- KICTANet - KICTANet

CCK urges more Internet access
by A. Wanjira Munyua 31 Mar '07

31 Mar '07

It is a weird recommendation. Unless they have attempted to put it within the context of universal access in practical terms. I do not see how licensing additional ISPs would necessarily increase internet access/usage/uptake best alice Harry Hare wrote: > "The study recommends licensing of more ISPs to provide Internet > access and switching services." > > - will more isps increase the number of internet users? Not lower costs, > power in rural areas, pc penetration, awareness.... > > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > Please unsubscribe or change your options at > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/harry%40africanedevelopment.o > rg > > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > Please unsubscribe or change your options at http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/alice%40apc.org

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CCK urges more Internet access
by A. Wanjira Munyua 31 Mar '07

31 Mar '07

CCK urges more Internet access By James Ratemo and Edith Fortunate The Government has promised to expand Internet infrastructure. Communications Commission of Kenya Director General, Mr John Waweru, says low uptake of the Internet poses the risk of Kenya lagging behind in reaping the benefits from the fast evolving digital economy. Waweru was speaking in Nairobi when he received a CCK-commissioned study that found there are more than 2.7 million Internet users in the country. This figure is in contrast to an earlier International Telecommunications Union's estimate of only 1.5 million. Nairobi Province has the highest concentration, taking over 80 per cent of the Internet users followed by Coast at a paltry 9.4 per cent. A local ICT and management consultancy firm in Nairobi, Netcom Information Systems, Conducted the study Internet Market Study from last October. There are more than 50 Internet service providers (ISPs), 20 public data network operators, six Internet back-bone and gateway operators and over 20 local loop operators. Only about 20 per cent of the users are spread in the small towns, the study says. Releasing the report, Netcom Director, Prof Timothy Mwololo, said the cost of bandwidth and leased-line tariffs had remained high despite liberalisation of the sub-sector. The study recommends licensing of more ISPs to provide Internet access and switching services. _

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Re: [kictanet] 2-Day eHealth Workshop closes with a suprise
by Wainaina Mungai 31 Mar '07

31 Mar '07

> Did you all note that none of the bills that affect the communications > sector were mentioned as priorities for parliamentary discussions. Correction: The ICT Bill was actually mentioned by the President as priority legislation "to provide for a single regulator for the sector." "To enable the Information and Communications Technology sector realize its full potential for employment and wealth creation in Kenya, my Government will table an ICT Bill this year to provide for a single regulator for the sector." Source: http://www.statehousekenya.go.ke/speeches/kibaki/march07/2007200301.htm > -------Original Message------- > From: A. Wanjira Munyua <alice(a)apc.org> > Subject: Re: [kictanet] 2-Day eHealth Workshop closes with a suprise > Sent: 26 Mar '07 19:51 > > Agree we talk a lot, write a lot of papers, develop many policies, form > committees that develop and submit comprehensive recommendations, etc but > never seem to have the drive/will or is it resources to implement. Look at > the IC bill, our impressive E-government strategy and many others. > Did you all note that none of the bills that affect the communications > sector were mentioned as priorities for parliamentary discussions. > well, I am sorry I am not offering any constructive suggestions just > sharing frustration here. > > best > alice > > > > Michuki Mwangi wrote: > > Walu, > > > > John Walubengo wrote: > >> It always beats me:- How comes we are having to learn from > >> Rwanda every now and then and yet we are supposedly the > >> 'big brother'? > >> > > > > Maybe we talk too much? ;) > > > > I first heard of tele-medicine back in 2001 - 2002, its been 5yrs since > > not sure how much has been done as a result of the forums and > > discussions held back then. > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > Please unsubscribe or change your options at http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/wainaina%40madeinkenya.org >

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The Shuttleworth Foundation Newsletter - March 2007
by Rebecca Wanjiku 30 Mar '07

