- KICTANet - KICTANet

FW: Google Groups: You've been added to BIDII AFRIKA
by Patrick Mburu 04 May '09

04 May '09

Good morning, Should such type of notification be allowed? I assume that I am not the only who didn't subscribe to this mail-list? Or perhaps am missing something....? Best regards, Patrick M. Mburu Director IT& Co-Founder Advanced Technical Solutions -Africa Tel/Fax: +254203577894 Mob: +254737185675 +254728273959 Email:patrick.mburu@ats-africa.com Website: www.ats-africa.com -----Original Message----- From: noreply(a)googlegroups.com [mailto:noreply@googlegroups.com] Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:17 PM To: patrick.mburu(a)ats-africa.com Subject: Google Groups: You've been added to BIDII AFRIKA mike mikeoketch(a)gmail.com has added you to the BIDII AFRIKA group with this message: welcome to bidii afrika Here is the group's description: Welcome to BIDII AFRIKA group. This is a group which is surely interested in promoting the understanding of issues ranging from politics, religion, culture and career between young Africans. Send us your business stories and ideas to bidiiafrika(a)googlegroups.com. ----------------------- Google Groups Information ---------------------- The owner of the group has set your subscription type as "Email", meaning that you'll receive a copy of every message posted to the group as they are posted. Visit this group on the web by using this URL: http://groups.google.com/group/bidiiafrika?hl=en You can unsubscribe from this group using the following URL: http://groups.google.com/group/bidiiafrika/unsub?u=GsP1lggAAACCRB2FPb3Iwu9ym XrliAup&hl=en -------------------- Information About This Message -------------------- If you feel that this message is abuse, please inform the Google Groups staff by using the URL below. http://groups.google.com/groups/abuse?direct=YQAAAAAANMZOAAAAAAyo62kAAAAABt_ Bbg&hl=en

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INVITATION TO THE 2009 KENIC AGM
by Vincent Ngundi 04 May '09

04 May '09

<reminder> The KENIC board is pleased to invite you to the sixth KENIC Open Public Forum to be held on Friday 8th of May 2009 at the Sarova Panafric Hotel from 0800hrs. The forum will be a focal point for bottom-up discussions of the KENIC policies and developments. Thereafter, the same venue will host KENIC's fifth Annual General Meeting (AGM) to which you are invited to witness. Details of the AGM are available on the KENIC website http://www.kenic.or.ke. We look forward to your participation at the events. Kind Regards, Vincent Ngundi For: Chairman, KENIC -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Re: [kictanet] IG Discussion 2009, Day 5 of 10- Criticical Internet Resources, IXPs and NOFB
by Shem Ochuodho 01 May '09

01 May '09

Nd. Michuki writes: I cant wait for Kenya pipeline, Kenya Railways and others take the same approach. The more cable we have the lower the access costs. KPC was actually granted an interim license in 2004! Rgrds, Shem Shem J. Ochuodho, MSc (Eng), PhD, LLD (Hon) Senior Advisor Ministry of Telecom & Postal Services Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), Juba Kenya Community Abroad (KCA) 2007 Excellence Award Winner AfricaOnline 2005 Industry Pioneer Award Recipient Father of Internet in Kenya (2000 - CSK) Cell: +249-955-021-040/+256-477-232025/+254-734-137371 Skype: shem.ochuodho --- On Fri, 5/1/09, Michuki Mwangi <michuki(a)swiftkenya.com> wrote: From: Michuki Mwangi <michuki(a)swiftkenya.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] IG Discussion 2009, Day 5 of 10- Criticical Internet Resources, IXPs and NOFB To: "Shem Ochuodho" <shemochuodho(a)yahoo.com> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Friday, May 1, 2009, 1:47 PM Hi Walu, et al, The KIXP has had a great impact in Internet scene in Kenya. There are currently 27 peering members with aggregate traffic during peak times averaging 45mbps. Question: is this optimal? I would say that this is not optimal utilization in view of the overall total transit (whats not passing at KIXP) capacity in Kenya. Therefore as you rightfully put it the greater percentage of our traffic is International Whats its use then?; Well for a start, this year i have to make my annual returns online and its pretty fast from my home connection. The Safaricom IPO had similar experiences. Most importantly is the ability to create a stable local internet infrastructure. It means that life can go on, should the satellites and cables go down (and they will). Whats missing; There are some missing items, as mentioned in previous emails which are dependencies. 1) With increased penetration (no of subscribers) we are bound to see this reaching 100mbs and higher - hence more affordable access for non-corporate users and more residential users online. 2) local content hosting - It means we need more collo facilities built. This will also attract CDNs who are keen to do edge caching and require reliable hosting services. It also means that theres a market opportunity for collo hosting services which is yet to be tapped - see my previous emails. 3) E-government - you will be surprised to note that KRA has more traffic at the KIXP than some well known service providers. It therefore means that we need more e-government traffic 4) This leads to the next point of creativity on relevant content. E-government content is one, we need alot more of Free SMS website (its a pity sasanet collapsed it had considerable traffic at the KIXP. E-learning is something that would attract home users to get online off-peak hours. Basically e-commerce as it were. On this point, i find it interesting that, we have skipped web content and moved directly to mobile content. It may require that we make steps to engineer mobile content solutions to work for the web too. on NFOB; The Government approach must be appreciated. I was also glad to hear that now KPLC has been issued with the license to sell the extra capacity on its fiber infrastructure. Can we have more of this please. I cant wait for Kenya pipeline, Kenya Railways and others take the same approach. The more cable we have the lower the access costs. Can Kenya power, TKL and city/municipal councils lease out sections of their poles to fiber/cable infrastructure builders please. If we dont cease the opportunities to build the last mile in respect to telco's concerns the we cannot achieve complete access. If there alot of fiber on the ground - it will not really matter who runs it; the person who runs it will be the one who can raise the highest revenue for the investor in a highly competitive market space. All sorts of models will come up and interesting ones too. Walu, its not possible for such an infrastructure to replace an IXP. Even if dark fiber was dirt cheap, its a logistical nightmare and financially unrealistic to maintain close to 30 connections to each provider you want to exchange (peer) traffic with. Buts its financially viable to have one connection to a single location where you connect to everyone via a layer 2 switch. In this case, you only pay for the half of your circuit to the IXP location and manage one link like everyone else. Regards, Michuki. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: shemochuodho(a)yahoo.com Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/shemochuodho%40yahoo.c…

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FW: Mad About Maddo
by Patrick Mburu 30 Apr '09

30 Apr '09

Good evening, Thought you all may enjoy this :-)! Cheers & Happy Laby Day weekend! Patrick _____ From: Gogreen Support [mailto:info@gogreen.co.ke] Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 5:33 AM To: info(a)gogreen.co.ke Subject: Mad About Maddo mail drop

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Looking for a Senior Application Developer.
by Moses Kemibaro 30 Apr '09

30 Apr '09

Do you love to write code? Want to work smarter, not harder? Do you thrive in an work environment that enables you to work on exciting and challenging projects, day in and day out? Do you like to change the status quo and create value that has long- term impact and rewards? If you answered yes to any of these questions then we need to talk. The majority of our client development work is with Open Source such as PHP, Python, AJAX, Javascript, CSS and MySQL. We are looking for a talented, proven senior web application developer to join our team. The skills previously listed are highly desirable, but there's always something to be said for talent, potential, and attitude, so if you happen to be a developer with more expertise in other languages (.NET, Ruby, etc.) and are open to adding Python, PHP, AJAX, etc. to your arsenal, we want to hear from you. We are looking for the following qualities in a candidate: > Interested in learning and have a creative mind that enjoys the challenges of application development > Gets excited about clean code but knows that ugly code is out there and dealing with it is an necessity sometimes > Enjoys client interaction and problem solving, in a passionate way. > Knows the tools of your trade > Wants to raise the skill level of the whole team, not just themselves > Has the ability to play well with others - we will be welcoming you into our team > Has the ability to work independently - coding, testing, gathering requirements, and communicating with clients > Knows the value of a great user experience when it comes to building applications > Accepts the fact that mistakes will be made and that every experience is an opportunity to get better and improve the working processes within the agency > Appreciates that meetings are necessary but detests unnecessarily long or unproductive ones. You can't wait to leave a meeting and go back to writing code! > Knows that open, honest and productive communication is key to project success > Believes that working less hours smarter is better than working more hours harder > Knows that perfection may not be possible but aiming for excellence is realistic > Wants a full-time position in a growing company Are you an application developer who is savvy enough to deal with an intensively customer service oriented digital agency? We are that company. We consistently deliver for not only long lived and well-maintained clients, but also our new projects. They range from Flash intensive brand micro-sites with a major focus on user experience, to ordinary database driven content management systems such as Joomla and Typo3. We also work on unconventional projects with interesting and occasionally not so interesting features thrown in the mix. We will build anything that creates value and pass up those projects that are too cumbersome, outrageous or simply unsustainable. On any given day you could be part of a large team building a cutting edge web site or you may be "solo" coding feature enhancements or fixes for a client's online forms. We thrive in a results oriented environment because our team is treated well and our clients are treated even better. What we need from you: > Provable, quantifiable expertise as an application developer (code samples and/or project descriptions) > Provable experience working on web application projects (work history) > Salary expectations. What we don’t need from you: > We don't enjoy reading lists - especially not a list of the 50 technologies you know. If your resume doesn't make it clear that you have focus on a specific web technology(s) then you're just wasting both of our time sending us your CV - and nobody enjoys having their time wasted. > If you are looking to ladder climb and want to play politics this is also not the place for you. You are happy to work and are ready to address and solve problems as they arise. We do not pretend to know everything and mistakes are likely in every endeavor. Where you will work: We have a great office in one of Nairobi's quieter suburbs near the city centre with lots of windows and a very open floor plan. We dress down most of the time, but are always at our best in front of clients. We are professional and the management team is very hands on and engaged with the work that is done. We try very hard not to require more hours that are required of anyone and we strive to work 8.30 to 5.00 pm every day with a one hour lunch break. That said, we're flexible and recognize that we all have lives outside of the office - and we also know that sometimes, especially when deadlines demand it, normal working hours just won't get the job done. When it doesn't, we act accordingly - and we show our appreciation when people step-up. We use our leave days and so will you, for your sanity and ours. If think that your that special talent we may be looking for, kindly send us your CV on jobs(a)dotsavvyafrica.com

