- KICTANet - KICTANet

OpenSource society
by judy okite 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

Listers, for those in the opensource society and may wish to showcase their expertise and network with other experts worlwide .....www.linux.conf.au is where its all happening. Kind Regards, ____________________________________________________________________________________ Don't pick lemons. See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos. http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html

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www.east-africa.ea
by Bill Kagai 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

For those in the know, how feasible is introducing a dot [EA] domain. With a lucrative market population of 109 million after adding Rwanda and Burundi into East Africa Community...is it possible to have one website with a [.ea] domain instead of having 5 websites for [.ke], [.ug], [.tz], [.rw] and [.bi]?? And may be soon [.southsudan]?? -- With Kind Regards, Bildad Kagai MD - MediaCorp Limited Suite B2, Tetu Apartments StateHouse Avenue P. O. Box 20311-00200 Tel. 254 20 272 8332 URL. www.mediacorp.co.ke --

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CCK Internet Study- Online Deliberation Week1 Summaries
by John Walubengo 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

Dear Listers, We are now concluding the report on the previously held online discussions. Plse go through the summarised comments and we welcome and corrections, modifications or additions before end of day Wed 20th June 2007. Below Week 1 Summaries. Week 1 Summary. Day 1:Background Concepts/Overview Mr. J. Walubengo gave an overview of the Internet Study report saying that it aimed to establish the status of Internet Infrastructure, Internet Affordability and Internet Use & Dispersion in Kenya. He reported that the study had various recommendations aimed at improving on the above internet indicators. This included amongst others; getting the government intervention in extending the domestic internet infrastructure, introducing further competition both within the Fixed Line and Mobile subsectors, utilizing the Universal access fund to extend Internet reach, promoting creation and use of local content as well as supporting Consumer Awareness initiatives. Mr. A. Gakuru lauded the study as well as its ecommendations but noted that a similar study would be required that focused on the demand-side rather than the Supply-side of the internet market. He was glad that the Regulator was finally making deliberate efforts to support consumer awareness initiatives. He wondered if naming and shaming those ISPs that failed to route traffic through the local internet exchange point (KIXP) would help in enhancing the use of KIXP. Day 2: International & Domestic Bandwidth Usage In his opening remarks, Mr. Walubengo said that the report indicated that the International Internet Traffic was skewed (90%) towards external sources (content). Kenya was a net importer of Internet content and was therefore a consumer rather than a creator of Internet content. Value (economic or otherwise) goes to the creators of Internet Content and Kenya should aim to be a generator rather than just consumers of Internet Content. Mr. M. Michuki observed that most Kenyans visited external sources due to lack of local content. He suggested that ISPs should come up with pricing smodels that encouraged the creation of and access to local content. For example, geo-specific tariffs could be designed that would deliberately make it cheaper to access local (.KE) conent i.e. users could be charged less if and when they accessed or used local services(local websites, emails, etc) as opposed to foreign services. In addition, ISPs could come up with time-based tariffs that took advantage of the traffic models registered on the KIXP i.e. provide even lower rates for local content during evenings and weekends.He however conceded that Online Government Services, eHealth, eBanking, eLearning, etc would have to be in place in order to make such pricing models successful. Mr. J. Ngunjiri added that training or capacity building initiatives must also be supported to further gaurantee the success of the initiative. Day 3: Hierarchy of Internet Service Providers (IGO,ISP) The Internet Study Report recommended that the seperation between Internet Gateway Operators (IGO) and Internet Service Providers be dissolved with expected results being cheaper and higher quality services. In his opening remarks, Mr. Walubengo asked members to react to this recommendation. Lucy Kimani wondered if IGO would be able to cope with the technical and administrative overheads experienced by ISPs such as a larger number of customer accounts, increased need for support services, etc. She added that the cost of services may not come necessarily come down as expected due to the need to cover such overheads. Mr. Walubengo cited the case of TKL (Telkom Kenya) who are currently operating at both the Gateway and the ISP level without significant cost reductions in their Internet Service. Mr. S. Buruchara felt that historically, ISPs have had a rough time in trying to set up their own Internet Gateway Operations - having been forced by regulation to route their traffic through expensive and monopolistic Internet Gateways. He argued that if the upstream providers (IGO) were expensive, it was only natural that these costs would be passed downstream to the consumers. In addition, he noted that even todate the Licensing requirements were still prohibitive (expensive) for ISPs to move into the IGO level and if they did, they may need to recoup their (Licensing & other) investments at the expense of offering cheaper Internet Access rates. Mr. Kai Wulff commented that giving ISPs the IGO facilities may not necessarily reduce prices, citing case of Uganda where internet costs are still high despite many ISPs having IGO facilities. Day 4: Statistics on Infrastructure The report indicated that ISPs (internet services) were only operating in 30% of the districts in Kenya. The leased line services were mainly concentrated in urban centers (NRB & MSA) meaning that Internet Infrastructure was clearly challenged and the Report urges Government to intervene by leading the build-up of Internet/Network infrastructure accross the country. In her reaction, Alice Munyua, said that a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach must be made to avoid having infrastructure that would eventually serve no purpose. Aggressive infrastructure build up without content would be an exercise in futility since the internet pipes would be idle and underutilised most of the time. She added that additional initiatives such as Construction and Supply of Electrical Power, Literacy Initiatives, Local Content and 'Demand-side' Internet Requirements must move side by side with the infrastructure roll-out. ==Ends==== walu. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check. Try the Yahoo! 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Yahoo! News Story - Google' s breakneck changes stoke privacy fears - Yahoo! News
by John Walubengo 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

