December 2012 - KICTANet

Dreams of a cosy career that turned into a nightmare
by Ali Hussein 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

Listers This is an interesting case study of the link between employer/employee relations on Intellectual Property. Who owns the IP when you invent/innovate while working at a company and the invention/innovation is directly linked to the work you have been hired to do? IN SUMMARY When Mr Samson Ngengi beat thousands of applicants to land the coveted position at the tax agency in December 2009, the graduate of Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT) had one thing on his mind; to ensure that he gets absorbed into the job Mr Ngengi came up with an innovation that links plot boundaries and location, ownership, and building details as well as tax status of a taxpayer as a single view in a computer application, in an effort to give KRA an insight into how to get its pound of flesh from the lucrative real estate sector His innovation was named the Geo-spatial Revenue Collection Information System (GEOCRIS). But little did he know that he would, early in his career, find himself fighting his employer Is there a strong case here to also focus our Techpreneurs on the 'softer' stuff of turning their ideas/products etc into viable businesses? You know the boring stuff...the nuts and bolts of building an enduring business? Protecting your business idea, building a business system to deliver on the values opposition, sales, legal standing (company registration) etc.. What would have happened if Samson had decided to quite his job at KRA and develop his idea independently? There has been lots of news of late about the hype that has become known as 'Silicon Savannah'. It would be sad if the hype is not concurrently followed by serious efforts to build an ecosystem to support all these brilliant (and not so brilliant) ideas and turn them into strong enduring businesses. For every Cellulant there are maybe tens of others that will never see the light of day. There is a case here for a new type of Multi-stakeholder intervention - between government, private sector (VC, Companies etc) and Not For Profits. I suspect this is already happening in some form or other. More focus is required. Ali Hussein CEO | 3mice interactive media Ltd Principal | Telemedia Africa Ltd +254 773/713 601113 Sent from my iPad

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Interview on Silicon Savanah
by Paul Kukubo 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

