talk of "big", please also consider being "big" in serving the > customers, and potential competitors like Harrison. > > Just my 2 cents, which you can credit to my M-PESA account below:-) > > > > > -- > Best regards, > Odhiambo WASHINGTON, > Nairobi,KE > +254733744121/+254722743223 > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ > > "Oh My God! They killed init! You Bastards!" > --from a /. post > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > This message was sent to: alexgakuru.lists(a)gmail.com > Unsubscribe or change your options at > http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/alexgakuru.lists%40gma… > > _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: mjoseph(a)safaricom.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/mjoseph%40safaricom.co… The information in this email and any attachments is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended only for the use of the named addressee. Emails are susceptible to alteration and their integrity cannot be guaranteed. Safaricom Limited does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this email if the same is found to have been altered or manipulated. The contents and opinions expressed in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Safaricom Limited. Safaricom Limited disclaims any liability to the fullest extent permissible by law for any consequences that may arise from the contents of this email including but not limited to personal opinions, malicious and/or defamatory information and data/codes that may compromise or damage the integrity of the recipient's information technology systems. If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender and immediately delete this email from your system.

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M-PESA for E-Commerce
by H. Karanja Kairo 09 Mar '08

09 Mar '08

I'm trying to use M-PESA for settling online purchases but I haven't yet found a way to do it through a one-step process. My best attempt so far is to: 1. Have someone M-PESA a certain amount to my phone. 2. Ask them to SMS the first 7 characters of the response they receive from M-PESA for verification (this is to get their phone number as M-PESA does not provide this) 3. Credit their online account (identified through their phone number) with the funds. With Kind Regards, Harrison Karanja Kairo * Director * SoftLaw Limited * Genius Executive Centre * 15th Floor View Park Towers * Utalii Lane * Nairobi CBD * Tel: +254-20-342225 This email (including any attachments) is confidential and intended only for the use of the addressee. It may contain information covered by legal, professional or other privilege, which privilege is not lost or waived by reason of mistaken transmission thereof. Any representation or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender and not necessarily those of SoftLaw Limited. If you are not the addressee, please inform the sender immediately and destroy this e-mail

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