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Kaspersky Internet Security...
by Mike Bullut 30 Apr '09

30 Apr '09

Greetings, Does anyone know where I can get a genuine copy of Kaspersky Internet Security & at what price? Please contact me off the list. Thank you... Kind regards, Mike. *-- "The computer programmer . . . is a creator of universes for which he alone is the lawgiver. . . . No playwright, no stage director, no emperor, however powerful, has ever exercised such absolute authority to arrange a stage or a field of battle and to command such unswervingly dutiful actors or troops." ~ Joseph Weizenbaum... --*

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Re: [kictanet] kictanet Digest, Vol 23, Issue 43
by Harry Delano 29 Apr '09

29 Apr '09

Re: IG Discussions- Day 3 of 10: Infrastructure Issues-Submarine Cables - Cyber Security (Harry Delano) Fellow discussants, One thing to also note with regard to the much anticipated Fibre landing is how to content with the security challenges that will accompany this 'Super Highway" So apart from the other topics, that have been covered so well,allow me to introduce a new angle and momentarily tackle 'The Security challenges posed by this noble venture' -Cyber Security. It is one thing to deal with a stream flowing through your garden, harmlessly but productively watering it, and quite another dealing with a 'flood gate' suddenly let loose on your land, and which you have had little or no time to prepare yourself to handle. Indeed as much as this would be a Top Tier connectivity, right now , truth be told - most of the service providers leave tackling security to end users who in most cases are ill equipped to deal with internetwork borne threats. Networks are badly exposed, including sensitive data, copywright material, and organizational information that would make it a field day for identity thieves, and who knows? - a possible cyber attack on our different national wide infrastructure when they go online. Blended threats propagate much faster on faster connections. Currently,a standard round trip time of about 800-1300 msec, for most Tier 1 & 2 Service providers wears off the patience of most hackers presently prowling the net, which is a good thing for us, but not for long as these Marine links lands in within the next few months. With this in mind, how prepared are we on this front..? And by that I mean, the Government, the Service providers, the Private stake holders, including the Educational institutions. Have we made an assessment of our cyber security levels, to date? Are our sensitive Data Centres secure..., or will they be overly exposed when this time comes? And at what cost will we upgrade these systems..? With increasing E-commerce activities, and other online transactions are we 'foolproof? Are our cybersecurity regulations up to the task, to protect us...? Certainly, we need to take the necessary measures,- a systematic approach and prepare ourselves to deal With these challenges as the Threat environment is certainly set to shift for us, especially as a country on the move in Communication Technology. The good news is, it is an undertaking to look forward to with a lot of expectation, and we need to position ourselves to reap the maximum benefits that will accrue thereof. If you would ask me the score for this - Our Cybersecurity preparedness to handle, the onset of the Marine Fibre = 1 Harry Delano. Integrated Networks and Data Systems. -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+harry=inds.co.ke(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=inds.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of kictanet-request(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 12:00 PM To: Harry Delano Subject: kictanet Digest, Vol 23, Issue 43 Send kictanet mailing list submissions to kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to kictanet-request(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke You can reach the person managing the list at kictanet-owner(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of kictanet digest..." Today's Topics: 1. A wider audiance (robert yawe) 2. Re: IG Discussions- Day 3 of 10: Infrastructure Issues-Submarine Cables (John Walubengo) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:56:59 +0000 (GMT) From: robert yawe <robertyawe(a)yahoo.co.uk> Subject: [kictanet] A wider audiance To: Kictanet Mail list <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> Message-ID: <796042.73588.qm(a)web27801.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Hi, I have been been contributing articles to a new IT magazine called CIO (chief information officer), as you may be aware there currently isn't any good and regular ICT local magazine and this magazine aims to fill this gap. The magazine is in its 3rd issue please get a copy and read my articles as well as others which are well thought through and cover local ICT issues. Due to space issues some of my articles have needed to be shortened, if you need to read the entire unsensored version please send me an email. 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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FW: COURSE: Certificate in Telecomms Policy, Regulation and Management
by Edith Adera 29 Apr '09

29 Apr '09

This might be of interest. I can testify - it's a great course for anyone in the ICT sector interested in in-depth knowledge on ICT policy and regulation. Edith ________________________________ From: link-info-bounces(a)lists.wits.ac.za [mailto:link-info-bounces@lists.wits.ac.za] On Behalf Of Charley Lewis Sent: 29 April 2009 16:31 To: link-info(a)lists.wits.ac.za Cc: Tennyson Mashiloane Subject: LINK CENTRE: COURSE: Certificate in Telecomms Policy, Regulation and Management This course commences in just over two weeks from now, and is already over 50% full. If you (or a colleague) are keen to attend, please register as soon as possible - your paid-up registration confirms your place. Please circulate this message to anyone you know who may be interested. ================================================== Certificate in Telecomms Policy, Regulation and Management ================================================== [cid:image002.jpg@01C9C8DD.02013150] This course commences in May 2009. The Certificate in Telecommunications Policy, Regulation and Management is offered by the LINK Centre, School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand - Southern Africa's leading research and training body in the field of information and communications technology policy, regulation and management. It provides an essential background to understanding regulatory and policy issues and challenges in the rapidly changing telecommunications and broadcasting sectors. Spread over three week-long sessions between May and July 2009, skilled and experienced staff at the LINK Centre, School of Public & Development Management, University of Witwatersrand, supported by an extensive panel of guest lecturers, each an expert in their field, will help you get to grips with the landscape in the ICT sector. Significance The course is designed to unpack the constantly evolving issues and challenges inherent in South Africa's fast changing and dynamic ICT sector. These changes - driven by rapidly developing technologies, by the evolving legal and regulatory environment and by the emergence of new markets, services and applications - give rise to increased demands for training and information. The advent of convergence and globalisation intensifies the ongoing challenges faced by professionals in the sector to remain abreast of both local developments and international trends and practices. Who should attend? Decision-makers and senior policy-makers in the Department of Communications, ICASA and USAASA, managers and regulatory staff in industry (including service providers, new and established operators, and suppliers), bidders for new ECNS and ECS licences, broadcasters and signal distributors, lawyers, consultants, journalists, union officials and NGOs involved in the sector. Objectives By the end of the course, the successful student will be able to: * grasp how key information and communications technologies operate, and the policy implications of these technologies; * assess current market trends in the ICT sector, both globally and nationally; * demonstrate an understanding of ICT sector reform and its implications for national policy and regulation, including the impact of globalisation and convergence; * explain the approaches to ICT sector policy and regulation adopted nationally, regionally and globally; * demonstrate an understanding of the policy and regulatory environment for the telecommunications and broadcasting industries in South Africa; * critically compare the South African ICT environment with international models and best practice benchmarks; * describe the structure and process of policy formulation, regulatory oversight and licensing procedures in South Africa. Content Overview A Certificate in Telecommunications Policy, Regulation and Management is awarded to candidates who attend the following three modules (120 hours) and who successfully complete the required individual and syndicate assignments. A certificate of attendance is awarded to participants who attend all three modules, but who do not complete the required assessment. Module 1: ICT Technologies and Markets * The evolution of basic telecommunications technologies: the PSTN and its underlying technologies; * Wireless communications: fixed & mobile wireless, WLL, GSM, 3G, CDMA, satellite, WiFi, WiMax, Bluetooth, mobile broadband; * Spectrum, its planning and management, and the assignment of frequency; * Numbering and numbering plans, number portability, carrier pre-select, eNum; * Signal distribution, and broadcasting technologies; * Internet, VoIP, VANS & the NGN; * Telecommunications market trends, developments & drivers; * Broadcasting market trends, developments and drivers, and the migration to digital broadcasting; * Internet and broadband market trends, developments and drivers; * Convergence, multimedia, the NGN & the future of communications. Module 2: International ICT Trends, Organisations & Developments * Globalisation, the knowledge economy and the information age; * Global trends in regulatory reform: liberalisation, privatisation, regulation in a converging environment; * Global e-governance: structures, institutions and global obligations (ITU, WTO, WIPO, GATS, ICANN); * Regional developments in telecommunications regulation: SATCC, CRASA, ATU, NEPAD; * National responses to the global information economy: e-commerce in South Africa; * ICT and labour; * ICT and gender; * Information and communications technologies and development (the digital divide, ISAD, GK, dotForce, UN ICT TT, WSIS, ICT4D); * Universal access and universal service. Module 3: Telecommunications and Broadcasting Policy, Law and Regulation * The SA Constitution and administrative law; * ICT sector regulation: rationales, principles, approaches and practices; * Competition law, and the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors in SA; * ICT sector reform in SA: overview; * Legislative, regulatory and licensing framework for telecommunications in SA: institutions, structure, processes and issues; * Legislative, regulatory and licensing framework for broadcasting in SA: institutions, structure, processes and issues; * Interconnection, facilities leasing and essential facilities: principles, law and regulation; * Licensing: the objectives, typology, procedures, content and monitoring of licences; * Pricing and tariff regulation; * Quality of service and consumer protection. About LINK The LINK Centre is the leading public policy, regulation and management educational body in the area of information and communication in Southern Africa. LINK focuses on capacity building in the public sector and development arenas through quality training, applied research and consultancy services necessary to maximise the benefits of the Information Society and the Knowledge Economy. Methodology An interactive and intensive teaching methodology is used, comprised of several learning methods, including lectures, syndicate work, case studies, structured learning group discussions and presentations from local and international experts in the field. In this way participants will develop a strong practical focus directly applicable to their own organisations. The course is evaluated via one individual and two syndicate assignments. Syndicate assignments are professionally presented to the group and external examiners drawn from government, industry or academia. Schedule 2009 TPRM 2009 is a block release course divided into three modules, each running for one week per month. Participants may attend individual modules as stand-alone executive courses. Certificate in Telecommunications Policy, Regulation & Management Module Title Dates Module 1 ICT Technologies and Markets 18 - 22 May, 08:30 - 17:00 Module 2 International ICT Trends, Organisations & Developments 22 - 26 June, 08:30 - 17:00 Module 3 Telecommunications and Broadcasting Policy, Law and Regulation 20 - 24 July, 08:30 - 17:00 Fees R 18 500 (plus VAT) per participant for the full three-week course. Any individual modules may be taken on its own as an 'executive course' (for which a certificate of attendance is issued) at a fee of R 8 000 (plus VAT) per participant. A small fee discount is available for bulk enrolments. Venue All lectures are held at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management campus, 2 St David's Place, Parktown. Lectures run daily from 08:30 to 17:00 with breaks for lunch and teas. Convenor Charley Lewis + 27 11 717-3784 or charley.lewis(a)wits.ac.za Information The course web page is available at http://link.wits.ac.za/training/tc1.html. Registration can be done online, using the course code WE/TPRMGM/07/01, via http://www.wits.ac.za/enterprise/courses/register.html. Contact Tennyson Mashiloane + 27 11 717-4595 or via Tennyson.Mashiloane(a)wits.ac.za for more information or to enrol. - - - ends - - - Charley Lewis Senior Lecturer, LINK Centre Tel: + 27 11-717-3784 Fax: + 27 86-529-5562 /+ 27 11-717-3910 Mobile: + 27 83-539-5242 Post (personal): Box 81185, Parkhurst, 2120, SOUTH AFRICA Skype: charley.lewis URL: http://link.wits.ac.za Mwalimu House, School of Public & Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand 2 St David's Place, Parktown, 2193, SOUTH AFRICA ==> Master of Management in ICT Policy & Regulation: http://link.wits.ac.za/training/training4.html<blocked::http://link.wits.ac.za/training/training4.html> ==> Certificate in Telecomms Policy, Regulation & Management: http://link.wits.ac.za/training/tc1.html [cid:image003.gif@01C9C8DD.02013150] This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorized signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary.

