March 2013 - KICTANet

What’s up? Network Monitoring for Public IT Systems
by Brian Munyao Longwe 14 Mar '13

14 Mar '13

#140friday <http://140friday.com> » Uncategorized<http://140friday.com/?cat=1>» What’s up? Network Monitoring for Public IT Systems March 14, 2013 Network monitoring within the public sector has unique challenges and these challenges have to be addresed through delivery of unique solutions. Public IT systems need to be accessible to a greater number of people and need to be reliable with minimal or no system down time. At any given time a public IT system can be serving tens, hundreds or thousands of simultaneous concurrent requests. Public IT systems need to support a wide range of various technologies and services, and at the same time accountability and traceability is important for legal reasons. Best practice dictates that public sector systems be widely networked and shared geographically and/or between numerous municipalities or administrations. Without proper system monitoring this can be a nightmare to manage. System monitoring allows operators and administrators to pick up network anomalies quickly, pintpoint problems and engage rapid response mechanisms to address issues which could affect service delivery. Our question today, what kind of monitoring do you think could have helped with the recent IEBC IT system failure?

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Fwd: Is Public Vetting Of Cabinet Secretaries (ICT) Possible?
by Adam Nelson 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

IMHO, the best solution to this is: 1. For KICTANet to work with other civil society groups to create the expectation that the National Assembly will have a deliberative process around the approval of cabinet secretaries. This will give time for people to evaluate the candidate and respond to the nomination. This should happen now. 2. A committee of people from this group should be formed. This should happen now. 3. For cabinet positions were ICT is a major component of the job responsibility, the committee should evaluate the candidate and make a public determination of support, neutrality, or disapproval. That's my two cents at least, but I'm an outsider here and don't have any of the contacts or status to move something like this forward. -Adam https://twitter.com/varud https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 3:34 PM, Sam Gichuru <gichuru(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Listers > Had a brief discussion with Jessica of Mzalendo that led me to write this > short blog post, but we have seen the kind of impact a Cabinet position > can have if the right people, who are competent are selected for the right > jobs, > > http://140friday.com/?p=429 > > again, I stand to be corrected, I am still young and I might be immature > on how some of this processes are undertaken.. > > > -- > Warm Regards, > ------------------------ > Sam Gichuru > > > twitter: | @samgichuru <http://twitter.com/samgichuru> > Blog: | www.samgichuru.com > Facebook: | Sam.gichuru <http://www.facebook.com/sam.gichuru> > Skype: Sam.gichuru > Cellphone: | +254-722-730565 > > Co-founder/ Director /Nailab Incubation > Location: | Nairobi > Website: | www.nailab.co.ke > twitter: | @thenailab > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > Unsubscribe or change your options at > https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/adam%40varud.com > > The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform > for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and > regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT > sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. > > KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors > online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, > share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do > not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications. >

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#140Friday "Public Service IT Systems" Invitation
by Brian Longwe 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

I'd like to share this event with you! Event: Public Service IT Systems Date: Friday, March 15, 2013 Location: George Padmore Lane Nairobi Kenya Hosted By: Nailab

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Our Response to Systematic ICT Systems Failure at IEBC
by Harry Delano 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Aye..! Could someone please aver what the furor was all about on this list when systems failed at IEBC last week. I thought it was so that we could address systemic issues in that part of the election process..? Please someone correct me, but I seem to be settling on this conclusion that we collectively only raise hue and cry when the system(s) are perceived to be working against "us", or not in "our" interests - whichever side of divide each one of us sits. Once they serve 'our' interests, we quickly move on.. So where is posterity in all this..? A pattern emerges where well calculated intellectual arguments everywhere nowadays, that thinly veil and mask the real motives in us. We completely bury our heads in the ground and deny that we have deeply rooted issues that stem from tribe, class etc and as a result, we are caught up in this vicious cycle that we cannot seem to free ourselves from and which clouds our entire vision as a nation. Who will free us, if we do not take initiative ourselves..? How and when will we as a nation confront this 'monster' head on, by first of all acknowledging it exists. Then moving to deal with it. Can this list be at the forefront of it..? If so, let's start now.. Harry