30 Mar '07

| Supporting Social Innovation | The Shuttleworth Foundation Newsletter - March 2007 A MESSAGE FROM THE TEAM This month we bring you the second article in our series of education and technology trends, compiled by the Institute for Futures Research. In this edition we focus on key technology drivers and how they are impacting education in the developing context. We hope you find it as useful and engaging as the last edition. We are in the process of upgrading our website so that it can more effectively convey our new direction. If you have any comments on how the website or this newsletter could be more useful to you - please do not hesitate to email us at: info(a)shuttleworthfoundation.org TECHNOLOGY TRENDS The One Laptop per Child Project Nicholas Negroponte, who launched the project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab two years ago before spinning One Laptop into a separate non-profit organisation, had as the main design motive the goal of stimulating education better than previous computer endeavours have, and with an affordable PC. In November 2006 the first 10 units of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) XO-1 were hand-assembled to evaluate the system’s many custom components and to perform systems integration testing. The machines are being made by Quanta Computer Inc, and countries will get versions specific to their own languages. Governments or donors will buy the laptops for children to own, along with associated server equipment for their schools. The project has so far received $29m in funding from companies including Google, News Corp and Red Hat. The laptop has been developed to be as low cost, durable and simple to use as possible. The aim is to sell the machine to developing countries for $100 but the current cost of the machine is about $150. By July this year, several million are expected to reach Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, N igeria, Libya, Pakistan, Thailand and Palestine. Three more African countries have expressed interest, and the Inter-American Development Bank is trying to get the laptops to multiple Central American countries. India’s government originally expressed interest but backed out. Even though Brazil plans to take part, it is hedging its bets by evaluating $400 ‘Classmate PCs’ from Intel. To keep costs and power demands low, the XO uses a slim version of the Linux operating system, a 366-megahertz processor and no hard disk drive. Instead it has 512 megabytes of flash memory, plus USB ports where more storage can be attached. It has wireless connectivity, a built-in camera and a colour display that converts to monochrome so it’s easier to see in sunlight. The first children to try out the XO are expected to do so in February, and when they turn on the small green-and-white computers they will be greeted by a basic home screen with a stick-figure icon at the centre, surrounded by a white ring. The entire desktop has a black frame with more icons. The ‘neighbourhood’ (not ‘desktop’) signifies the student at the middle. The ring contains programs the student is running, which can be launched by clicking the appropriate icon in the black frame. When the learner opts to view the entire ‘neighbourhood’, other stick figures in different colours might appear on the screen. Those would indicate schoolmates who are nearby, as detected by the computers’ built-in wireless networking capability. Moving the PC’s cursor over the classmates’ icons will pull up their names or photos. With further clicks the students can chat with each other or collaborate on projects. Negroponte said he deliberately wanted to avoid giving children computers they might someday use in an office. ‘In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs (when they exist in the developing world), is that children are being trained to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint ... I consider that criminal, because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing, not running office automation tools.’ Folders are not the organizing metaphor on the XO, because folders force users to remember where they stored their information rather than what they used it for. Instead, the XO machines are organized around a ‘journal,’ an automatically generated log of everything the user has done on the laptop. Users can review their journals to see their work and retrieve files created or altered in those sessions. The open - source user interface, nicknamed Sugar, has received mixed reviews. Some have said that even as Sugar avoids complexities inherent in familiar operating systems, it just creates a different set of complexities to be mastered. Wayan Vota, who launched the OLPCNews.com blog to monitor the project’s development because he is sceptical it can achieve its aims, called Sugar ‘amazing, a beautiful redesign.’ Vota is director of Geekcorps, an organization that facilitates technology volunteers in developing countries. One Laptop plans to send a specialist to each school who will stay for a month helping teachers and students get started. But Negroponte believes that children ultimately will learn the system by exploring it and then teaching each other. The OPLC XO-1 will be available to the general public in 2008, but buyers will have to pay for two, with the second going to the developing world. UNHCR ninemillion.org education Campaign for Refugee Children supported by Microsoft The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ninemillion.org. global campaign, launched last year to provide sports and education for 9 million refugee children around the world, has received a boost from Microsoft. The software giant has announced that every Internet search performed at click4thecause. live.com using Microsoft’s Live Search facility will raise $0.01 for the campaign. Microsoft will guarantee a minimum donation of $100 000, with a maximum donation payable by Microsoft of $250 000, equivalent to 25m search queries. Ninemillion.org was launched as a new public and private-sector initiative. Two-thirds of the money raised will be distributed by UNHCR to support education in refugee communities. Wireless Technologies for Developing Countries An examination of emerging wireless technologies for