Silicon Savannah: Time to grow up? Business Focus<http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/category/articles/business-focus/>, Feature Articles<http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/category/articles/feature-articles/>, ICT <http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/category/sectors/ict/>, Kenya<http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/category/countries/kenya/>| BY Jonathan Kalan <http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/author/jonathan-kalan/> | November 6, 2012 at 14:50 ------------------------------ inSharThere*Interesting article in response to a debate that raged online on whether the current tech sector is over-hyped. I called in the writer for a discussion on the same and this is the resultant interview. http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/silicon-savannah-time-to-grow-up/21932/?… It’s raining in the Silicon Savannah, and unlike Nairobi’s unbearable traffic problem, no app has emerged promising to stop it.* Paul Kukubo, CEO of Kenya's ICT Board, says the current debate about the state of Silicon Savannah is "not discouraging people, it’s making them think again". Inside the colourful and buzzing tech corridors of Africa’s first technology boom town, whispered conversations between investors are becoming amplified. Criticism, candid commentary and a dose of reality are dropping in from bloggers and pundits, challenging Kenya’s image as a place where African technology magic happens, where successful startups, apps, and entrepreneurs flow like water. Over the past two years, media and the startups they cover have shared the responsibility of painting a glorified picture of Nairobi’s startup scene. They have built a collective hype that’s attracted investors, entrepreneurs and even journalists. Yet for those who have arrived and stayed, what they have found is neither a vast oasis of untapped innovation, nor a dry and dusty savannah filled with empty promises. The reality lies somewhere in between – essentially a very young ecosystem with great potential, but one that also needs to mature and grow up. As the choir gets louder, one thing is becoming apparent – a little rain on Kenya’s technology parade might actually be a good thing. It’s time for companies to sink or swim, for the good seeds to grow and the bad to be washed away. Software and app startups are a dime a dozen here. Yet few are finding funding, and even fewer are actually making money. Entrepreneurialism has become a profession itself, and many young entrepreneurs are lacking the experience, training, and business acumen to make companies grow. This is something investors notice quite quickly. “High expectations, big disappointment,” is how Kenyan blogger Kachwanya described Kenya’s current tech landscape, in a blog post that received 27 heated comments. Andrea Bohnstedt, an investment risk analyst and columnist wrote in a local Kenyan paper “there’s hype and then there’s business. Nairobi’s ‘Silicon Savannah’ is in desperate need of a large dose not of money, but of modesty”. In a recent piece for *Impact IQ, *I myself wrote of “vanity capital and vanity companies”, referring to the fact that entrepreneurs with half-baked ideas and a collection of buzzwords are “falling for too many carrots, chasing free money to satisfy overeager funders”. Last month, even iHub, Kenya’s most established and successful innovation hub, held a full-house event titled ‘Silicon Savannah – Reality Check’, to have “a brutally honest discussion around what’s really going on in Silicon Savannah”. To get to the bottom – or really the top – of Kenya’s ICT scene, I recently sat down with Paul Kukubo, the chief executive officer of Kenya’s ICT Board, to get his take on this Silicon Savannah debate. *What is your take on the argument that there’s “too much hype” surrounding Kenya’s technology scene? Is a bubble about to burst?* We need good debates. The guys who bring up these issues are important to solving the sector issues, and it’s a healthy debate. It’s not discouraging people, it’s making them think again. If anything, it’s not hyped enough. Kenya’s app-fuelled startup scene is a very small sector, with a few people who are active on Twitter following each other. It’s important to understand that Kenya’s 20% growth in ICT<http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/category/sectors/ict/>is coming from a multiplicity of businesses and tiers, not just from the small startups. At the top of the ladder are the multinational corporations, like IBM and Oracle. Then there is the partner ecosystem – the companies that feed off this multinational tier as partners and distribution channels. Then, there are companies that do a bit of everything, creating software products, either by utilising open source systems or developing code from scratch. These are traditional software writers, systems that run schools or financial systems. Finally, you have the apps companies, a new generation of companies that have an innovation agenda. You get attention with the most sexy app, or the one that does the most sensible thing. Their role is to break the rules, articulate needs at the community level, innovate, and customisation for the market. Top tiers, like Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, are the large money generators, but the app model is what’s being developing around the world, and you cannot rank these things. Just like you need Oracle, you need Angry Birds. That’s why we love this scenario, and don’t want to mess it up. It’s nice when you have a culture where young people take the initiative to create. That has its own momentum. It’s creating a culture of creating, which is what all governments around the world spend so much time teaching the young people to do. *You see many foreign investors coming through your office. What are their concerns with the Kenyan market?* Some of them say they came in too early, some say they wish they came in earlier. Their biggest concerns are not about the ideas. They think the ideas are exactly the same. What they say is that the culture of doing business among these technology entrepreneurs has to be strengthened, in terms of things like reporting back. Venture capital money is not like donor money. It’s very strictly commercial. VCs are finding there are sometimes discipline issues, inability to comply with requirements, and a culture around their obligation towards repayment. I’m on record as saying I fear that we can create a donor dependency. You don’t want donor money to crowd out the private sector. But, I think it straightens itself out. The market is the best judge. It’s a learning curve, and you need to go through that curve. People don’t understand technology enough to invest in technology companies. I think that that’s changing. If anything, that’s changing faster here than it’s changing anywhere else. *What is the media’s role in this?* Writers are like small companies. They also need to write. So, we now need a new angle – this ecosystem needs a new angle. You read about the *Silicon Alley Insider, *the role that magazine played in building Silicon Valley, it was exactly the same. We need a good technology writing clique to decipher the stories actually surrounding this debate. What we also need is better reporting so the failures can be highlighted. When it comes to failures, there are many. You don’t know them because many don’t exist in the structured labs and hubs. They are working in their bedrooms, in the schools, in rural areas. *In 5-10 years, where do you see Kenya’s tech scene? What does it need to get there?* Some companies will grow and become big, some companies will become mid tier, some will become acquired, and many will fail. That’s just the way it has to be. We need this many startups because the ratio of failure to success by definition must be high. There are companies littered all over the Silicon Valley roads. Many of these companies are going nowhere, others will become millionaires. We need people to actually start to solve problems by understanding problems well. We have needs in agriculture<http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/category/sectors/agriculture-sectors-2/>, health care, retail<http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/category/sectors/retail-sectors/>, mining<http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/category/sectors/mining-minerals/>, public sector – everywhere. Most importantly, we need a new kind of entrepreneur. Someone who’s young, has worked for a larger tech company for a few years, who understands business process. We don’t have many of these yet, but they are emerging. *(interview edited for length and clarity)* Paul Kukubo Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board PO Box 27150 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya 12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960 Fax: +254 20 2211962 website: www.ict.go.ke local content project: www.tandaa.co.ke, www.facebook.com/tandaakenya twitter:@tandaaKENYA BPO Project: www. doitinkenya.co.ke Digital Villages Project: www.pasha.co.ke personal contacts _______________ Cell: + 254 717 180001 skype: kukubopaul googletalk: pkukubo personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke personal twitter: @pkukubo ____________________ Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment

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So should "youTube or Facebook be billed for the data they send" WCIT 2012
by Alice Munyua 02 Dec '12

02 Dec '12

http://www.economist.com/news/21567340-governments-squabble-over-new-rules-… Best Alice --