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Kenya IG Discussions Day 3 of 10
by alice＠apc.org 29 Apr '09

29 Apr '09

How many listers are on Face book? As we discuss intrenet governance, i wish to share this article on Face book by Jonathan Zitrain, which brings up issues of privacy, data protection, etc best alice ------------------------------------------------- http://www.opendemocracy.net/node/47778 E Pluribus Facebook Jonathan Zittrain Facebook boasts more than 200 million active users, with an astounding 100 million logging in at least once per day. Its prominence is not just in numbers of users. Its what they do: many share intimate and sensitive details about themselves. That not only means that the service is susceptible to privacy panics (both real and imagined) on a regular basis. It means that, as with other social networks, people vest their identities in their profiles. If an account is disabled because of alleged misuse such as spamming the hurt can transcend the effort needed to create a new account. Even small changes, such as in the way the newsfeed works, elicit heartfelt reactions from people who think of their pages as well their pages. We saw this phenomenon at work when in mid-February Facebook posted a set of what its management seems to have thought were minor changes to its terms of service the kind of things that just wouldnt matter to its users. Instead a privacy panic ensued, reinforcing larger worries about Facebooks power. Founder Mark Zuckerberg responded quickly in plainspeak rather than legalese and I credit his view that the changes in terms of service really werent meant to be a stealthy way of doing surprising new things with users information. But he used the occasion to offer an analogy: More than 175 million people use Facebook. If it were a country, it would be the sixth most populated country in the world. Our terms arent just a document that protect our rights; its the governing document for how the service is used by everyone across the world. This encourages Facebook users not to simply view themselves as users but as citizens. Citizens of Facebook. The consumer/vendor relationship governed by contract and fair trade law is different from that of citizen/government. Citizens identify with something larger than themselves if ones country is attacked, it can feel like a personal attack in a way that a fellow bank customers account theft does not feel like a personal invasion. (Today we are all Bank of Americans doesnt leap to the lips.) And in non-authoritarian systems, citizens have a voice in the affairs of state distinct from the metaphorical vote a consumer makes with his or her feet or that a shareholder makes in a quaint proxy proceeding. Facebook has followed through with the analogy. In a rather unusual move it has published Facebook governance documents, opened them to public comment in a manner intentionally reminiscent of American administrative agencies notice-and-comment periods, enlisted law students to help process the responses, and now is putting a revised set of documents up for a vote. This isnt meant to be a one-off deal. Instead, there is a Facebook Principles document translated into multiple languages that expresses commitments to such things as open platforms and standards, free flow of information, universal availability of the service and its contents regardless of ones country, and freedom to control ones own data, including removing (or extracting) it from Facebook. The Statement of Rights and Responsibilities has a most unusual section on amendments usually the boilerplate piece of a terms of service that says that the vendor has the right to change the terms whenever it wants so long as it alerts users to the change. This one says: If more than 7,000 users comment on the proposed change, we will also give you the opportunity to participate in a vote in which you will be provided alternatives. The vote shall be binding on us if more than 30% of all active registered users as of the date of the notice vote. To be sure, these two sentences have loopholes suitable for a truck (and a missing verb which presumably is supposed to be a quorum requirement 30% of all active registered users voting for a vote to be binding). 30 million users voting on anything (especially since it requires adding a new Facebook voting app) is a high threshold. More important, theres no effort to identify what the alternatives will be. The current vote on the principles themselves simply asks users: Which documents should govern the Facebook Site? Choices: The proposed documents: Revised Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Facebook Principles 4/16/09 (These documents reflect comments from users and experts received during the 30-day comment period.) Existing documents: The current Terms of Use 9/23/08 (This document was developed entirely by Facebook and does not reflect any third-party outside comments.) It calls to mind the age-old trick of asking the children whether theyd like to wear their red or green pajamas to bed with no choice about when bedtime actually is. Facebook still holds the quill and frames the choice. But the fact is that most companies wouldnt dream of going as far as Facebook just has, because the kinds of public pressures that create privacy crises can also be elicited when cynical choices are presented. Facebook has intentionally placed itself in a new zone, borrowing elements of .org and .gov to inform how a .com is run. Coming from .edu myself, Im disappointed that something initially as academically-related as Facebook a social networking site for university communities wasnt begun and nurtured under university auspices, naturally incorporating public interest values. So Facebook draws from the public and public interest sphere, a simultaneously bold and modest step towards acknowledging that our new networked technologies deeply affect our lives in ways not always captured or best shaped by the typical template of consumer and seller. So Ive become voter number 167,476 in the poll. (Yes, they say results will be audited by an outside firm.) Im not expecting to add another passport to my drawer, but Im heartened at the prospect that the amazing engine of private enterprise may find creative ways to tap into and reinforce our civic instincts. -------------------------

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A wider audiance
by robert yawe 28 Apr '09

28 Apr '09

Hi, I have been been contributing articles to a new IT magazine called CIO (chief information officer), as you may be aware there currently isn't any good and regular ICT local magazine and this magazine aims to fill this gap. The magazine is in its 3rd issue please get a copy and read my articles as well as others which are well thought through and cover local ICT issues. Due to space issues some of my articles have needed to be shortened, if you need to read the entire unsensored version please send me an email. 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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Antivirus Poll...
by Mike Bullut 28 Apr '09

28 Apr '09

Hey guys, I hope your week is fairing on well. I'm doing an unofficial *antivirus poll<http://kipsang.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/antivirus-poll/> * on my *blog <http://kipsang.wordpress.com/>* & I'd like to know which product offers the best security for your PC/laptop. Looking forward to your vote! Warm regards, Mike. *-- "The computer programmer . . . is a creator of universes for which he alone is the lawgiver. . . . No playwright, no stage director, no emperor, however powerful, has ever exercised such absolute authority to arrange a stage or a field of battle and to command such unswervingly dutiful actors or troops." ~ Joseph Weizenbaum... --*

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INVITATION TO THE 2009 KENIC AGM
by Vincent Ngundi 27 Apr '09