John Walubengo (jwalu(a)yahoo.com) has sent you a news article. (Email address has not been verified.) ------------------------------------------------------------ Personal message: mmmmHhhh.... looks like Mucheru has truly jumped into the deep-end of the information society. walu. Google's breakneck changes stoke privacy fears - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070618/wr_nm/privacy_google_dc_4 ============================================================ Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/

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Safaricom lowers call charges]
by alice 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

Safaricom lowers call charges ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By Brian Adero Just days after the Government ignored calls to lower excise tax on mobile airtime, Safaricom has announced major reductions in its calling rates. The changes, which take effect immediately, affect all of the mobile firm's tariffs and include cuts for calls to other networks. They come two weeks before a Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) deadline for telecommunications firms to lower their base charges for calls across networks (interconnect charges). Subscribers using prepaid services will now save up to 38 per cent, while those on post-paid plans will spend 20 per cent less for calls to other Safaricom subscribers. Charges for calls to other networks are down up to 50 per cent. The changes are the single most significant step in lowering calling rates since rival network Celtel Kenya introduced a tariff offering a flat rate of Sh16 to all networks. Chief Executive Officer, Mr Michael Joseph, said the lower rates were introduced in response to customers' demands. "We want to make sure that everybody can afford to use a mobile phone," Joseph said. Safaricom said it has reduced the cost of calls to rival networks from a high of Sh50 per minute on one tariff, to Sh25 during off peak periods and Sh30 during peak periods. The company has also reduced the cost of text messages within the network from Sh5 per message to Sh3.50 during peak periods and Sh2.50 during off peak periods. Call set up fees and daily access fees have also been scrapped as the firm shoots for "simpler and more affordable tariffs". * No effect on revenue * A Celtel Kenya communications officer says the firm is also planning further cuts. "Safaricom has just reacted to the deadline given by CCK directing them to reduce the interconnect charges by June 30," he said. "We are working on our study and strategy and will unveil them to our customers soon." Joseph said the reductions would not affect Safaricom's revenue because the company expects an increase in its subscriber base, which was 5.5 million as at February 1. The six-year-old mobile operator last year reported a 45 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to Sh12.2 billion, making it the region's most profitable company. The profits were made off 3.9 million subscribers, about 1.5 million fewer than the company has today. Joseph attributes Safaricom's growth to a significantly increased network rollout in rural areas as well as the popularity of its low-denomination airtime credit voucher, 'Bamba 50'. On June 5, Safaricom and its sole competitor, Celtel Kenya, asked the Government to remove or cut a 10 per cent excise duty charged on airtime for mobile phones in the annual budget presented by Finance minister, Mr Amos Kimunya, on June 14. Kimunya neither reduced nor abolished the tax. "We are still going to continue lobbying for reduction in excise tax because as both our competitor and ourselves have said, taxes on airtime are very high," Joseph said. In addition to the excise duty, the Government levies a value added tax of 16 per cent on the cost of mobile phone calls. Analysts say mobile airtime is a relatively 'price inelastic' good (demand remains the same for a range of prices), so Government can raise taxes off it without significantly hindering growth. Vodafone effectively owns 35 per cent of Safaricom, while the Government holds 60 per cent through Telkom Kenya. A five per cent stake is held by Mobitelea Ventures, a Guernsey-registered company whose ownership is unknown. Kimunya last week said he expected to offer shares in Safaricom to the public within the next 12 months. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others? .........Martin Luther King, Jr. -------------------------------------------------------------------- __._,_.