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Google takes a swipe at ITU ahead of WCIT event, and ITU responds
by Brian Munyao Longwe 02 Dec '12

02 Dec '12

My head is spinning with this battle being waged on the public policy front: http://itu4u.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/the-google-campaign-an-itu-view/ Brian [image: logo] *Brian Munyao Longwe* | Mobile: 254715964281 http://mashilingi.blogspot.com <http://www.facebook.com/brianmunyao> Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/brianmunyao> <http://www.twitter.com/blongwe> Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/blongwe> <http://ke.linkedin.com/pub/brian-munyao-longwe/0/32/254> LinkedIn<http://ke.linkedin.com/pub/brian-munyao-longwe/0/32/254> Contact me: [image: Skype] blongwe Want a signature like mine? <http://r1.wisestamp.com/r/landing?promo=16&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wisestamp.…> Click here.<http://r1.wisestamp.com/r/landing?promo=16&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wisestamp.…>

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Re: [kictanet] [PK] Kshs 8.5 billion on just CCTV cameras within Nairobi?
by Matunda Nyanchama 01 Dec '12

01 Dec '12

Friends National Task Force on Police Reforms (created following the post-election violence of 2008) was presented with various views and made certain recommendations. I have included below some views and recommendations pertaining to technology. May be the Kenyan Police have a roadmap towards effective use of ICTs. For example what would be priority: automating the occurrence book (and use of intelligent data mining to design effective/efficient solutions), HR, Finance, etc or CCTV? On our part, we did prepare an unsolicited proposal in which we suggested a diligent approach to technology needs for policing, which would result in prioritization. We later learnt that the priority they had was acquiring CCTV, an idea we felt was being pushed by CCTV vendors rather than security priorities. NB: Kshs 8.5 billion? I hope someone has a good rationale. Here are the police views according to the report a) Communication equipment within the police, particularly in rural areas, were found to be either absent, non-functional, or poor and outdated. This directly undermines the ability by members to access telephones, mobile phones or internet facilities to enable them to undertake their normal policing functions. Police investigators routinely use their personal mobile phones for official purposes, as they have no access to police communication systems. The Task Force was also informed that some criminals have superior communication equipment to that of the police, which enables them to intercept police communications. b) The investigative function of the police has been weakened by inadequate crime intelligence, lack of modern technology, reduced operational autonomy of the CID, transfer practices, and a re-active ‘fire fighting’ approach to policing. The Task Force noted that: a) Information and Communication Technology (ICT): The police services lack the basic ICT knowledge and skills, equipment and infrastructure. The lack of an effective electronic network and communication system, which connects police stations, undermines the ability of the police to use simple and cheap communication systems for policing purposes. The police are further not able to key in and preserve crucial information and data that would ordinarily help them not only track criminals but also to inform them on crime patterns or trends as well as assisting in case management. b) Cyber crime: This Task Force noted the increase in the use of information technology in the commission of crimes including complex frauds, computer hacking, credit cards scams, spreading of computer viruses, facilitation of human trafficking and child pornography using internet. It was clear that most police officers lack the most basic I.C.T. knowledge. The Task Force recommended, inter alia, (a)That the tooling, logistical and technological capacity of the police services be reviewed to establish the exact needs and specification in order to bring policing to international standards. Consideration should be given to prioritizing Communication and information technology and transportation. (b)That the use of CCTV cameras as a policing component particularly in major cities and our highways be incorporated in the National Policing Plan. The police should coordinate with the private sector to maximize and synchronize the use of CCTV to combat crime. (c) Legislation needs to be developed to make electronic, audio-visual, computer data and photographic evidence to be admissible in court. (d)That the capacity of Forensic Science Service Department (FSSD) be enhanced within the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to be staffed by civilian experts to enable the police concentrate on their core duties. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama(a)aganoconsulting.com Agano Consulting Inc.; www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda; Skype: okiambe ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Be prepared for ICT security failures & know how to respond when they happen! Call: +1-888-587-1150 or info(a)aganoconsulting.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The best revenge is massive success" - Frank Sinatra----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail, including attachments, may be privileged and may contain confidential or proprietary information intended only for the addressee(s). Any other distribution, copying, use, or disclosure is unauthorized and strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and permanently delete the message, including any attachments, without making a copy. Thank you.

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Will thugs rule the web? Beware the UN power grab
by Davis Onsakia 01 Dec '12

01 Dec '12

Dear all, I find this article bothering on hate speech but the guy has some valid points. Judge for yourself. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/will_thugs_rule_the_web… Best Regards, Davis M Onsakia "One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

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