developing countries by Gunasekaran and Harmantiz concludes that the network readiness of such a country indicates the ability of its principal stakeholders (government, citizens, businesses) to leverage the potential of information and communication technology. WiFi and WiMax are not only revolutionizing broadband communications in the developed world but they also offer to developing countries the opportunity to bridge or even ‘leap- frog’ the digital divide that may exist in their communities and to increase the number of people who are connected. A quick adaptation to such next-generation wireless technologies will offer advantages over traditional wired infrastructures, and policymakers should actively seek suitable strategies to promote these vital broadband technologies. The review proposes a strategic wireless framework to address challenges in three different economic sectors of a developing country: the metro economy, which is well-urbanized and integrated with the global economy; the sub-urban economy, which has niche economic or development activities compared to the metro economy; and the rural economy, characterized by informal economic activity and poverty. It is unfortunate that wireless connectivity (with the exception of voice communication) is largely the domain of the formal business sector and the well-off individual in South Africa, and that there appears to be no strategic wireless framework in place for the sub-urban and rural communities in South Africa. Need for Science and Technology Transfer in Africa The executive director of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Mohamed H. A. Hassan, says that developing countries must build world-class universities to be serious players in the knowledge based global economy. Traditionally, technology has always flowed from developed to developing countries, with the scant resources and expertise in the developing world used to address apparently more immediate concerns, such as increasing agricultural productivity and providing greater access to safe drinking water. But such thinking ignored the fact that many of these challenges could not be met without first building indigenous capacity in science and technology, and for the poorest developing countries, ‘outsourcing’ the development and assessment of technology and innovation has been economically catastrophic, with policies designed to alleviate poverty and to create wealth suffering as a result. Hassan says that developing countries are now changing course and seeking to build their own scientific and technological capabilities, but if technology transfer is to truly benefit those most in need and contribute to making the global economy more equitable, much more effort is required. He calls on universities across the developing world to play a central role in technology transfer. They should provide not only training and research in scientific disciplines, but also in science and technology management. Developing countries must also encourage internal technology transfer, from universities to the private sector, by creating incentives for researchers to apply their knowledge to technological and policy innovation. Strategically, this means changing universities’ culture from institutions that exist apart from their societies to institutions that are integral to them. Tactically, this means creating such mechanisms as technology transfer offices within universities. Increasingly, technology transfer aims to help alleviate poverty, create wealth, improve public health and ensure long-term environmental well-being. Universities have an unprecedented opportunity to participate in this effort. But they can only do so if they engage in fundamental reforms to become, not only superior sources of information, but also unique mechanisms for promoting innovation. Education and Technology in South Africa In South Africa today the majority of learners and schools do not have access to ICT infrastructure. Only 3 in 10 schools (there are 26 000 schools for 12m learners) have access to ICT. Only 1 in 10 schools have access to the Internet, and this is mainly through slow, inefficient and expensive dial-up connections. The department of education has plans, together with the provinces, to place ICTinfrastructure in all schools. The department of education is finalising an implementation plan for the National Teacher Development Framework where all teacher development is addressed, from initial training to continuing professional teacher development. Within this, the department is developing guidelines for teacher development in ICT so that teachers who wish to excel in the use of ICT for teaching and learning will be able to do so. To date the department has trained more than 22 000 teachers to use ICT in education. This has been carried out through partnership agreements with Intel, CompTia and Microsoft. A principal’s guide to implement and use ICT in schools has also been developed and distributed. A quality science and mathematics education at the secondary level with adequate numbers of successful matriculants with good passes in these subjects is one of the prerequisites for a country’s ability to compete in the technologically-driven global economy. The poorest pass marks in South Africa’s 2006 matric exams have been recorded in science and mathematics. According to newspaper reports, South Africa is considering recruiting Zimbabwean science and mathematics teachers to improve pass rates in the two subjects. A number of Zimbabwean teachers had applied for posts as science and mathematics teachers. ‘We don’t have a crisis, but we don’t have many trained maths and science teachers. We anticipate a crisis. If we can’t get enough maths and science teachers, we will look into this pool of Zimbabwean teachers,’ said Education Minister, Naledi Pandor. Critics have however said that South Africa should not exploit the situation in Zimbabwe by taking advantage of its ability to offer higher wages to lure its neighbour’s teachers. According to the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Zimbabwe lost 4 000 teachers to neighbouring countries such as South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia in 2005 alone. The department of education’s Thutong