___ Messages in this topic <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigAfrica/message/6033;_ylc=X3oDMTM0NWljcnM0B…> (1) Reply (via web post) <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigAfrica/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJwaDdlOXZoBF9TAzk3M…> | Start a new topic <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigAfrica/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJlMWRoaG5sBF9TAzk3M…> Messages <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigAfrica/messages;_ylc=X3oDMTJlaGtoMWQ0BF9TA…> | Links <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigAfrica/links;_ylc=X3oDMTJmMWVlZG80BF9TAzk3…> | Polls <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigAfrica/polls;_ylc=X3oDMTJmNmh0azJvBF9TAzk3…> Dig Africa site welcomes you to join us at http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/Digafrica on IT in Africa Aids-Africa is a forum for communication and information on AIDS related issues in Africa and all are welcome to join us at http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/aids-africa Join us on hiv/aids forum on Kenya at http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/kenya-aids Join us at a Kenyan networking forum and NGOS at http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/kenyainternational Yahoo! 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Fwd: EFF: Court Protects Email from Secret Government Searches
by Alex Gakuru 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: WWWhatsup <joly(a)punkcast.com> Date: Jun 19, 2007 3:36 AM Subject: [isoc-ny] EFF: Court Protects Email from Secret Government Searches To: isoc-ny(a)yahoogroups.com, discuss(a)isoc-ny.org Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release For Immediate Release: Monday, June 18, 2007 Contact: Kevin Bankston Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation bankston(a)eff.org +1 415 436-9333 x126 Court Protects Email from Secret Government Searches Landmark Ruling Gives Email Same Constitutional Protections as Phone Calls San Francisco - The government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers, according to a landmark ruling Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their telephone calls -- the first circuit court ever to make that finding. Over the last 20 years, the government has routinely used the federal Stored Communications Act (SCA) to secretly obtain stored email from email service providers without a warrant. But today's ruling -- closely following the reasoning in an amicus brief filed the by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other civil liberties groups -- found that the SCA violates the Fourth Amendment. "Email users expect that their Hotmail and Gmail inboxes are just as private as their postal mail and their telephone calls," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "The government tried to get around this common-sense conclusion, but the Constitution applies online as well as offline, as the court correctly found. That means that the government can't secretly seize your emails without a warrant." Warshak v. United States was brought in the Southern District of Ohio federal court by Steven Warshak to stop the government's repeated secret searches and seizures of his stored email using the SCA. The district court ruled that the government cannot use the SCA to obtain stored email without a warrant or prior notice to the email account holder, but the government appealed that ruling to the 6th Circuit. EFF served as an amicus in the case, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy & Technology. Law professors Susan Freiwald and Patricia Bellia also submitted an amicus brief, and the case was successfully argued at the 6th Circuit by Warshak's counsel Martin Weinberg. For the full ruling in Warshak v. United States: http://eff.org/legal/cases/warshak_v_usa/ 6th_circuit_decision_upholding_injunction.pdf For EFF's resources on the case, including its amicus brief: http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/warshak_v_usa/ For this release: http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_06.php#005321 About EFF The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------- WWWhatsup NYC http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com ---------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games. --------------------------------- It's here! Your new message! Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar.

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CCK Internet Study- Online Deliberation Week2&3 Summaries
by John Walubengo 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