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The ICT industry is sick
by robert yawe 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Hi, In Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) the first step that suffering alcoholics must take is to accept that they are alcoholics. It is time that we as an industry accept that we are very sick and then ask for help, which must come from outside the industry as the infection has permeated too deep into the rest of us. From all the monologues going on it is clear that the IEBC system was bound to fail from day one but all we did was defend the capabilities of those given the responsibility for the system because Kenya had given the World MPesa and Ushahidi, Now the same people whose capabilities we applauded a few weeks ago are the ones we are now crucifying, reminds me of the events of Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Peter Kenneth thought that the followers he had on facebook would translate into votes, Mutoro made the mistake of coming onto a digital forum to ask for people to physically demonstrate on the street to evict the government printer he got many +1s, I saw a post on facebook this morning asking people to go and show their support at the Supreme Court for the CORD appeal, I can see the venue from my office and so far there is only the usual crowd but the request on facebook as over a thousand likes. Since I am as sick as the rest of you I cannot offer much assistance if there is someone out there who is still not afflicted please come to our rescue as all we are doing is murdering bits and bytes. Regards PS. The posts of CEO and Deputy CEO of the Kenya ICT Board are soon to become vacant are we looking for how we can influence the appointment or are we waiting for the person to be appointed and then we discuss the flawed process, inexperience of the person . . . . Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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My reflections on #140Friday and the (failed) Policy Paper
by Brian Munyao Longwe 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Every once in a while you find a cause or initiative that resonates with your values, passions and interests. That is what happened when, last year a heated debate on twitter between techies, IT entrepreneurs and the public sector led to a call for a physical face-to-face meeting to thrash out the issues. The main focus of the debate was the question of why most of the juicy IT deals tend to go to multinationals or overseas IT companies. Over the course of the online debate a number of issues came to the fore, these included shortcomings or weakness that hindered local IT companies from obtaining large projects; other issues also included public procurement policy and practice which effectively locked out local companies. Once there was consensus to have a face-to-face meeting I was nominated to pull it together, make it happen and effectively facilitate the whole engagement. The Nailab, a leading incubator, offered their offices as a venue for the meeting. In preparing, I not only reached out to key players in industry, government and civil society but also involved the media. We were able to get the attention of Nation Media's CEO Linus Gitahi and he approved our use of one of their business anchors, Larry Madowo, as a moderator for the face to face debate. The first debate was very well attended, the issues well articulated, the dialogue fresh and frank. A number of actions points came out of the first debate and these included: - ICT businesses (both large, small and startup) needed to organize themselves into a single industry body that could act as an interface between government and industry - Develop a policy paper for presentation to Government which captured a vision for the growth and development of the ICT industry in Kenya as well as a roadmap of actions that could get us there. Strangely and somewhat unexpectedly, the responsibility for coordinating the above two action points fell to me. I did not shrink from the task but made it clear that since I did not have an IT business of my own, and was not at the time part of any local company that I would simply try to act as a facilitator but that actions would have to come from the stakeholders themselves. We then brainstormed and figured out that it would be best for the industry association to be prioritized, as the drafting of the policy paper proceeded in order that the industry body would be the one that presented the completed paper. A target was set of presenting the paper at the Connected Kenya Summit which was to take place in the first week of April. In the process of thinking about how best to handle the industry body action point, an organization called KITOS (Kenya IT and Outsourcing Services) offered itself as the vehicle which could be used to bring industry together. This was received fairly well by most, albeit with some concern that the organization had been primarily known as being representative of those active in the BPO and ITES sector. These concerns were waived by the incumbent officials at KITOS who said that a simple name change could totally transform the perception and make the organization's name sound more representative. This then led to a few meetings where KITOS introduced itself to industry stakeholders in the #140Friday process. In these meetings discussions on membership criteria, membership fees etc were discussed. After it was clear that dialogue had been established between KITOS and it's potential members I exited from the scene as it was now up to them to thrash things out and make it happen. A parting shot that I left was that I felt that the membership categories and accompanying fees did not provide an entry point for poor startups or freelancers to join, and that they were an equally important part of the value chain and industry. I then carried on with focus meetings with various individuals to crystallize the policy paper draft which would be presented at the Connected summit. This process went well and eventually time for the event arrived. But KITOS asked me to present on their behalf as they had not yet finalized their stuff. With a lot of support from Mike Macharia of Seven Seas and advice from Paul Kukubo of the ICT Board I presented the draft. It was my expectation that KITOS would thereafter continue with the role and actions that were agreed on in the first #140Friday meeting. Including finalizing/polishing the policy paper for formal submission to Government It therefore came as a big surprise to me when I heard very recently that I had failed to deliver a policy paper from industry to Government. I HAD FAILED! This is what has lead me to write this account, not to vindicate myself but to put the facts out there for scrutiny for anyone who might have given ear to those who for whatever reason are seeking to cast aspersion upon me. I may have many failings but I will not sit down and take responsibility for the failings of others. This year, the Nailab and I have decided to pick up, dist off and relaunch the lively #140Friday ICT debates as they proved a very effective tool to galvanize debate, discussion and action on current affairs in the ICT sector.