project aims to connect schooling communities with theirteachers through the internet. Thutong is an online education experience-based web portal and means place of learning in SeTswana. Its purpose is to provide learners and educators with information for use in the classroom and ideas for projects, providing students and teachers with printable, quality-assured materials which support the outcomes-based education curriculum. Specifically, the portal provides access to a range of curriculum and learner support materials; professional development programmes for teachers; and administration and management resources for schools. It also provides education policy documents and general information related to the latest developments in the country’s educational system. In total it has 21 000 learning objects for use by teachers and learners. The portal is interactive and is intended to be open to all. Priority is given to disadvantaged and rural schools. Users can download curriculum materials, create their own materials and share them with others, and interact with their peers throughout the country and abroad. Thutong carries news supplied by provincial departments of education, official news providers and organisations involved in the education arena. All educational content contained in the portal has been cross-referenced against the National Curriculum Statement (NCS). The online resources are also designed to facilitate professional and lifelong learning. According to the portal’s organisers, ‘The content is highly relevant to the lives and learning contexts of South African learners, educators, education managers/administrators and parents. The portal aims to expand and become a representative of users’ interests and needs.’ A key partner to the Thutong portal is the Mindset Network, which provides assistance through a satellite-based technology platform that distributes high-quality multimedia educational content. Mindset provides educational materials as well as training in the use of the associated technology. The organisation has installed receiving equipment in more than 1 500 schools and 250 hospitals and clinics. Content is also available in 1.5m homes via satellite broadcast. In December 2006, Mindset Network was chosen from more than 160 nominees as the winner of the 2006 Development Gateway Award on the theme of youth. The award was presented at the International Telecommunications Union Telecom World 2006 in Hong Kong. The partners in the Thutong project include the Department of Education, the South African Institute for Distance Education, Multichoice Africa Foundation, the Gauteng Institute for Education Development, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, SchoolNet South Africa, Mindset, Reusable Objects, SABC Education and M-Web. Educational Developments in the United States The SCALE-UP project at some American universities is an effort to create studio classes that would be large enough to provide an effective, yet affordable alternative to large classes taught via the standard lecture/laboratory format. The Student-Centered Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) Project establishes a highly collaborative, hands-on, computer-rich, interactive learning environment. Research indicates that students should collaborate on interesting tasks and be deeply involved with the material they are studying. SCALE-UP promotes active learning in a redesigned studio- style classroom of 100 students or more. Class time is spent primarily on hands-on activities, simulations, and interesting questions as well as hypothesis-driven labs. Students sit in three groups of three students at a number of round tables. Instructors circulate and work with teams and individuals, engaging them in Socratic-like dialogues. Rigorous evaluations of SCALE-UP find that ability to solve problems is improved, conceptual understanding is increased, attitudes are improved, failure rates are drastically reduced (especially for women and minorities), and performance in following (physics and engineering) classes is positively impacted. For the past 10 years, the Loudoun County (Virginia, US) public school system has been a leader in introducing the latest technology into classrooms. One advanced-technology tool that Loudoun uses is the SMART Board, a touch-screen white board that eliminates the traditional chalk and erasers associated with teaching. A teacher writes on the screen with a finger, and whatever is written is stored electronically. Students can retrieve the information later by visiting the teacher’s Web site. Betty Korte, a maths teacher, said the technology has made it easier to teach her grade 9 and 10 students. ‘In maths, where a lot of abstract concepts need to be understood, I can use a lot of the features to make it more real for the kids,’ Korte said. ‘I’ve been able to see the difference in their ability to understand these concepts before and after using the tool. In my mind, there’s just no comparison.’ Loudoun has equipped each of its 45 schools with one or two SMART Boards and aims to have a SMART Board in every classroom by 2010. Loudon offers online courses through a partnership with George Mason University. Students who can’t complete classes because of long-term illness or scheduling problems, may register for online classes. The classes are self-taught and teachers answer questions via e-mail. The pass rate for online courses has been exceptionally high and students have given the service high marks. Loudoun believes the next big thing will be wireless connectivity at its schools. Education Trends is compiled by the Institute for Futures Research. P.O.Box 4163, Durbanville 7551, South Africa Tel + 27 21 970 1200 • Fax + 27 21 970 1201 www.shuttleworthfoundation.org • info(a)shuttleworthfoundation.org Please contact worth-e(a)shuttleworthfoundation.org to be added to or removed from this mailing list, or visit our website. This newsletter is constructed and managed with Ubuntu Media's E-Bean publishing system ____________________________________________________________________________________ Don't get soaked. Take a quick peek at the forecast with the Yahoo! Search weather shortcut. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#loc_weather

