January 2014 - KICTANet

Kenya's Internet domain market is set for a shakeup
by Grace Githaiga 31 Jan '14

31 Jan '14

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/dot9/Kenyas-Internet-domain-market-is-se… "The regulator, CCK, has published draft framework and regulations that would shake up the internet domain market in Kenya. Whereas it has been its good practice to invite public comments on draft regulations, it is rare that CCK will change too much from what it has already drafted". @Walu, in your opinion, is this exercise of CCK soliciting for comments an exercise in futility? How do ensure that stakeholders' input is taken on board? Well, I know this might be a rhetorical question but still...

6 10

KENIC Board Statement on dot.KE
by Walubengo J 31 Jan '14

31 Jan '14

Find attached. Ofcourse I am just being a messenger here, not necessarily the owner of the message since I do not have the privilege to sit on the KENIC board :-) walu.

1 0

UK government plans switch from Microsoft Office to open source
by Evans Ikua 31 Jan '14

31 Jan '14

*"Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude plans to standardise on open formats to cut costs on Office suite and break 'oligopoly' of IT suppliers"*<http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/29/uk-government-plans-switc…> Maude will add: "Technical standards for document formats may not sound like the first shot in a revolution. "But be in no doubt: the adoption of compulsory standards in government threatens to break open Whitehall's lock-in to proprietary formats. In turn we will open the door for a host of other software providers." Maude will also hail changes designed to increase the number of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) winning public sector contracts. "In the civil service there was a sense that if you hired a big multi-national, who everyone knew the name of, you'd never be fired. "We weren't just missing out on innovation, we were paying top dollar for yesterday's technology. "One great example of the potential from small businesses was when we re-tendered a hosting contract. "The incumbent big supplier bid £4m; a UK-based small business offered to do it for £60,000. "We saved taxpayers a whopping 98.5%. I don't think we can make savings of that scale everywhere but hard-working people expect us to try as hard as we possibly can." Read More<http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/29/uk-government-plans-switc…> *The writing is on the wall.* -- *----------------------------------------------------Kind Regards,Evans Ikua,* lanetconsulting.com, lpi-eastafrica.org, Skype: evans.ikua Twitter: @ikuae Cell: +254-722-955831

2 1

Collaborative research and mapping for Nairobi’s Public Transit
by Grace Githaiga 31 Jan '14

31 Jan '14

This project uses Nairobi’s active mobile phone community to develop a standardized Matatu bus route for Nairobi informal buses. By developing crowd sourcing applications we hope people in Nairobi can develop, contribute, maintain and own their own transit information. http://www.digitalmatatus.com/#about

1 0

Workshop on Internet Policy and Human Rights
by Grace Githaiga 30 Jan '14

30 Jan '14

Dear Listers Please find attached an invitation to the above one day workshop. You are all welcome. Kindly email me offline to confirm your participation. We would also appreciate participation from those of you now working in the counties. RgdsGrace