27 Apr '09

The KENIC board is pleased to invite you to the sixth KENIC Open Public Forum to be held on Friday 8th of May 2009 at the Sarova Panafric Hotel from 0800hrs. The forum will be a focal point for bottom-up discussions of the KENIC policies and developments. Thereafter, the same venue will host KENIC's fifth Annual General Meeting (AGM) to which you are invited to witness. Details of the AGM are available on the KENIC website http://www.kenic.or.ke. We look forward to your participation at the events. Kind Regards, Vincent Ngundi For: Chairman, KENIC -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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Fw: [Fibre-for-africa] What's Up EASSy?
by alice＠apc.org 23 Apr '09

23 Apr '09

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Zain Kenya -----Original Message----- From: Abi <abi.jagun(a)gmail.com> Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:39:41 To: APC - Private list for use by EASSY Workshop Participants<fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org> Subject: Re: [Fibre-for-africa] What's Up EASSy? Dear All I am finding out a lot more information about EASSy since making the post and will likely update the initial analysis that was conducted in 2006/7. I just want to provide more clarification on two main issues: - my conclusions about the KDN/FLAG - the source of my optimism about EASSy All the information that I used for this analysis (and update) was available (at that time) in the public domain and whilst I did try to take bias into consideration I think I can point to a few news reports/press releases that MADE me rather optimistic about EASSy. The first set are about the FLAG cable; they seem to suggest that where possible this project and the partners involved would prefer to merge with an existing project than "go it alone" - of course this is just my opinion: 1. Various articles reported the signing of an agreement between KDN and Flag. See for example the Balancing Act articles on the Fibre-for-Africa site - http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5038604&als[MYALIAS6]=KDN%20pips%20E… 2. "VSNL, East African Cable may merge links" - http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-154161796.html - published in October 2006 talks about discussions between VSNL and EASSy to merge their respective undersea cables linking India and Africa to Europe. 3. There are also articles that cite KDN's investment in TEAMS as well as the company becoming a part of EASSy [see for example http://www.itnewsafrica.com/?p=824 and 4. "VSNL Announces Construction of $250 Million Express TGN Eurasia Cable System" - http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=561&fArticleId=4903656 - reports on a cable being built by VSNL that will link Mumbai to Paris, London and Madrid via Egypt. The cable is being built in partnership with SEACOM and Telecom Egypt. Looking at the SEACOM route [http://www.seacom.mu/intro.html] it is clear where such a cable would connect with the SEACOM a more recent addition to all this is: 5. "KDN new partner to inject Sh1.4bn for expansion" - http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6232&Item… - which provides information on KDN's investment strategy; it has no mention of its agreement with FLAG. But perhaps there is information out there to the contrary and I would be interested in having access to these. The second set of articles informed my understanding of the financial position of EASSy. Based on these the impression I got was that the financing for the cable had reached an advanced stage and this led to my optimism that it will indeed be completed. These include a news item by Rwanda News Agency (RNA) -http://allafrica.com/stories/200803171222.html - It states: "The construction of the cable has been made possible by the project developers, who secured all the necessary financing, officials from the EASSY Project Secretariat in Nairobi-Kenya say." Also relevant is an entry on the WIOCC website that states: "Two-thirds of the submarine survey work is now complete, with only the southern leg remaining" - see http://www.wiocc.net/news.html I guess this will likely bring up discussions about whether or not there is demand for all these cables; but perhaps that is another discussion thread entirely. Thanks to everyone that has responsed so far. Abi 2009/4/22 Abi <abi.jagun(a)gmail.com>: > Dear All > > I use EASSy as a case study for a course I teach on and recently came up > with the following summary of where the project currently stands. The > "update" was put together to complement a stakeholder analysis that was done > by APC late 2006/early 2007 and which can be downloaded here: > http://www.apc.org/apps/img_upload/f22c64f43b568608639b68dbdd91d89a/Updated… > > I would appreciate any comments on this. > > > Abi > > >> >> > > -----Original Message----- >> > > From: fibre-for-africa-bounces(a)lists.apc.org [mailto:fibre-for-africa- >> > > bounces(a)lists.apc.org] On Behalf Of wakabi(a)cipesa.org >> > > Sent: 26 March 2009 01:43 >> > > To: eric(a)afrispa.org; APC - Private list for use by EASSY Workshop >> > > Participants >> > > Subject: [Fibre-for-africa] What's Up EASSy? >> > > >> > > What's up EASSy? >> > > >> > > It's been a few quiet months at the EASSy stable, but word is now out >> > > on >> > > where this initiative has gotten to. And the word doesn't seem to good >> > > for >> > > EASSy enthusiasts. Once a front-runner in the so-called race to land >> > > fibre >> > > at the eastern coast of Africa, EASSy has conceded it is seriously >> > > trailing SEACOM (which appears comfortably perched in the driver's >> > > seat) >> > > and TEAMS (which is following in, albeit not too closely). >> > > >> > > According to a report in Kenya's Daily Nation, EASSy now expects to >> > > get >> > > operational around June 2010 (we add: 8 years after visionaries >> > > initially >> > > conceived it and got down to putting it together). Quoting Chris Wood, >> > > CEO >> > > of West Indian ocean cable Co. Ltd., the SPV for EASSy, the report >> > > says >> > > indicates EASSy will leverage on a "competitive long-term business >> > > plan >> > > to >> > > reduce the coast of bandwidth for coastal and land-locked countries". >> > > Besides, Wood claims his cable will have the biggest capacity of them >> > > all. >> > > Details: >> > > http://www.nation.co.ke/magazines/smartcompany/-/1226/549886/- >> > > /srb1j8z/-/index.html >> > > >> > > SEACOM, meanwhile, announced this week it would go commercial in July >> > > this >> > > year - although the cable would be ready in June. Monthly charges for >> > > bulk purchases would be around US$100-US$200 per Mbps. They said >> > > demand >> > > is >> > > so high they will offer bandwidth at lower prices than their earlier >> > > biz >> > > plan forecast; talked about profitability reaching lots earlier than >> > > initially anticipated; and said carriers in the region would actually >> > > be >> > > better off accessing more than one cable. Nice. >> > > >> > > But some are wondering: Now that the cables are coming, what are we >> > > gonna >> > > do with that bandwidth? Possibilities are vast, plans probably much >> > > less. >> > > It appears in Kenya, there's both thinking and action. 1) This week, >> > > an >> > > education minister has spoken about interesting e-learning plans whose >> > > implementation later this year he said would be enabled by the >> > > availability of the cable. 2) Kenya Data Networks, one of those >> > > gleefully >> > > signing onto the SEACOM offering, has said they will reduce their >> > > costs >> > > from next month. 3) At the end of last year the Kenya ICT Board >> > > unveiled a >> > > US$4.1m kitty for developers of local content.... >> > > >> > > For some of the other countries, there doesn't appear to be as much >> > > cooking as in Kenya. Or may be someone just isn't telling us yet. >> > > >> > > Wakabi >> > > >> > >_______________________________________________ >> > > Fibre-for-africa mailing list >> > > Fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org >> > > http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa >> > >> >_______________________________________________ >> > Fibre-for-africa mailing list >> > Fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org >> > http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa >> >>_______________________________________________ >> Fibre-for-africa mailing list >> Fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org >> http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa > > _______________________________________________ Fibre-for-africa mailing list Fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa

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New "The 411..." Posts...
by Mike Bullut 23 Apr '09

23 Apr '09

Greetings, I've written some new posts on my *blog <http://kipsang.wordpress.com/>* & I'd like you guys to let me know what you think. By all means, feel free to comment on the articles I post and if you have anything you want posted, drop me a line. Enjoy! - *The 10 most dangerous species of help desk callers...<http://kipsang.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/the-10-most-dangerous-species-of-he…> * - *Women In ICT: Are We Moving Forward?<http://kipsang.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/women-in-ict-are-we-moving-forward/> * *<http://kipsang.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/women-in-ict-are-we-moving-forward/> * - *Q & A: White African...<http://kipsang.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/q-a-white-african/> * Popular Posts: - *100 Common Interview Questions...<http://kipsang.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/100-common-interview-questions/> * - *M-Pesa: How It Works...<http://kipsang.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/m-pesa-how-does-it-work/> * - *Special Edition: Nairobi Pictures (Kenya), A Beautiful East African City...<http://kipsang.wordpress.com/special-edition-nairobi-pictures-kenya-a-beaut…> * - *Special Edition: New Style of ATM Thefts...<http://kipsang.wordpress.com/special-edition-new-style-of-atm-thefts/> * - *Special Edition: Worldwide Job Cuts...<http://kipsang.wordpress.com/special-edition-worldwide-job-cuts/> * Warm regards, Mike. *-- "The computer programmer . . . is a creator of universes for which he alone is the lawgiver. . . . No playwright, no stage director, no emperor, however powerful, has ever exercised such absolute authority to arrange a stage or a field of battle and to command such unswervingly dutiful actors or troops." ~ Joseph Weizenbaum... --*

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Fwd: [Skunkworks] Twitter Experience...
by Margaret Gichuki 22 Apr '09