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The Real Problem with dot-XXX
by Alex Gakuru 30 Mar '07

30 Mar '07

Absent Kenya Information and Communications Law, I am trying to relate below with a known appetite for the "pictures" and trust me, when the international fibre connects at Mombasa, they will flow in Gigabytes starting with coast tourist guest houses. I totally agree with Walu and Muriuki Mureithi advocating passage of the Bill as "terribly" urgent! A radical parent recently suggested that when you find the kids watching porn in the sitting room, just sit next to them and watch the whole show , that way they will think thrice before "borrowing" or downloading that next video. Porn "content" risks filling every PC early next year after the connect. [CircleID] Shakespeare has Marcellus say in Act 1 of Hamlet, Somethings rotten in the state of Denmark. Meredith Wilson, in the Music Man, sings, Well, ya got trouble, my friend, right here, I say trouble right here in River City. Dick Darman, patron saint of Internet funding in the second Reagan Administration, said, If it looks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, then its a duck. Milton Mueller, in his recent post to this site, would have us believe that since ICANNs Board long ago agreed that ICMs application for dot-xxx registry satisfied its own criteria for a sponsored TLD, then the only explanation for all the delay is, Im beginning to think that ICANNs approach to TLD approval was cooked up by a demented sergeant from Abu Ghraib. Milton goes on to assert that ICMs claim on dot-xxx is protected by the 1st Amendment. If this is so, then why after more than six years of discussion, is dot-xxx still raising such a fuss? Now, its certainly true that the porn industry, which definitely includes ICM, since it says it represents a consensus chunk of that business, has notoriously deep pockets for almost anything it fancies, from leading edge technology, to high priced lawyers, to expensive and well placed lobbyists. But if this was a money issue, ICANN would have been bought, or not bought, by now and the fuss would be over. No, theres something more fundamental at stake. There are limits to the First Amendment. The report of the U.S. Congressional Research Service [PDF] puts it this way: "The First Amendment provides: Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. In general, the First Amendment protects pornography, with this term being used to mean any erotic material. The Supreme Court, however, has held that the First Amendment does not protect two types of pornography: obscenity and child pornography." Herein lies the quandary. As a long list of indictments and successful prosecutions attest, Web-based pornography frequently slides into criminality. Not only that, but the freedom and openness of the net have established new frontiers in predatory behavior across state and national lines, to the point that in the US, it takes a joint federal-state task force of lawyers, net experts, FBI agents and local police to try to keep up with the illegal behavior of a pathological fringe. So what we have, stripped down to essentials, is a moral contest. On the one side are the free expression advocates, such as Milton, who see the greater good in the avoidance of any form of censorship, accompanied by a laissez faire economic conviction that markets will solve most any problem in sight. On the other side are those who wonder how ICANN could have gotten itself entangled in a tawdry business that not infrequently preys on innocent youngsters and enjoys a lot of profit at the same time. How could any amount of rational sounding registry approval process be used as insulation from the downright evil acts which seek cover under the First Amendment? Six years ago, ICANNs Initial Board told the pornographers to go away, they werent in the business of finding a correct moral position in an ocean of sex. Pornography is the single most profitable application on the Internet, and it hardly needs its own registry to enhance consumer choice or expand its profit horizons. Is the current ICANN Board going to hide behind process, or is it going to fulfill its own pledge of transparency and take sides on the morality of dot-xxx? <http://www.circleid.com/posts/real_problem_with_dot_xxx/> ---- If it costs up to shs 750,000/= to connect firms Nairobi-Mombasa branches for a video conference via already laid fibre, will international bandwidth be any cheaper even after Fujaira-Mombasa cable completion? Could we just be re-creating yesterdays equivalent of City Hall water network and billing systems - they owned the pipes so they could charge whatever they wanted, for whatever did or did not flow in "their pipes", at times chalk was good enough for chroline to Nairobians consuming the water and put all their faith in prayer! "Open access" remains the only way to ensure equitable access for everyone! ---- --------------------------------- Need Mail bonding? Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users.