Dear Listers, We are now concluding the report on the above previously held Online discussion. Plse go through the summarised comments and we welcome any corrections, modifications or additions before end of day Wed 20th June 2007. Below Week 2&3 Summaries. Theme-Hierarchy of Providers Joseph Mucheru felt that the Internet Market Structure had not been sufficiently regulated to ensure the players (ISP & IGO) kept to the terms and conditions of their licence. He pointed out that whereas the current licensing regime stipulates that IGO do not do direct retail to consumers, this was not the case in practice. ISPs were also not expected to build their infrastructure since they were expected to lease capacity from the PDNOs but this was not the case in practise. Mucheru said that the industry had deteriorated to a level where all players are doing everything and anything to for profit gain and it was costing the country in terms of failure to leverage on the economies of scale had the licensing terms and conditions been adopted. Basically, Trust between IGOs, PDNO & ISP has been lost, making it very difficult to build economically efficient Internet Networks. Eric Osiakwan agreed by adding that the duplication of effort by the players results in enormous costs that are eventually dropped onto the Consumers. Theme- Statistics on Affordability Mucheru said that the main obstacles towards affordable internet services included the costs of the equipment, namely Modems, Satellite dishes, the PC and Installation Costs. However, given more users, these costs are likely to come down. Kai Wulff felt that the key thing to bringing down internet costs lay in developing local content- thus reducing the need to rely on international (external) content which in turn implied buying international bandwidth. Joan Walumbe said that awareness of Internet benefits particularly for the rural communities was necessary to create demand. Fatma Bashir agreed with Joans observation and added that there was a need to build information centers in the rural sector that could informally train users on the Internet. She commended KDNs initiative to link secondary schools to the Internet, saying that it would create a virtuous cycle where parents, their children and entrepreneurs can simultaneously benefit from the Internet. However, James Rege cautioned that Fiber alone could not address the Access component and other technologies will need to adopted for the last mile, such as WiMax, Wifi, Satellite amongst others. Florence Etta said that last mile solutions had a complex web of actors, services and possibilities and should be well planned and provisioned preferably with support from cheap sources of funding such as the African Development Bank (AfDB) Njenga MP said that considering most rural families lacked significant disposable incomes, it would be better to serve them using the Universal Service Fund which would subsidise their communication costs. But Wainaina Mungai argued that the rural community is actually not so financially indisposed particularly if their uptake for mobile telephony was anything to go by. He said that given the right access that focused on value-adding activities for their rural lifestyles, their Internet uptake will easily exceed expectations - along the same lines as their uptake for mobile telephony has. Dr. Bitange Ndemo felt that one way of making services available was by government providing the infrastructure on Open Access basis. He cited the case of the domestic link between the two Cities of Nairobi and Mombasa saying that the cost of bandwidth on this route was exorbitant despite the existing competition. Kai Wulff argued that the cost of the service was a function of usage and prices would essentially go down once usage picks up. But Brian Longwe interjected by saying usage was also a function of price, thus presenting what Eric Osiakwan referred to as the classic chicken and egg problem. In such a case, Eric said, it is always better for the Private Sector to take the business risk of adopting what Dr. Ndemo referred to as the concept of low prices high volume business models. Michael Joseph reminded members that it was worth noting that pricing was not the only key factor but service delivery, reliability, availability need to be considered. In general, industry standard Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that would encourage Operators to lease more bandwidth capacity from the upstream providers were critical. As Operators, he said, they will be needing more and more transmission capacity both within and outside the country and were therefore looking seriously at all the various proposals that are evolving. In particular, he said, they were looking forward to reviewing the detailed plans for the Regional FiberOptic network, including dates or termination points, pricing etc so as make their plan accordingly. Theme Statistics on Dispersion. Kai felt that the recent push by Government with the World Bank assistance in building internet infrastructure was presenting unfair competition to the private sector. He gave the example of the obvious failure by Government in providing fixed line services to the citizens through their public utility company Telkom Kenya. He argued that using the same approach in building domestic optical fiber infrastructure may lead to similar experiences, namely, little or no access, expensive and unreliable services. He strongly felt that Government should let the Private sector drive the build-up of the domestic fiber and furthermore, he expected that Government should be the largest consumer of the Private Sector build infrastructure. Becky Wanjiku, wondered if the Government could work in partnership with the Private Sector, by way of having MOUs that enabled Government to fund the communications projects while the private sector implemented and operated them. But Wanaina Mungai preferred that World-Bank type of Funding would be best accorded to Community Based Organisations (CBOs) but if given to Private Sector, then there would be need to ensure that the Profit motive