22 Apr '09

Ooops! My bad.Posted this to the wrong list. Here you go Walu. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Margaret Gichuki <wams2006(a)gmail.com> Date: Apr 22, 2009 1:32 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] [Skunkworks] Twitter Experience... To: jwalu(a)yahoo.com Cc: New Vision List <NewVisionKenya(a)yahoogroups.com> Walu, It's a great tool but hooking.The young man below is doing alot of good and have attracted so many people including celebrities like Oprah and Barbara Walters.Walters in yesterdays show the View was shown how to use it and sent out a MSG.'' Barbra loosing her twitter virginity''....She had tons of responses within an hr and her life will never be the same again if she gets hooked.10,000. mosquito nets are on their way to Africa.Read on. http://showhype.com/story/twitter_showdown_cnn_vs_ashton_kutcher/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-ostroy/twitter-dee-and-twitter-d_b_18912… On 4/22/09, John Walubengo <jwalu(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > > > am @jwalu on tweeter. > > i guess that means i will get more guys stalking me ;-) I truly feel like > some old zack, being xtra careful on where am stepping...even FB, Linkden, > and others remain for me purely academic and explorative exercises. > > I am looking for real benefits, that type that puts bread on the table > rather than waste productive working time. Something like what was posted > yesterday @ www.irb.com/jwrt/indexxx.html - where the some young techies > use the internet to stream the rugby action in Nairobi. That was cool - no > need for expensive frequency payments to CCK and yet broadcasting and > competing with the DSTVs of this world! > > So anyway, where is the bread in all these social networks? > > walu. > > > --- On Wed, 4/22/09, Victor Ngeny <victormaritim(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > From: Victor Ngeny <victormaritim(a)gmail.com> > > Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Twitter Experience... > > To: jwalu(a)yahoo.com, "Skunkworks forum" <skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke> > > Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 4:05 PM > > Hey Walu, > > Been on twitter since 2006, have learnt a great deal from > > it, created > > worthwhile contacts and now use it for work. am *@ngeny* on > > twitter, whats > > your username? > > > > V > > > > On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 3:01 PM, John Walubengo > > <jwalu(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > I have heard about blogs, but now there is this new > > buzz about Twitter. > > > Anybody locally using twitter and finding it useful? > > > > > > I just registered and am following some chap called > > arsenal_mania and > > > frankly speaking it is informative while being > > entertaining (addictive?). > > > Which brings me to the question - are there instances > > of local "handles" > > > that are worth following and are having an impact > > within our local > > > socio-economic context? > > > > > > plse share. > > > > > > walu. > > > btw: some guys i dont know are already "stalking > > me" on twitter ;-) > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Skunkworks mailing list > > > Skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke > > > > > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks > > > Other services @ http://my.co.ke > > > Other lists > > > ------------- > > > Skunkworks announce: > > > > > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce > > > Science - > > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science > > > kazi - > > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Victor Ngeny > > > > Mobile +265770586704 > > GTalk: victormaritim Twitter: @ngeny > > Yahoo: vikngne Skype: victor.ngeny > > > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > This message was sent to: wams2006(a)gmail.com > Unsubscribe or change your options at > http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/wams2006%40gmail.com >

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[Fwd: Re: [Fibre-for-africa] What's Up EASSy?]
by alice 22 Apr '09

22 Apr '09

Dear All I use EASSy as a case study for a course I teach on and recently came up with the following summary of where the project currently stands. The "update" was put together to complement a stakeholder analysis that was done by APC late 2006/early 2007 and which can be downloaded here: http://www.apc.org/apps/img_upload/f22c64f43b568608639b68dbdd91d89a/Updated… I would appreciate any comments on this. Abi > > -----Original Message----- > > From: fibre-for-africa-bounces(a)lists.apc.org <mailto:fibre-for-africa-bounces@lists.apc.org> [mailto:fibre-for-africa- <mailto:fibre-for-africa-> > > bounces(a)lists.apc.org <mailto:bounces@lists.apc.org>] On Behalf Of wakabi(a)cipesa.org <mailto:wakabi@cipesa.org> > > Sent: 26 March 2009 01:43 > > To: eric(a)afrispa.org <mailto:eric@afrispa.org>; APC - Private list for use by EASSY Workshop > > Participants > > Subject: [Fibre-for-africa] What's Up EASSy? > > > > What's up EASSy? > > > > It's been a few quiet months at the EASSy stable, but word is now out > > on > > where this initiative has gotten to. And the word doesn't seem to good > > for > > EASSy enthusiasts. Once a front-runner in the so-called race to land > > fibre > > at the eastern coast of Africa, EASSy has conceded it is seriously > > trailing SEACOM (which appears comfortably perched in the driver's > > seat) > > and TEAMS (which is following in, albeit not too closely). > > > > According to a report in Kenya's Daily Nation, EASSy now expects to get > > operational around June 2010 (we add: 8 years after visionaries > > initially > > conceived it and got down to putting it together). Quoting Chris Wood, > > CEO > > of West Indian ocean cable Co. Ltd., the SPV for EASSy, the report says > > indicates EASSy will leverage on a "competitive long-term business plan > > to > > reduce the coast of bandwidth for coastal and land-locked countries". > > Besides, Wood claims his cable will have the biggest capacity of them > > all. > > Details: > > http://www.nation.co.ke/magazines/smartcompany/-/1226/549886/- > > /srb1j8z/-/index.html > > > > SEACOM, meanwhile, announced this week it would go commercial in July > > this > > year - although the cable would be ready in June. Monthly charges for > > bulk purchases would be around US$100-US$200 per Mbps. They said demand > > is > > so high they will offer bandwidth at lower prices than their earlier > > biz > > plan forecast; talked about profitability reaching lots earlier than > > initially anticipated; and said carriers in the region would actually > > be > > better off accessing more than one cable. Nice. > > > > But some are wondering: Now that the cables are coming, what are we > > gonna > > do with that bandwidth? Possibilities are vast, plans probably much > > less. > > It appears in Kenya, there's both thinking and action. 1) This week, an > > education minister has spoken about interesting e-learning plans whose > > implementation later this year he said would be enabled by the > > availability of the cable. 2) Kenya Data Networks, one of those > > gleefully > > signing onto the SEACOM offering, has said they will reduce their costs > > from next month. 3) At the end of last year the Kenya ICT Board > > unveiled a > > US$4.1m kitty for developers of local content.... > > > > For some of the other countries, there doesn't appear to be as much > > cooking as in Kenya. Or may be someone just isn't telling us yet. > > > > Wakabi > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Fibre-for-africa mailing list > > Fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org <mailto:Fibre-for-africa@lists.apc.org> > > http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa > > _______________________________________________ > Fibre-for-africa mailing list > Fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org <mailto:Fibre-for-africa@lists.apc.org> > http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa _______________________________________________ Fibre-for-africa mailing list Fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org <mailto:Fibre-for-africa@lists.apc.org> http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa _______________________________________________ Fibre-for-africa mailing list Fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa

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Re: [kictanet] [Skunkworks] Twitter Experience...
by John Walubengo 22 Apr '09

22 Apr '09

am @jwalu on tweeter. i guess that means i will get more guys stalking me ;-) I truly feel like some old zack, being xtra careful on where am stepping...even FB, Linkden, and others remain for me purely academic and explorative exercises. I am looking for real benefits, that type that puts bread on the table rather than waste productive working time. Something like what was posted yesterday @ www.irb.com/jwrt/indexxx.html - where the some young techies use the internet to stream the rugby action in Nairobi. That was cool - no need for expensive frequency payments to CCK and yet broadcasting and competing with the DSTVs of this world! So anyway, where is the bread in all these social networks? walu. --- On Wed, 4/22/09, Victor Ngeny <victormaritim(a)gmail.com> wrote: > From: Victor Ngeny <victormaritim(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Twitter Experience... > To: jwalu(a)yahoo.com, "Skunkworks forum" <skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke> > Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 4:05 PM > Hey Walu, > Been on twitter since 2006, have learnt a great deal from > it, created > worthwhile contacts and now use it for work. am *@ngeny* on > twitter, whats > your username? > > V > > On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 3:01 PM, John Walubengo > <jwalu(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > > > > I have heard about blogs, but now there is this new > buzz about Twitter. > > Anybody locally using twitter and finding it useful? > > > > I just registered and am following some chap called > arsenal_mania and > > frankly speaking it is informative while being > entertaining (addictive?). > > Which brings me to the question - are there instances > of local "handles" > > that are worth following and are having an impact > within our local > > socio-economic context? > > > > plse share. > > > > walu. > > btw: some guys i dont know are already "stalking > me" on twitter ;-) > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Skunkworks mailing list > > Skunkworks(a)lists.my.co.ke > > > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks > > Other services @ http://my.co.ke > > Other lists > > ------------- > > Skunkworks announce: > > > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce > > Science - > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science > > kazi - > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general > > > > > > -- > Victor Ngeny > > Mobile +265770586704 > GTalk: victormaritim Twitter: @ngeny > Yahoo: vikngne Skype: victor.ngeny

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Re: [kictanet] Twitter Experience...
by John Walubengo 22 Apr '09

22 Apr '09

I have heard about blogs, but now there is this new buzz about Twitter. Anybody locally using twitter and finding it useful? I just registered and am following some chap called arsenal_mania and frankly speaking it is informative while being entertaining (addictive?). Which brings me to the question - are there instances of local "handles" that are worth following and are having an impact within our local socio-economic context? plse share. walu. btw: some guys i dont know are already "stalking me" on twitter ;-)

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Mobile thieves using mobile money transfer ...
by wesley kiriinya 21 Apr '09

21 Apr '09

A thief stole a mobile phone and called the owner's close relatives saying the owner had been involved in a road accident and was in critical condition. The hospital required money before admitting the patient so the thief was asking for 4,000 to be sent by M-PESA to the owner's mobile. The bigger question is, have people discovered loop holes to withdrawing money from mobile transfer solutions like M-PESA without the owner's ID document? I wonder how the thief could have withdrawn the money. O_O