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.xxx rejected
by A. Wanjira Munyua 29 Mar '07

29 Mar '07

Hi all Today the ICANN board rejected the .XXX proposal The board votes were: 9 votes against 5 votes in favor 1 abstention Below some excerpts of the discussions from the ICANN ALAC list but entire discussion can be accessed online. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SUSAN CRAWFORD: As a board, we cannot speak as elected representatives of the global Internet community because we have not allowed elections for board members. This application does not present any difficult technical questions, and even if it did, we do not, as a group, claim to have special technical expertise. ... >>JOICHI ITO: I vote no against the resolution, and I would like to comment briefly. I think Peter, Susan and David have articulated most of the points. I would also like to point out that the discussions and arguments about how we would end up by default becoming entangled in the content aspect of this is not sufficient reason for me to vote in favor of this resolution. It is a reason to look at again, as Susan says, the whole process of gTLDs but maybe even at a higher level the raison d'etre and the existence of ICANN and how it should progress. Susan's full statement is worth reading, so I've reproduced it below. --Wendy SUSAN CRAWFORD: I must dissent from this resolution, which is not only weak but unprincipled. I'm troubled by the path the board has followed on this issue since I joined the board in December of 2005. I'd like to make two points. First, ICANN only creates problems for itself when it acts in an ad hoc fashion in response to political pressures. Second, ICANN should take itself seriously, as a private governanced institution with a limited mandate and should resist efforts by governments to veto what it does. I'd like to talk about the role of the board. This decision whether to admit a particular non-confusing legal string into the root is put before the ICANN board because, first, we purport to speak on behalf of the global Internet community. And second, the U.S. Department of Commerce defers to the judgments of that community when deciding what to tell its contractor to add to the authoritative root zone file. As a board, we cannot speak as elected representatives of the global Internet community because we have not allowed elections for board members. This application does not present any difficult technical questions, and even if it did, we do not, as a group, claim to have special technical expertise. So this is not a technical stability and security question. It seems to me that the only plausible basis on which the board can answer the question in the negative -- so could say a group of people may not operate and use a lawful string of letters as a top-level domain -- is to say that the people affected by this decision have a broadly-shared agreement that the admission of this string to the root would amount to unjustifiable wrongdoing. Otherwise, in the absence of technical considerations, the board has no basis for rejecting this application. Let me explain. The most fundamental value of the global Internet community is that people who propose to use the Internet protocols and infrastructures for otherwise lawful purposes, without threatening the operational stability or security of the Internet, should be presumed to be entitled to do so. In a nutshell, everything not prohibited is permitted. This understanding, this value, has led directly to the striking success of the Internet around the world. ICANN's role in gTLD policy development is to seek to assess and articulate the broadly-shared values of the Internet community. We have very limited authority. And we can only speak on behalf of that community. I am personally not aware that any global consensus against the creation of a triple X domain exists. In the absence of such a prohibition, and given our mandate to create TLD competition, we have no authority to block the addition of this TLD to the root. It is very clear that we do not have a global shared set of values about content on-line, save for the global norm against child pornography. But the global Internet community clearly does share the core value that no centralized authority should set itself up as the arbiter of what people may do together on line, absent a demonstration that most of those affected by the proposed activity agree that it should be banned. I'd like to speak about the process of this application. More than three years ago, before I joined the board, ICANN began a process for new sponsored top-level domains. As I've said on many occasions, I think the idea of sponsorship is an empty one. All generic TLDs should be considered sponsored, in that they should be able to create policies for themselves that are not dictated by ICANN. The only exceptions to this freedom for every TLD should be, of course, the very few global consensus policies that are created through the ICANN forum. This freedom is shared by the country code TLDs. Notwithstanding my personal views on the vacuity of the sponsorship idea, the fact is that ICANN evaluated the strength of the sponsorship of triple X, the relationship between the applicant and the community behind the TLD, and, in my personal view, concluded that this criteria had been met as of June 2005. ICANN then went on to negotiate specific contractual terms with the applicant. Since then, real and AstroTurf comments -- that's an Americanism meaning filed comments claiming to be grass-roots opposition that have actually been generated by organized campaigns -- have come into ICANN that reflect opposition to this application. I do not find these recent comments sufficient to warrant revisiting the question of the sponsorship strength of this TLD, which I