1 0

Re: [kictanet] Innovation & Patents
by ngethe.kariuki2007 30 Jan '14

30 Jan '14

Barrack, Listers As a country, we can make a simple start by creating POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW posts in the universities. Sent from Samsung Mobile -------- Original message -------- From: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack(a)gmail.com> Date: To: ngethe.kariuki2007(a)yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Innovation & Patents Interesting discussion, reminds me of a conversation i had with a leading academic in which hee candidly assessed our Universities. In his Opinion it appears research in our Universities died during the struggle for multiparty ism. This is something we have to consciously address as a nation, politics is more funded than research, the future is scary. I agree with the various points highlighted and pray that the technocrats reading through this can help make a difference. Best Regards On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 8:29 AM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki(a)gmail.com> wrote: We have a government that doesn't invest in knowledge but wants to build a knowledge economy. :-) Sent from my mobile device, excuse brevity On 29 Jan 2014, at 08:25, Ngigi Waithaka <ngigi(a)at.co.ke> wrote: Phillip, That's the biggest difference between US & Kenya. US wants to be an innovator, Kenya on the other hand would wish to be the biggest consumer of technology in the region; basically we are this *huge* market. Our largest 'technology' businesses are basically just brokers for foreign technology into our market. US is that kid in the top percentile who still wants to do more, while we are that kid in the bottom percentile who thinks spending an extra hour every day to catch up is just too much work :-) Until the day we'll spend the Ksh 850B targeted for building Konza into research & development and not building offices for multinationals, we are going to settle rather comfortably into that bottom percentile. Leadership! Regards Waithaka Ngigi A1.iO On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 7:28 AM, Philip Adar <philip.adar(a)gmail.com> wrote: Listers, Maybe as Kenyan's we have nothing to gain from the US President State of the Union Address. But, I happened to listen at a time we were discussing about innovations and patents. Below, find a 2-paragraph extract from the 2014 State of the union address, which in my view; shows us why and how USA still remains the leading innovative nation on earth. "We also have the chance, right now, to beat other countries in the race for the next wave of high-tech manufacturing jobs. My administration has launched two hubs for high-tech manufacturing in Raleigh and Youngstown, where we’ve connected businesses to research universities that can help America lead the world in advanced technologies. Tonight, I’m announcing we’ll launch six more this year. Bipartisan bills in both houses could double the number of these hubs and the jobs they create. So get those bills to my desk and put more Americans back to work." "We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. This is an edge America cannot surrender. Federally-funded research helped lead to the ideas and inventions behind Google and smartphones. That’s why Congress should undo the damage done by last year’s cuts to basic research so we can unleash the next great American discovery – whether it’s vaccines that stay ahead of drug-resistant bacteria, or paper-thin material that’s stronger than steel. And let’s pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation, not costly, needless litigation." I cannot remember, at anytime in history where our top leadership in Kenya has given any specific focus and commitment to supporting government sponsored research at a national level?? On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 6:43 AM, Philip Adar <philip.adar(a)gmail.com> wrote: Attached, I go back to some statistics (and documented studies) of a few years back (at least by then I was in active research and I knew for sure that the reported statistics was reasonably accurate to what was the experience in many countries; Kenya included). There are three main conclusions in the report: The first is that innovation makes a significant contribution to economic growth of a country (I want to assume that this is why the so-called top economies dominate the top contributors to registered patents in the recently published statistics I shared). The second is that there are significant spillovers between countries, firms, and industries, and to a lesser extent from government-funded research (I have not been able to qualify if the our Government has had any specific focus areas for research with a targeted budget to spend). Third, that these spillovers tend to be localized, with foreign economies gaining significantly less from domestic innovation than other domestic firms. This suggests that although technological ‘catch-up’ may act to equalise productivity across countries (as we have seen with decades of "off-shore manufacturing" in China, aiding the Chinese re-verse engineering innovation), the process is likely to be slow and uncertain, and require substantial domestic innovative effort... Well, that granted; my worry continues to be the lost potential our country is subjected to due to "little focus to new invention" ; (thank you Ken for subjecting yourself to the effort of explaining to us the difference between invention and innovation!). If I was to advise: until we shall have realized close to 50% (or there about) of our annual university admissions as post-graduate students; then our efforts to be an inventive/innovative society may still be elusive. Entrepreneurs (the likes of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, or Andrew Vitabi/Irwin Jacobs etc) only succeed in an environment thriving with brains willing to rise-up for the challenge! Struggling to create another replica of facebook or google or M-PESA; may not deliver much challenge to our children's thought process..... Once done, can always be done! Regards Philip On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 3:32 PM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki(a)gmail.com> wrote: People innovate, just that we have a weak IP framework (which people like CIPIT at Strathmore University are working to resolve). To quote the many times abused aphorism, "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". Just because there are no patents coming out