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FW: [OPENMRS] OpenMRS proudly announces summer internships
by Edith Adera 21 Apr '09

21 Apr '09

This may be of interest. From: announce(a)openmrs.org [mailto:announce@openmrs.org] On Behalf Of Burke Mamlin Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 5:17 PM To: openmrs-announce-l(a)LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU Subject: [OPENMRS] OpenMRS proudly announces summer internships [cid:image001.png@01C9C1DD.D5FE0F20]OpenMRS is proud to announce our summer internships for 2009<http://soc2009.openmrs.org>. We are once again participating in Google Summer of Code. We are also mentoring projects this summer as part of our IDRC-funded OpenMRS Internship Program (OIP), which focuses on mentoring and capacity building in developing countries. This summer's interns come from nine different countries: Jaoa Portela from Portugal will be building a WYSIWYG form designer for the HTML form entry module. As many in the OpenMRS community know, we can use all the alternatives for data collection we can find. Darius made a great module for crafting HTML-based forms as an alternative to InfoPath and Jaoa will make form building even easier. Primary mentor: Darius Jazayeri, Backup mentor: Daniel Futerman. Dilupa Munindradasa from India will be integrating a Quartz scheduler into OpenMRS. Justin created our current scheduler that's responsible for running and managing all of the background processes for OpenMRS. Quartz<http://www.opensymphony.com/quartz/> is an open-source enterprise-level job scheduler that can further enhance our background job processing capabilities. We've wanted to adopt Quartz for a while, but just haven't had the time. Dilupa will be able to bring enterprise level job scheduling to all of our OpenMRS implementations. Primary mentor: Justin Miranda, Backup mentor: Vibha Anand. Lu Zhuang Wei from China will be building a serialization service for OpenMRS. Web services and some of our core reporting tools depend on the ability to efficiently transform OpenMRS "objects" into other formats. To date, we have been using various and sometimes redundant methods to do this work throughout OpenMRS. By introducing a new core service into OpenMRS, Lu will help us consolidate and improve our core code. Primary mentor: Ben Wolfe, Backup mentor: Daniel Kayiwa. Omar Verduga from Mexico will be building a longitudinal data review (flowsheet) module for OpenMRS. Providers, data managers, and researchers often depend on quick and intuitive access to historic patient data. Omar will help us build the first version of a cutting-edge clinical data viewing tool for OpenMRS. Primary mentor: Paul Biondich, Backup mentor: Maros Cunderlik. Pavel Konnikov from Russia will be adding global Property types to OpenMRS. Many different parts of OpenMRS, from modules to portlets to general features depend on global property settings to fine-tune them to fit an implementation's needs. Currently, managing various settings is fairly clumsy within OpenMRS. Pavel will pave the way for much more sophisticated handling of global property settings within OpenMRS. Primary mentor: Dave Thomas, Backup mentor: Justin Miranda. Antoine Nzeyimana from Rwanda will be enhancing data synchronization by improving the process needed to create a new node. Partners In Health has been field-testing data synchronization, which allows multiple OpenMRS servers to share data. As the OpenMRS team works to make this a core feature available to all implementations, one of the challenges is improving the addition of a new server to the network. Antoine, who helped with synchronization last year, will be joining us again to improve this critical piece of the synchronization puzzle. Primary mentor: Maros Cunderlik, Backup mentor: Ben Wolfe. Harshini Gudiwada from India will be adding role-based home page support to OpenMRS. Several implementations have asked for the ability to have different people see a different starting screen when logging into OpenMRS. Harshini will make this possible under the mentorship of Saptarshi, one of last year's Google Summer of Code students. Primary mentor: Saptashi Purkayastha, Backup mentor: Darius Jazayeri. Nimantha Baranasuriya from Sri Lanka will be building an audit module for OpenMRS. Any one managing large amounts of clinical data knows that quality data requires not only safeguards to ensure data errors are avoided wherever possible, but also tools to monitor the data for inconsistencies or errors. Nimantha will be creating a tool that can be used by any OpenMRS implementation to facilitate data quality monitoring. Primary mentor: Brian McKown, Backup mentor: Mike Seaton. Katherin Kuan from the U.S. will be building video upload capabality for Moca<http://www.mocamobile.org/> mobile devices load ultrasound and other video media into OpenMRS. Moca has built mobile tools that integrate with OpenMRS. Katherine will help add clinical video uploading to the list of mobile possibilities. Primary mentor: Gari Clifford, Backup mentors: Zack Anderson and RJ Ryan. Jenny Liu from the U.S. will be building authentication and registration capabilities for Moca<http://www.mocamobile.org/> mobile devices integrated with OpenMRS. Several mobile solutions are being built around OpenMRS and they all need a way to authenticate and register patients. While working on a solution for Moca mobile devices, Jenny will help create a standard model for mobile authorization/registration in OpenMRS for other mobile solutions to use as well. Primary mentor: Zack Anderson, Backup mentors: Gari Clifford and RJ Ryan. Upul Godage from Sri Lanka will be adding active lists support to OpenMRS. Some of the key data elements for any electronic medical record system are problem lists and allergy lists. Upul will help make these a core part of OpenMRS. Primary mentor: Burke Mamlin, Backup mentor: Dave Thomas. Robert O'Connor from the U.S. will be creating aggregate data entry tools for OpenMRS. While OpenMRS strives to build reports from high quality patient-level data, sometimes reports depend on aggregate data from external systems. Robert will allow implementations to enter and manage these data within OpenMRS so they can be used by reporting tools. Primary mentor: Mike Seaton, backup mentor: Darius Jazayeri. Amogha Gundavaram from India will be integrating the OpenEMPI Master Patient Index with OpenMRS. OpenEMPI<https://openhie.projects.openhealthtools.org/> is an open-source master patient index system. As organizations grow, they often need to move control of the master patient list from the electronic medical record system to a centralized system, such as OpenEMPI. Amogha will help create a module or messaging solution to integrate OpenMRS with OpenEMPI. Primary mentor: Odysseas Pentakalos, Backup mentor: Shaun Grannis. Saketh Bhamidipati from the U.S. will be enhancing the patient de-duplication workflow in the OpenMRS patient matching module. As implementations grow, ending up with duplicate patient records is a common problem. Shaun is a leader in the field of patient matching and mentored a student last year in creating a patient matching module for OpenMRS. This summer, Saketh will improve the interface so that patient de-duplication will become a tool in every OpenMRS implementation's arsenal. Primary mentor: Shaun Grannis, Backup mentor: James Egg. Moses Mugisha from Uganda will be integrating FrontlineSMS with OpenMRS. FrontlineSMS<http://www.frontlinesms.com/> is an innovative solution for gathering data via SMS messages, even allowing simple forms to be sent to devices and responses collected over SMS. Moses will integrate FrontlineSMS with OpenMRS, allowing simple form data using OpenMRS concepts to be collected from mobile phones over SMS. Primary mentor: Daniel Kayiwa, Backup mentor: Paul Biondich. Felicia Rosemond from the U.S. will be adding global caching support to the OpenMRS decision support engine. We have created a logic engine to support complex decision support rules at a low level within OpenMRS. One of the critical improvements needed for this service to become widely used is improved caching of derived results. Felicia will replace the existing rudimentary caching in the logic service with a high quality open-source caching library. Primary mentor: Tammy Dugan, Backup mentor: Burke Mamlin. [cid:image002.png@01C9C1DD.D5FE0F20]OpenMRS is also excited to announce that, thanks to the generosity of the team at Verio.com<http://verio.com/>, each of our summer interns will have access to their own public hosted server running OpenMRS within which they can load, debug, and demonstrate real-time project progress to the rest of the community. This will not only provide a great resource for the interns, but will facilitate getting valuable feedback from end users. Thank you Verio! We're honored by the excellent interns listed above as well as the many others who applied and we couldn't accommodate this summer. We're also thankful for a great (and growing) group of OpenMRS mentors and we're looking forward to the best summer of coding yet! - The OpenMRS Team ________________________________ Click here to unsubscribe<mailto:LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU?body=SIGNOFF%20openmrs-announce-l> from OpenMRS Announcements mailing list (note: if you are subscribed to any OpenMRS mailing list, you will continue to receive announcements) ________________________________ Click here to unsubscribe<mailto:LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU?body=SIGNOFF%20openmrs-announce-l> from OpenMRS Announcements mailing list (note: if you are subscribed to any OpenMRS mailing list, you will continue to receive announcements)

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Changing BPO landscape favours Kenya call centres
by Margaret Gichuki 21 Apr '09

21 Apr '09

Is this really true given the cost? Wams http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14054&Ite…

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Jobs in the US without matata
by Preston Odera 21 Apr '09