is moderated. Lucy Kimani felt that both Government and Private Sector had a role in developing infrastructure. She said that both may however have different but justifiable reasons for getting involved. Private Sector may be keen in focusing in the urban (quicker return) areas whereas the Government had an obligation to ensure communication services reached all areas including more often than not, the non-economic, rural areas. Fatma said that the Government should however take on the key role of building capacity by way of providing roaming-digital-kiosks that would enlighten the users and stimulate demand for the Internet Services. Alice Munyua said that there was nothing wrong in the Government taking the lead in providing or building domestic fiber backbones. She cited the case of the Malaysian Government which built the Malaysian Super Corridor (MSC) which is a national information superhighway at cost of USD40 Billion. She added that Private sector would still have a role to play, particularly at the content, application and tech-skill levels. Eric Osiakwan said that it would be wrong to outrightly discourage Government intervention in Infrastructure development because it has had different results in different countries. He cited Turkey where he said that the Government intervention through the Turkish public utility company lead to massive expansion of Internet Services, but acknowledged that the same could not be said in the case for Kenya. Dr. Bitange Ndemo said that the purpose of the World Bank Loan was to stimulate demand a head of cheap bandwidth from the fibre cable. Areas that needed this type of stimulation include Rural ICT Centres, the Government, Universities and Colleges and BPOs. He added that the procurement of subsidized bandwidth will be done openly where all operators would have a chance. This does not in anyway compromise any Private sector initiatives because they would be paid the market rate of bandwidth. He explained that the participation of Government in construction of Terrestrial fibre networks and the undersea cable was to fast track availability of cheap bandwidth that would in turn help the economy to grow faster. Secondly, he said that Kenya needed an Open Access model that would help SMEs in the country to compete with the big Operators, like Jamii Telecom, KDN and the rest.. He added that the Private sector had failed to provide the necessary infrastructure for economic development and no Private Operator had shown interest in rural Kenya until the Government made the business case for rural ICTs. He however assured the Private Sector that Government had no interest in competing with them. Government role was to facilitate development. Infrastructure in the ICT Sector had lagged behind and what the Government was doing was simply to facilitate its development and leave the Private Sector to compete in an Open Access platform. He reiterated that Government had the obligation to enable every Kenyan citizen to play a role in economic development especially the SMEs that constitute 95% of businesses in the country. He concluded by saying that there was absolutely nothing wrong with borrowing from the WB to stimulate demand for the investment Government was making in the ICT sector. Some of the funds would be used to develop capacity to utilize ICTs and development of local content. Essentially, Government was simply stimulating demand that would become consumers of Private Sector products. Alex Gakuru gave a general reaction that touched on both Affordability and Dispersion Issues. On local content, he suggested that all government departments should now be having web content while KENIC should be encouraged to bring down their domain registrations fees. On the demand issue, he urged Operators to think outside their traditional markets and start enlisting new communities such as Church Ministries amongst others. On Education, he said there maybe need to seek for trust funds to continuously educate Users while on Infrastructure, he commended the Government on their move to facilitate a national reach for communications. Harry Hare added that ICT Infrastructure development should actually be elevated to the same level as National Road or Power Infrastructure. Infact, he suggested, that all the three, ICT, Road and Power Infrastructure should be planned in sync to avoid duplication of effort where the ICT people are often seen digging up through roads that were constructed with little or no provision for Data-ducts. Theme - Impact of the Recommendations Alex Gakuru supported most of the recommendations but cautioned against any Government takeover of the KIXP. Eric wondered why the Regulator would be building the Infrastructure but Professor Meoli Kashorda corrected the misconception by saying that it was the Government that had been tasked with that exercise. He further elaborated what was meant by a National Information Infrastructure (NII). He said that a NII was actually an ICT strategy that was aligned to the national strategic economic plans (ref Singapore, Mauritius, China NII ). That is, NII aligns the national economic/development strategy with the national ICT strategy (rather than just policy). He added that, that was the only way to translate infrastructure to traffic and therefore revenue for the operators. Brain Longwe also supported most of the recommendations with cautions on a few. In particular, on the issue of dissolving the separation between ISPs and IGOs, he was of the idea that it would be better to start a fresh licensing regime subsequent to a stakeholders meeting that discussed what the future internet market would look like. The new licensing regime should then aim at structuring the critical areas within such a vision while being fairly open with the non-crtical areas On SLAs, he felt that it was easier to stipulate the Internet standard but it maybe quite a challenge to monitor the same for enforcement. ====Ends==== walu. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Luggage? GPS? Comic books? Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz

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Vacancy: Chief Executive Officer for UbuntuNet Alliance
by Tiwonge Msulira Banda 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

Dear Colleagues, ** *Vacancy: C**hief Executive Officer for UbutuNet Alliance* ** The UbuntuNet Alliance wishes to appoint an enthusiastic and self motivated person as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This is a full-time senior post, with a competitive salary package. The CEO will be based in Nairobi, Kenya. The Alliance is a registered non-profit association of African National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), established in the latter half of 2005 with the vision of delivering very high speed – gigabits (Gbps) connectivity between research and education institutions throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The CEO, who reports to the Management Board, will fulfill the vision of the Alliance by carrying out the following duties: - Develop and implement the UbuntuNet Alliance's strategy - Support governance processes - Manage operations - Develop and sustain relations with the research and education networking community throughout sub-Saharan Africa and worldwide - Sustain relations with donor foundations - Sustain and develop relations with suppliers - Establish the Alliance's head office and secretariat in Nairobi. The applicant should have the ability to work independently and as part of a team in building the African Research and Education Backbone. Applicants with strong academic credentials and 3 years experience in senior network management will have an added advantage. Full details about The Alliance and the post can be obtained from the website, *www.ubuntunet.net* or contact Margaret Ngwira, email: * mengwira(a)kcn.unima.mw.* If you are interested in applying for this position, send your CV and a covering letter to Margaret Ngwira, Secretary, Ubuntunet Alliance, email: * mengwira(a)kcn.unima.mw*. cc *ceo(a)tenet.ac.za* or fax +265 1 756 090. The closing date for receipt of applications is Friday 6 July 2006. Kind regards, Tiwonge -- Tiwonge Msulira Banda UbuntuNet Alliance Secretariat University of Malawi Private Bag 1, Lilongwe, Malawi. http://www.ubuntunet.net Cell: 265 9 340740 Fax: 265 1 756090

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National e-Government Strategies: Designing for Success - 19 June 2007
by Harry Hare 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

Dear Colleagues, The World Bank office in Nairobi has kindly availed their facility for those interested in participating in a videoconference is titled "National e-Government Strategies: Designing for Success" which is to take place tomorrow June 19th at 9:00 - 11:30 am EST, which is 4pm here. This VC is organized in partnership with USAID/USTTI and Development Gateway Foundation. The event will feature several leading experts from India, Singapore, U.S., Kenya and World Bank who will engage in a discussion with country clients. The event description is below and more information is available at: http://go.worldbank.org/KYLN3DZF40 A great number of governments have now developed e-Government strategies and are at various stages of implementation. While a significant amount of attention has been given in the past to identifying the key components of e-Government strategies and identifying best practices, little attention has been given to the processes involved in the design of such strategies. Recognizing that the process of designing an e-Government strategy is perhaps as important if not more important than the resulting document, this event will be an opportunity to learn from three different country perspectives. The speakers will address the process of designing successful national e-Government strategies, focusing on the following questions: Why is it important to have well-designed e-Government Strategies? Why might the process be as important as the final document? What constitutes successful e-Government strategies? What are the key ingredients? How should governments go about designing e-Government strategies? What are the steps and processes that are essential not only to the elaboration of the strategy, but also to its successful implementation? The VC room at the Bank can accommodate just a few people, and we have been given about 15 spaces which shall be allocated on a first come first served basis. Due to security issues at the Bank's offices, we have to submit the names of those interested by 1pm tomorrow. So if you are interested in participating, pls send me an email by 1pm tomorrow 19th June 2007. My apologies for the short notice and we look forward to your participation! Best regards, Harry Hare African eDevelopment Resource Centre

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is your website relevant?
by Rebecca Wanjiku 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

only 10% of kenyan websites have relevant content- Michuki Having a website maybe the most fashionable thing for many Kenyan companies, but how many websites are relevant? How many have content that is important to local people? Michuki Mwangi, Chief Executive Officer at KENIC reckons that 90% of the websites in Kenya are irrelevant and user unfriendly. The 10% are under construction, and remain so for a long time. At the monthly forum, Michuki indicted many organizations of developing websites that dont give visitors reason to come back, because they have same information after three years. Less than 50 % of the content of the web is irrelevant and does not address the core functions of the organizations, said Michuki. For instance, Nakumatt Holdings website; it has a slide show of buildings, information about the company and very little about the products available and the prices. Uchumi website has information about products and the prices but is limited to products on special offer. Compared to Tesco super market in the UK- all the walkways are listed, groceries, finance, media information occupies less space, and maximizes on their core business. The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) website is equally incapable of providing flight information, parking costs and directions to and from the airport. The website does not load up easily and has more information on tourism compared to its core functions. With the website being labeled as off the mark, one participant commented that even the boards at the airport do not work. compare to the British Airports Authority website- it has flight information, how to leave from one airport to the next, car park direction and fees, security alerts among other features. Telkom scored higher marks, had all the information about their services, loads fast but there is no way to purchase the services online, one has to fill forms and visit agents to get services. Michuki argued that the main problem lies in the fact that websites have been labeled as IT jobs and are only there, not to help in marketing. In this respect, many organizations leave website management to their IT departments and do nothing to improve on the content available. To redress this, organizations need to identify right target group, build online social networks, and collaborations between academia, media and government to ensure that content is generated. ends Tel. 254 720 318 925 blog:http://beckyit.blogspot.com/ --------------------------------- Need Mail bonding? Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users.

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