of Africa it does not mean that Africans are not innovating. Many times IP from Africa is registered abroad e.g. M-Pesa is implemented in Kenya, but the IP is resident in the UK, granted the team that worked on it was British, but it's an example of a product built in Africa but whose IP is resident in the UK (possibly rightly so, I'm not debating the ethics of having the IP resident there, just pointing out that it's hailed as an African innovation but the IP isn't resident here). In other cases, people don't bother patenting the innovation that they come up with, simply because of the amount of time it takes to acquire rights or simply costs of the same. On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 5:11 PM, Ken Okong'o <ken_okongo(a)yahoo.com> wrote: Philip, I think there’s a fundamento difference between an innovator and an inventor. I’d say invention is the creation of a new product or introduction of a new process while innovation naturally happens when one improves on or makes a significant contribution to something that has already been invented. For instance, while Steve Jobs was an innovator, Thomas Edison was an inventor. The latter’s was novel idea without precedent. Overall, technology is an aggregation of all existing inventions and innovations. Because of this u will also realize from the stats you shared that economies that invest much on the inventive talents become potential sources of innovation and new technologies. However, the measure of the level of patented inventions available for innovation is just one indicator that can serve as a measure of inventive output. From: Philip Adar <philip.adar(a)gmail.com> To: ken_okongo(a)yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Saturday, 25 January 2014, 14:52 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Innovation & Patents @Ali, I would want to believe that Innovation/Patents means much more than programming or Software. I thought it should start from abstract ideas, something not seen before or not done before... On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 12:38 PM, Ali Hussein <ali(a)hussein.me.ke> wrote: Adam The answer to that is not a simple one. America has realized that innovation and patents don't only reside in inventing and creating. In the recent past process innovation has gained a lot of attention simply because America is loosing some of its competitive edge by outsourcing production entirely to Asia. This of course has other implications like China being able to copy and produce products as good or even better than the west can. I think that's possible one of the reasons that some American companies are talking production back to the Homeland. I suspect this is both an intellectual, business and political question that will dog us for years to come. The other issue about patents/innovation is what role this has in a world that is increasingly 'Opensource'. So patent registration may not be the only barometer to gauge how innovative a company/country is. We may want to aggregate more sources. Ali Hussein +254 0770 906375 / 0713 601113 "I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots". ~ Albert Einstein Sent from my iPad On Jan 25, 2014, at 7:59 AM, Adam Nelson <adam(a)varud.com> wrote: Apple: Designed in California, Built in China Kenya can follow either path but innovation/prototyping have almost nothing to do with mass production when it comes to the tech industry. That's why it's mind numbing to hear all this talk of creating thousands of jobs through manufacturing. Kenya is in a position to follow California with high value innovation careers but instead the government appears to be focused on following China with low-value mass labor. The irony is that the low-value mass labor of electronics production in Asia is already being displaced by robots so by the time the infrastructure is here, the industry will have already moved on beyond mass labor anyway. -- Kili - Cloud for Africa: kili.io Musings: twitter.com/varud More Musings: varud.com About Adam: www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 1:20 AM, Philip Adar <philip.adar(a)gmail.com> wrote: Listers, I am not sure if the attached statistics report is accurate, but it seems no new patents are coming up anywhere in Africa apart from South Africa? One would wonder, are we building technology parks so that we can start inventing or should it be the inventions that should drive the development of technology parks? -- Regards Philip Adar _______________________________________________ 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. _______________________________________________ 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/info%40alyhussein.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. _______________________________________________ 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/philip.adar%40gmail.c… 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. -- Regards Philip Adar _______________________________________________ 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/ken_okongo%40yahoo.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. _______________________________________________ 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/pkariuki%40gmail.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. -- Warm Regards, Phares Kariuki | T: +254 720 406 093 | E: pkariuki(a)gmail.com | Twitter: kaboro | Skype: kariukiphares | B: http://www.kaboro.com/ | _______________________________________________ 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/philip.adar%40gmail.c… 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. -- Regards Philip Adar -- Regards Philip Adar _______________________________________________ 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/ngigi%40at.co.ke 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. -- Regards, Waithaka Ngigi Chief Executive Officer | Alliance Technologies | MCK Nairobi Synod Building T + 254 (0) 20 2333 471 |Office Mobile: +254 786 28 28 28 | M + 254 737 811 000 www.at.co.ke _______________________________________________ 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/pkariuki%40gmail.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. _______________________________________________ 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/otieno.barrack%40gmai… 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. -- Barrack O. Otieno +254721325277 +254-20-2498789 Skype: barrack.otieno http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/