21 Apr '09

Wanted: Computer hackers ... to help government WASHINGTON – Wanted: Computer hackers. Federal authorities aren't looking to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation's networks. General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could "think like the bad guy." Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems. In the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon will increase the number of cyberexperts it can train each year from 80 to 250 by 2011. With warnings that the U.S. is ill-prepared for a cyberattack, the White House conducted a 60-day study of how the government can better manage and use technology to protect everything from the electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems, and nuclear launch codes. President Barack Obama appointed a former Bush administration aide, Melissa Hathaway, to head the effort, and her report was delivered Friday, the White House said. While the country had detailed plans for floods, fires or errant planes drifting into protected airspace, there is no similar response etched out for a major computer attack. David Powner, director of technology issues for the Government Accountability Office, told Congress last month that the U.S. has no recovery plan for a digital disaster. "We're clearly not as prepared as we should be," he said. Administration officials says the U.S. has not kept pace with technological innovations needed to protect its computer networks against emerging threats from hackers, criminals or other nations looking for national security secrets. U.S. computer networks, including those at the Pentagon and other federal agencies, are under persistent attack, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious assaults, possibly from other nations, such as China. Industry leaders told Congress during a recent hearing that law enforcement and other protections are too outdated to fend off threats from criminals, terrorists and unfriendly foreign nations. Just last week, a former government official revealed that spies had hacked into the U.S. electric grid and left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service. The intrusions were discovered after electric companies gave the government permission to audit their systems, said the ex-official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. Cyberthreats are also included as a key potential national security risk outlined in a classified report put together by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pentagon officials say they spent more than $100 million in the last six months responding to and repairing damage from cyberattacks and other computer network problems. Nadia Short, vice president at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, said the job posting for ethical hackers fills a critical need for the government. The analysts keep constant watch on the government networks as part of a surveillance programs called Einstein that was initiated by the Bush administration under the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. US-CERT is a partnership of the Homeland Security Department, other public agencies and private companies. The Einstein program is an automated process for collecting and sharing security information. Short said the $60 million, four-year contract with US-CERT uses the ethical hackers to analyze threats to the government's computer systems and develop ways to reduce vulnerabilities. Faced with such cyberchallenges, Obama ordered the 60-day review to examine how federal agencies manage and protect their massive amounts of data and what the government's role should be in guarding the vast networks that control the country's vital utilities and infrastructure. Over the past two months, Hathaway met with hundreds of industry leaders, Capitol Hill staff and other experts, seeking guidance on what the federal government's role should be in protecting information networks against an attack. She sought recommendations on how officials should define and report cyberincidents and attacks; how the government should structure its cyberoversight; and how the nation can increase security without stifling innovation. A task force of technology giants, including representatives from General Dynamics, IBM, Lockheed Martin and Hewlett-Packard Co. urged the administration to establish a White House-level official to lead cyberefforts and to develop ways to share information on problems more quickly with the private sector. The administration has struggled with the basics, such as who should control the nation's cyberspace programs. There appears to be some agreement now that the White House should coordinate the overall effort, rejecting suggestions that the National Security Agency take it on — a plan that triggered protests on Capitol Hill and from civil liberties groups worried about giving such control to spy agencies. ___ On the Net: White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems: http://www.gd-ais.com/ U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team: http://www.us-cert.gov/ GAO report: http://tinyurl.com/aczgk6 Jobs in the US without matata. Our graduates should take the opportunity. Preston Odera Executive Director K-Ninety East Africa Limited Kenya School for the Blind Complex Mai Mahiu Road off Langata Road P.O Box 3894-00100 Nairobi Kenya Tel +254 20 608316 Tel +254 20 3544352 Fax + 254 20 608318 Cell +254 722 771 478 Email; info(a)k90ea.com

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ICANN gets "securitized": What would this mean for the Internet Governance and ICANN?]
by alice 20 Apr '09

20 Apr '09

Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:03:48 +0200 From: Soenke Zehle Subject: Mueller, Securitization of ICANN To: incom-l ICANN gets "securitized" by Milton Mueller on Thu 02 Apr 2009 12:58 PM EDT <http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2009/4/2/4141451.html> <http://cdt.org/security/CYBERSEC4.pdf> This is no April Fool's joke: here is a bill that is almost a caricature of what the rest of the world fears about U.S. control of the Internet DNS root and ICANN. Legislation unveiled today by Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, would require a Presidentially appointed cybersecurity advisory panel to ensure that national security would not be compromised before approving the renewal or modification of the contract between the U.S. government and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. According to a summary of the bill, it would "make sure that ICANN does not succumb to foreign pressure" to end its relationship with the U.S. government. ICANN is only one part of a comprehensive and authoritarian approach to cybersecurity. According to the Center for Democracy and Technology, "The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 would...give the President unfettered power to shut down Internet traffic in emergencies or disconnect any critical infrastructure system or network on national security grounds." Read the proposed Cybersecurity Act of 2009. -- Regards. -------------------------- Fouad Bajwa @skBajwa Answering all your technology questions http://www.askbajwa.com http://twitter.com/fouadbajwa ____________________________________________________________ You received this message as a subscriber on the list: governance(a)lists.cpsr.org To be removed from the list, send any message to: governance-unsubscribe(a)lists.cpsr.org For all list information and functions, see: http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance

2 1

Revealing Security Holes vrs "The Rogue Tracker" type of stories
by wesley kiriinya 20 Apr '09

20 Apr '09

I believe that the ICT bill makes it illegal for someone to reveal security holes in IT systems. However doesn't investigative journalism stories like the recent "The Rogue Tracker" reveal 'security holes'? So what makes that legal? If one was to discover a security hole in a system, then one can do their own investigative journalism then reveal everything about the security hole. I believe the tracking system is an IT system. And it seems a security hole was revealed. It's like saying half of the companies that claim to have installed a particular firewall might not really have the firewall installed. Revealing security holes might be a necessary evil. Just like how some people might have lived with the false security about their cars, some people might be living with false security about their personal info in IT systems. Just the other day someone posted that s/he had bought something which was wrapped by paper containing security authentication credentials from a bank. Another post showed the lack of experience of a local bank's website programmers that allowed anyone to get the password of one of the subjects in their database system. Now all the funky possible stuff is left to the hacker's imagination who might be sitting in the middle of Migingo, sorry, Mijinjo. o_O?