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Tech Spectator Syndrome ?
by Sam Gichuru 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Please allow me to post this as a new thread... Added - My concern has been our reactions to the IEBC system failure, I applaud the doers in this country, I applaud those who bid and lost and those who won the contract to implement the system, I applaud them for their failure which means we are still alive and crawling but we will soon learn to talk and say baba and mama as the tech industry in Kenya, but my major concern is the rest of us... What I am seeing and I stand to be corrected is the spectator syndrome, when everything is ok and the international press highlight Kenya as a tech destination, Mpesa is praised, Ushahidi and startups with all our Mvitus, we celebrate, claim our team (#teamtech/ICT) is winning and write long blog posts and gazillion tweets etc This only last as long as nothing goes wrong, but when it does, suddenly the conversation changes from "we" to "them", they have failed, they dint consult, they dint test, they... not us. This is what most football fans/Spectators do, they love their football team only when its winning, which basically makes one wonder are we players or are we fans of this game? But to bring this home, we have a bigger problem, if this community started asking about the procurement process, the system architect and the companies that were selected to implement the IEBC system only after it failed, we are not engaging enough, are we saying that nobody in this list bid for this system? nobody tried? ... doesn't that mean we are just talking ..... and talk is cheap. I would like to challenge the community to engage more with an aim to problem solve, to tender and bid for local contracts, to build more open source solutions, to fundraise with an aim to seed fund startups, if we dont... we are going to be running around in circles and then move to Rwanda and guess what we will all say ..... they dint do xyz... Let ask Ourselves ... who is they? PS: I will stick to shorter posts in the future :) -- Warm Regards, ------------------------ Sam Gichuru twitter: | @samgichuru <http://twitter.com/samgichuru> Blog: | www.samgichuru.com Facebook: | Sam.gichuru <http://www.facebook.com/sam.gichuru> Skype: Sam.gichuru Cellphone: | +254-722-730565 Co-founder/ Director /Nailab Incubation Location: | Nairobi Website: | www.nailab.co.ke twitter: | @thenailab

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Re: [kictanet] Our Response to Systematic ICT Systems Failure at
by eonchari＠lynxbits.com 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