personally believe to be closed. No applicant for any sponsored TLD could ever demonstrate unanimous, cheering approval for its application. We have no metric against which to measure this opposition. We have no idea how significant it is. We should not be in the business of judging the level of market or community support for a new TLD before the fact. We will only get in the way of useful innovation if we take the view that every new TLD must prove itself to us before it can be added to the root. It seems to me that what is meant by sponsorship -- a notion that I hope we abandon in the next round -- is to show that there is enough interest in a particular TLD that it will be viable. We also have the idea that registrants should participate in and be bound by the creation of policies for a particular string. Both of these requirements have been met by this applicant. There is clearly enough interest, including more than 70,000 preregistrations from a thousand or more unique registrants who are members of the adult industry, and the applicant has undertaken to us that it will require adherence to its self-regulatory policies by all of its registrants. To the extent some of my colleagues on the board believe that ICANN should be in the business of deciding whether a particular TLD makes a valuable contribution to the namespace, I differ with them. I do not think ICANN is capable of making such a determination. Indeed, this argument is very much like those made by the pre-divestiture AT&T in America, when it claimed that no foreign attachments to its network -- like answering machines -- should be allowed. In part, because AT&T asserted at the time that there was no public demand for them. The rise of the Internet was arguably made possible by allowing many foreign attachments to the Internet called modems. We established a process for sTLDs some time ago. We have taken this applicant through this process. We now appear to be changing the process. We should not act in this fashion. I would like to spend a couple of moments talking about the politics of this situation. Many of my fellow board members are undoubtedly uncomfortable with the subject of adult entertainment material. Discomfort with this application may have been sparked anew by first the letter from individual GAC members Janis Karklins and Sharil Tarmizi, to which Ambassador Karklins has told us the GAC exceeded as a whole by its silence, and, second, the letter from the Australian government. But the entire point of ICANN'S creation was to avoid the operation of chokepoint content control over the domain name system by individual or collective governments. The idea was that the U.S. would serve as a good steward for other governmental concerns by staying in the background and overseeing ICANN's activities, but not engaging in content-related control. Australia's letter and concerns expressed in the past by Brazil and other countries about triple X are explicitly content based and, thus, inappropriate in my view. If after creation of a triple X TLD certain governments of the world want to ensure that their citizens do not see triple X content, it is within their prerogative as sovereigns to instruct Internet access providers physically located within their territory to block such content. Also, if certain governments want to ensure that all adult content providers with a physical presence in their country register exclusively within triple X, that is their prerogative as well. I note as a side point that such a requirement in the U.S. would violate the first amendment to our Constitution. But this content-related censorship should not be ICANN's concern and ICANN should not allow itself to be used as a private lever for government chokepoint content control. >>VINT CERF: Susan -- >>SUSAN CRAWFORD: I am almost done. >>VINT CERF: No, no, no. I was asking you to slow down. The scribes are not able to keep up with you. I think you want this to be on the record. >>SUSAN CRAWFORD: I do, and I will give it to them also in typed form. ICANN should not allow itself to be used as a private lever for government chokepoint content control by making up reasons to avoid the creation of such a TLD in the first place. To the extent there are public policy concerns with this TLD, they can be dealt with through local laws. Registration in or visitation of domains in this TLD is purely voluntary. If ICANN were to base its decisions on the views of the Australian or U.S. or Brazilian government, ICANN would have compromised away its very reason for existence as a private non-governmental governance institution. So in conclusion, I continue to be dissatisfied with elements of the proposed triple X contract, including but not limited to the rapid take-down provision of Appendix S, which is manifestly designed to placate trademark owners and ignores the many of the due process concerns that have been expressed about the existing UDRP. I am confident that if I had a staff or enough time, I could find many things to carp about in this draft contract. I'm equally certain if I complained about these terms, my concerns would be used to justify derailing this application for political reasons. I plan, therefore, as my colleague Peter Dengate Thrush has said, to turn my attention to the new gTLD process that was promised for January 2007, a promise that has not been kept, in hopes that we will some day have a standard contract and objective process that can help ICANN avoid engaging in unjustifiable ad hoc actions. We should be examining generic TLD applicants on the basis of their technical and financial strength. We should avoid dealing with content concerns to the maximum extent possible. We should be opening up new TLDs. I hope we will find a way to achieve such a sound process in short order. Thank you. [ applause ]