2 1

Re: [kictanet] South Africa embraces ICT on polls
by Evans J. Nyagah 18 Apr '09

18 Apr '09

Staying with this issue, kenya has the next big opportunity to anticipate inclusion of ICT in electoral process, this will be realized when the electoral body yet to be formed revises the electorate registers- which should include contacts such as mobile and emails. Further a mechanism to have those in the diaspora oncluded will epitomize our development in ICT. Sent from my iPhone On Apr 18, 2009, at 12:08 PM, "kictanet-request(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke" <kictanet-request(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: > Send kictanet mailing list submissions to > kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > kictanet-request(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > > You can reach the person managing the list at > kictanet-owner(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of kictanet digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: South Africa embraces ICT in polls (bitange(a)jambo.co.ke) > 2. Re: South Africa embraces ICT in polls (Gakuru Alex) > 3. Re: South Africa embraces ICT in polls (Solomon Mburu) > 4. Re: South Africa embraces ICT in polls (Gakuru Alex) > 5. Court jails Pirate Bay founders...Worlds most high profile > file sharing website (alice) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:09:17 +0300 (EAT) > From: bitange(a)jambo.co.ke > Subject: Re: [kictanet] South Africa embraces ICT in polls > To: "Wainaina Mungai" <wainaina(a)madeinkenya.org> > Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> > Message-ID: > <ed68a29c670ed4c654ab14de0670e33e.squirrel(a)mail.jambo.co.ke> > Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 > > Wainaina, > Indeed we have made progress in this end. The Lands, Judiciary, Motor > Vhicle, and Pension Dept registries are being prepared for > digitization. > It takes time to go through the procurement process and fighting > resistance from staff. It is not all that easy as I once thought. We > shall not give up though. Parliament has to pass the FOI for all the > digitization to stimulate enterprise. > > Regards > > Ndemo. > > >> A few years back at the Safaricom offices, President Kibaki tasked >> former Info & Comm Minister with implementing such "Digitization" in >> government. What ever happened to that? >> >> **Is PS Ndemo still tasked with implementing digitization? >> >> Regards, >> Wainaina >> >> >> On 4/16/09, wesley kiriinya <kiriinya2000(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >>> Well our census is up in a few months. Let's see if technology >>> will be >>> used >>> to verify the truth of the collected data. >>> >>> I believe in a system where everything works like it's supposed >>> to, data >>> from deaths, births, immigration (and whatever affects population >>> size) >>> can >>> be used to update the population statistics, and a census only >>> conducted >>> in >>> areas where there seems to be an abnormal population size change >>> (small-scale census). Technology can go a long way into making >>> this a >>> reality. I believe the cost of maintaining the technology and doing >>> small-scale census would be cheaper than doing an entire census >>> every >>> decade. >>> >>> O_O >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> --- On Thu, 4/16/09, John Walubengo <jwalu(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >>> >>> >>> From: John Walubengo <jwalu(a)yahoo.com> >>> Subject: [kictanet] South Africa embraces ICT in polls >>> To: kiriinya2000(a)yahoo.com >>> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" >>> <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> >>> Date: Thursday, April 16, 2009, 11:04 AM >>> >>> >>> >>> Not sure if our next "Kivuitu" wants to hear things like below ;-) >>> >>> walu. >>> ~~~~~~ >>> By CHARLES OMOND IPosted Thursday, April 16 2009 at 10:41 >>> >>> In Summary >>> >>> As the rest of the continent dithers, use of information >>> communication >>> technology in South Africa's political processes has enabled >>> thousands >>> of >>> its citizens overseas to vote, a whole week ahead of their home- >>> based >>> compatriots. >>> >>> JOHANNESBURG, Thursday >>> As the rest of Africa dithers, South Africa has moved fast to >>> embrace >>> information communication technology as part of its political >>> processes. >>> And >>> as a result of the revolutionary move, thousands of eligible >>> voters have >>> already cast their ballots away from home and a whole week ahead of >>> their >>> home-based compatriots. >>> >>> Rest of the story... >>> http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/560768/-/13ph0aiz/-/index.html >>> >>> walu. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> kictanet mailing list >>> kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke >>> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet >>> >>> This message was sent to: kiriinya2000(a)yahoo.com >>> Unsubscribe or change your options at >>> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/kiriinya2000%40yahoo.c… >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> --- >> http://www.bungesms.com >> >> http://www.madeinkenya.org >> >> _______________________________________________ >> kictanet mailing list >> kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke >> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet >> >> This message was sent to: bitange(a)jambo.co.ke >> Unsubscribe or change your options at >> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.co.ke >> >> ---------------------------------------------- >> This message has been scanned for viruses and >> dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is >> believed to be clean. >> --------------------------------------------- >> "easy access to the world" >> >> > > > > ---------------------------------------------- > This message has been scanned for viruses and > dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is > believed to be clean. > --------------------------------------------- > "easy access to the world" > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:37:59 +0300 > From: Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [kictanet] South Africa embraces ICT in polls > To: bitange(a)jambo.co.ke > Cc: kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > Message-ID: > <1981f3fd0904170837r681702c3w684930526a644a02(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 6:09 PM, <bitange(a)jambo.co.ke> wrote: > >> resistance from staff. ?It is not all that easy as I once thought. ? >> We >> shall not give up though. ?Parliament has to pass the FOI for all the >> digitization to stimulate enterprise. >> > > The Media: > > Please help in exposing more Civil Servants frustrating openness in > government. How does FOI threaten their interests? Why is the > Official Secrets Act their continued corruption cover-up. What > corruption perpetuating networks and cartels exist? Tally which MPs > declare their support for FOI if tabled in parliament today? > > regards, > > Alex > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:03:40 -0230 > From: Solomon Mburu <solo.mburu(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [kictanet] South Africa embraces ICT in polls > To: Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists(a)gmail.com> > Cc: kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > Message-ID: > <98099ee50904170933j7df14631l7c7ae19e2e185480(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Dakitari, I believe no matter how much pressure and resistance is > coming from some civil servants, they will have to give in, only when > proper mechanisms and laws are put in place. > > On 17/04/2009, Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 6:09 PM, <bitange(a)jambo.co.ke> wrote: >> >>> resistance from staff. ?It is not all that easy as I once >>> thought. ?We >>> shall not give up though. ?Parliament has to pass the FOI for all >>> the >>> digitization to stimulate enterprise. >>> >> >> The Media: >> >> Please help in exposing more Civil Servants frustrating openness in >> government. How does FOI threaten their interests? Why is the >> Official Secrets Act their continued corruption cover-up. What >> corruption perpetuating networks and cartels exist? Tally which MPs >> declare their support for FOI if tabled in parliament today? >> >> regards, >> >> Alex >> >> _______________________________________________ >> kictanet mailing list >> kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke >> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet >> >> This message was sent to: solo.mburu(a)gmail.com >> Unsubscribe or change your options at >> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/solo.mburu%40gmail.com >> > > > -- > Man is a gregarious animal and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all > the same way to the side of a hill! > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:37:36 +0300 > From: Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [kictanet] South Africa embraces ICT in polls > To: mwangi(a)wamae.com > Cc: kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > Message-ID: > <1981f3fd0904170937m7816ee45m68e54d9a4a252f32(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Wasalaale! Please stop suspecting here's hard truth. Nowadays the > 'real' money is in procurement. > <http://www.ppoa.go.ke/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=47>. You > recall the time all 3,000 were sacked some years back.. > > Since the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2005 came into effect. > They changed tact and they put every hurdle in availing information > that would enable open tendering. Most of the costly ads are for PR.. > An example? One of them recently called me asking me to inform a group > of SMEs I was lobbying they get government business, to go collect > tender documents from their procurement department at 6 pm. The > deadline for submission was 9 am the following morning. You get what I > am saying? You don't suppose that person sat on that information 'by > accident' all the while? > > FOI would mean that anyone can go back and demand, for example, all > communication, call logs etc that Civil Servant had prior to the > tender award? Should pattern be established than impling that the law > was broken, then that somebody would find themselves on the other side > of the law. Just one example. > > > On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 7:16 PM, <mwangi(a)wamae.com> wrote: >> Alex: >> >> I suspect that civil servants are not anti the FOI per se, but >> afraid that digitization will lead to job cuts and, to be somewhat >> cynical, reduce their ability to exact "rents" from their jobs. >> >> -Mwangi, Jhb >> Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you! >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists(a)gmail.com> >> >> Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:37:59 >> To: <mwangi.wamae(a)gmail.com> >> Cc: <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> >> Subject: Re: [kictanet] South Africa embraces ICT in polls >> >> >> On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 6:09 PM, ?<bitange(a)jambo.co.ke> wrote: >> >>> resistance from staff. ?It is not all that easy as I once >>> thought. ?We >>> shall not give up though. ?Parliament has to pass the FOI for all >>> the >>> digitization to stimulate enterprise. >>> >> >> The Media: >> >> Please help in exposing more Civil Servants frustrating openness in >> government. How does FOI ?threaten their interests? Why is the >> Official Secrets Act their continued corruption cover-up. What >> corruption perpetuating networks and cartels exist? Tally which MPs >> declare their support for FOI if tabled in parliament today? >> >> regards, >> >> Alex >> >> _______________________________________________ >> kictanet mailing list >> kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke >> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet >> >> This message was sent to: mwangi.wamae(a)gmail.com >> Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/mwangi.wamae%40gmail.c… >> > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:34:34 +0300 > From: alice <alice(a)apc.org> > Subject: [kictanet] Court jails Pirate Bay founders...Worlds most high > profile file sharing website > To: Kenya ICT Action Network - KICTANet > <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> > Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> > Message-ID: <49E9120A.7070005(a)apc.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Coming to Kenya soon > > ---------------- > Court jails Pirate Bay founders > > Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde, speaking on his website: 'We cannot and > wouldn't pay' > > A court in Sweden has jailed four men behind The Pirate Bay (TPB), the > world's most high-profile file-sharing website, in a landmark case. > > Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde > were found guilty of breaking copyright law and were sentenced to a > year > in jail. > > They were also ordered to pay $4.5m (?3m) in damages. > > Record companies welcomed the verdict but the men are to appeal and > Sunde said they would refuse to pay the fine. > > Speaking at an online press conference, he described the verdict as > "bizarre". > > "It's serious to actually be found guilty and get jail time. It's > really > serious. And that's a bit weird," Sunde said. > > "It's so bizarre that we were convicted at all and it's even more > bizarre that we were [convicted] as a team. The court said we were > organised. I can't get Gottfrid out of bed in the morning. If you're > going to convict us, convict us of disorganised crime. > > "We can't pay and we wouldn't pay. Even if I had the money I would > rather burn everything I owned, and I wouldn't even give them the > ashes." > > > It is almost certain that The Pirate Bay will keep on sailing, long > after today's court judgement > > > The damages were awarded to a number of entertainment companies, > including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI, and Columbia > Pictures. > > However, the total awarded fell short of the $17.5m in damages and > interest the firms were seeking. > > Speaking to the BBC, the chairman of industry body the International > Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) John Kennedy said the > verdict sent out a clear message. > > "These guys weren't making a principled stand, they were out to line > their own pockets. There was nothing meritorious about their > behaviour, > it was reprehensible. > > "The Pirate Bay did immense harm and the damages awarded doesn't even > get close to compensation, but we never claimed it did. > > "There has been a perception that piracy is OK and that the music > industry should just have to accept it. This verdict will change > that," > he said. > > The Pirate Bay's first server is now a museum exhibit in Stockholm > > The four men denied the charges throughout the trial, saying that > because they did not actually host any files, they were not doing > anything wrong. > > Speaking on Swedish Radio, assistant judge Klarius explained how the > court reached its findings. > > "The court first tried whether there was any question of breach of > copyright by the file-sharing application and that has been proved, > that > the offence was committed. > > "The court then moved on to look at those who acted as a team to > operate > the Pirate Bay file-sharing service, and the court found that they > knew > that material which was protected by copyright but continued to > operate > the service," he said. > > A lawyer for Carl Lundstrom, Per Samuelson, told journalists he was > shocked by the guilty verdict and the severity of the sentence. > > "That's outrageous, in my point of view. Of course we will appeal," he > was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. "This is the first word, > not the last. The last word will be ours." > > Political issue > > Rickard Falkvinge, leader of The Pirate Party - which is trying to > reform laws around copyright and patents in the digital age - told the > BBC that the verdict was "a gross injustice". > > "This wasn't a criminal trial, it was a political trial. It is just > gross beyond description that you can jail four people for providing > infrastructure. > > Mark Mulligan from Forrester Research says what was different about > Pirate Bay > > "There is a lot of anger in Sweden right now. File-sharing is an > institution here and while I can't encourage people to break copyright > law, I'm not following it and I don't agree with it. > > "Today's events make file-sharing a hot political issue and we're > going > to take this to the European Parliament." > > The Pirate Bay is the world's most high profile file-sharing website > and > was set up in 2003 by anti-copyright organisation Piratbyran, but for > the last five years it has been run by individuals. > > Millions of files are exchanged using the service every day. > > No copyright content is hosted on The Pirate Bay's web servers; > instead > the site hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its > users' computers. > > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > > End of kictanet Digest, Vol 23, Issue 25 > **************************************** ##################################################################################### Scanned by MailMarshal - Marshal's comprehensive email content security solution. 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