So...when all is said and done, can we in a point format (an I mean 1, 2, 3....n) format list what we need to do and get started in doing it? I will start: Consolidate all the ICT /quasi-ICT associations into 1 formidable organization. In that process, define the working modalities, mandates, etc of the organization Set timelines on when and how the above will happenThe rest will follow naturally - oh....and we all promise to check our selfish peculiar habits at the door for the sake of the industry. Edwin ----- Original Message ----- From: harry(a)comtelsys.co.keTo: eonchari(a)lynxbits.com Cc: kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke Sent: 3/13/13 12:32 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Our Response to Systematic ICT Systems Failure at Aye..! Dear Edith, Actually, on the contrary, I was one very vocal Kenyan, about the issue last week.. You do not remember..? Maybe the gist of what I raised as a pertinent issue in my earlier email got lost somewhere within. So again, here, my rejoinder. 1. The IEBC ICT systems failed last week during a very crucial national process We all agree they failed, and so spectacularly for that matter. 2. We on the list here, were up in arms - some highlighting, criticizing, demanding answers, and an audit of the happenings on the ICT front of the process, and some coming to its defense 3. Were we fronting different positions, only based on how each of our candidates was performing in the tallying process, or it was to deal with an anomaly irrespective..? Is it for the love of country, or love of self, me, us and I..? 4. We loosely agreed for a post-election audit, but quickly the issue fizzled out. The main process was concluded, putting the matter to rest, so it seems. No follow-up mechanism in place etcetra. Thankfully Brian, just indicated a discussion will be held on the issue. But we may need a credible, independent body/ taskforce to deal with the issue and report back to Kenyans. 5. Early this week saw the list jump to another component of this national process The media. Again, one cannot help but see the divergent views taking a tangent thats all too familiar. Again, this will fizzle out once positions are firmly cemented in place and the whole issue will come to naught. Do we seem to have a diversionary streak in us..? What is it thats our main undoing..? 1. We have deep seated and deep rooted issues, within us that inform the divergent views/opinions/positions we hold and a two-year old will have little difficulty seeing through the masks we put on. 2. We talk a lot. On the list, in our gatherings, streets, villages everywhere. But we need to really put mechanisms in place to go beyond the talk-shop. Can we start on this list. 3. Lets be unselfish and strive to consider and front country and each other first and we will progress much, much more. Harry We need to take a lead on matters ICT that affect this nation, based on principle/substance and avoid at all costs taking divergent opposing positions that best answer to the Question, - what is in it for me/us ( read partisan). From: Edith Adera [mailto:eadera@idrc.ca] Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 4:35 PM To: harry(a)comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: RE: [kictanet] Our Response to Systematic ICT Systems Failure at IEBC Harry, Not sure you were in Kenya or buried your head in the sand! Its a fact that the system did not work and IEBC had to revert to the manual system as reported by the Chair of the IEBC on TV. We need to learn to tell the truth as a country and confront our issues. Someone suggested on this list, cant remember who, that as an ICT industry an audit should be carried out so we know what went wrong and learn for the future. Why do we always turn to the easy targets.tribalism, partisan interests etc when hard questions are asked? Edith From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Delano Sent: March 12, 2013 3:22 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Our Response to Systematic ICT Systems Failure at IEBC Aye..! Could someone please aver what the furor was all about on this list when systems failed at IEBC last week. I thought it was so that we could address systemic issues in that part of the election process..? Please someone correct me, but I seem to be settling on this conclusion that we collectively only raise hue and cry when the system(s) are perceived to be working against us, or not in our interests whichever side of divide each one of us sits. Once they serve our interests, we quickly move on.. So where is posterity in all this..? A pattern emerges where well calculated intellectual arguments everywhere nowadays, that thinly veil and mask the real motives in us. We completely bury our heads in the ground and deny that we have deeply rooted issues that stem from tribe, class etc and as a result, we are caught up in this vicious cycle that we cannot seem to free ourselves from and which clouds our entire vision as a nation. Who will free us, if we do not take initiative ourselves..? How and when will we as a nation confront this monster head on, by first of all acknowledging it exists. Then moving to deal with it. Can this list be at the forefront of it..? If so, lets start now.. Harry

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Sili Con Savanna
by robert yawe 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Hi, http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/DN2/The-silly-con-in-the-savannah/-/957860… Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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New Pay Phones (booths) for New York City
by robert yawe 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Hi, It is said that the show isn't over until the fat lady/man sings, with many mobile phone batteries running out of juice by mid day the booth will definitely come in handy. http://www.gizmag.com/nyc-reinvent-payphone/26560/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscr… Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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