1 0

How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username...
by Michael Bullut 29 Jan '14

29 Jan '14

Greetings Good People, This is social engineering on an *EPIC* scale! Here's the *link. <http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2014/01/29/lost-50000-twitter-username/#d…>* *(GoDaddy & Paypal users beware!)* Warm regards, Michael Bullut. --- *Cell:* *+254 723 393 114.**Skype Name:* *Michael Bullut.* *Twitter:* * @Kipsang <http://twitter.com/Kipsang/> * *Blog: http://www.kipsang.com/ <http://www.kipsang.com/>* *E-mail:* *main(a)kipsang.com <main(a)kipsang.com>* *---*

2 1

Innovation & Patents
by Philip Adar 29 Jan '14

29 Jan '14

Listers, I am not sure if the attached statistics report is accurate, but it seems no new patents are coming up anywhere in Africa apart from South Africa? One would wonder, are we building technology parks so that we can start inventing or should it be the inventions that should drive the development of technology parks? -- Regards Philip Adar

7 12

Tech in the classroom
by robert yawe 29 Jan '14

29 Jan '14

An interesting read. Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 On Wednesday, 29 January 2014, 1:15, TechRepublic News & Special Offers <newsletters(a)techrepublic.online.com> wrote: Tech in the classroom: Chromebooks, Google Apps, Makerbots Manage my newsletters | Unsubscribe Be a fan on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter TechRepublic Editor's Choice TechRepublic Member | January 29, 2014 Home | Blogs | Downloads | Q&A | Discussions | Photos | Videos | Webcasts | White Papers | Research Private school's Chromebook program explains why Google's laptops have captured nearly 20% of the educational market Kentucky Country Day, an independent private school, recently began requiring Chromebooks for their middle schoolers. What started as an R&D experiment has yielded some striking results. Also check out: KCD's tech in the classroom: Chromebooks, Google Apps, Makerbots (photos) Put Chromebooks in proper context: This is not a joke Editor's Picks Windows XP deadline looms, but many firms still aren't ready to leap Researchers describe tool that manipulates RAM, misleads cybercrime investigators Microsoft's monumental task in Windows 9: Win back the base Hired.com upends tech recruiting by having companies bid for workers Goodbye net neutrality... Now what? The real revolution of IoT will come in the form of apps Oregon CIO never unplugs, loves Glass, has unique perspective on IT emergencies TechRepublic welcomes Alex Howard to write about how tech is driving sweeping changes in society 10 ways enterprise IT Is changing >> All TechRepublic articles Subscribe to TechRepublic newsletters Click the newsletter titles you want from the list below to be automatically subscribed. Week in Review Big Data Analytics Developer TechRepublic UK TechRepublic Australia Wrapper The Android Expert The Editor's Daily Picks All TechRepublic newsletter offerings >> Follow TechRepublic and its editors on Twitter and Facebook Jason Hiner Bill Detwiler Sonja Thompson Steve Ranger Jody Gilbert Nick Heath Lyndsey Gilpin Conner Forrest Teena Hammond Send us your feedback here. Sign up for more free newsletters from TechRepublic! To manage your account settings or to remove yourself from all TechRepublic communications, please visit our Subscription Center. The e-mail address for your subscription is robertyawe(a)yahoo.co.uk Unsubscribe from this e-mail | FAQ | Ad Choice | Privacy Policy | Terms of use Copyright 2014 CBS Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. TechRepublic is a registered service mark of CBS Interactive, Inc. TechRepublic 235 Second Street San Francisco, CA 94105 U.S.A.

2 1

ICANN Seeks EMEA Regional Communications Director
by Grace Githaiga 28 Jan '14

28 Jan '14

May be of interest to some of you. Job DescriptionICANN is looking for an experienced communications professional to lead outreach to the media, members of the Internet community, and ICANN’s various stakeholders in the Europe, Middle-East, and Africa (EMEA) region. If you have a strong background in working with regional media, both traditional and social, and communications skills more broadly, you may be the person we’re looking for to join the ICANN team. This individual will ideally be based in Istanbul, Turkey or possibly Brussels, Belgium. https://icann-openhire.silkroad.com/epostings/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.jobi…

1 0