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{Disarmed} FW: [www.eThinkTankTz.org] FW: Needed: Experts for Harmonization of the EA Communications Regulatory Regime (COMESA/RICTSP/EAC)
by Harry Hare 29 Mar '07

29 Mar '07

Apologies for cross posting. Harry _____ From: eThinkTankTz(a)yahoogroups.com [mailto:eThinkTankTz@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Simbo N Ntiro Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 9:01 AM To: aisi-l(a)lyris.bellanet.org; tzgateway(a)yahoogroups.com; ethinktanktz(a)yahoogroups.com Subject: [www.eThinkTankTz.org] FW: Needed: Experts for Harmonization of the EA Communications Regulatory Regime (COMESA/RICTSP/EAC) Greetings, Please see the posting below as it might be of interest to some of you. Cordially, Simbo _____ From: Jane Møller Larsen [mailto:jml@ict.danishmanagement.dk] Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 6:52 PM To: jml(a)dictm.dk Subject: Needed: Experts for Harmonization of the EA Communications RegulatoryRegime (COMESA/RICTSP/EAC) Dear Sirs/Madam, Please also distribute this to personal contacts and networks where you believe that experts could find interest in this. Thank you in advance. ____________________________________________________________________ We are presently looking for experts who have an interest in the following position: Project title: Harmonization of the EA Communications Regulatory Regime Application deadline: As soon as possible and at the latest Wednesday 4 April 2007 Contract duration: Short term Company: Danish Management A/S (http://www.danishmanagement.dk/) for the RICTSP/COMESA (and for this specific assignment EAC). ____________________________________________________________________ General information: The objective: The short-term expert (STE) will analyse and assess the status of the regulatory regime in each country in terms of liberalization, efficiency, openness, connectivity, affordability and as enabler for economic development. The STE shall develop a proposal for Harmonized Regional Communications Regime including the legal aspects, preliminary formulation of new bills and a mechanism for regulating the communication sector. Scope of work: The STE will: * Analyse and assess the status of the regulatory regime in each country. * Create a preliminary proposal and common base for the regulatory regime in these countries * Streamline the proposal with the commonly adopted international best practices * Prepare recommendations on legal aspects * Create and propose a mechanism for regulating the communications industry in the EA Region. * Propose recommendations and actions to be taken to ultimately achieve the proposed Harmonized Communications Regulatory Regime. * Recommend framework and mechanism for coordinating of the sector with other Regional Integration Organizations (COMESA, IGAD,IOC) Results to be delivered: * Report the regulatory regime in each country with proposal on harmonized base for the regulatory regime * Completed proposal streamlined with adoptable best practices for the regulatory regime in the EA partner states * Recommendations on amendment of specific existing Communications Acts in the Partner States * Proposal of new bills for consideration by the East African Legislative Assembly with the objective of having the regional enforcement * Proposal on a mechanism for regulating the communications industry in the EA Region. * Recommendations and actions to be taken to ultimately achieve the proposed Harmonized Communications Regulatory Regime and to coordinate the sector with other RIOs Total amount of man-days: 25 man-days of total input Regions/Countries to visit: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda Estimated contract start: As soon as possible. Profiles of the Experts: The STE will possess a university degree or higher qualifications in electronics engineering, telecommunications or similar relevant degrees. The STE must have at least 10 years of working experience in the telecommunication sub-sector and have a proven, extensive experience on telecommunication regulation related issues. The STE must have excellent report writing skills. Languages: Excellent command of English. Eligibility (who can apply?): EU citizens and citizens from: Angola, Burundi, DR Congo, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan AND citizens of the ACP member states: http://www.acpsec.org/en/acp_states.htm Background information: The East African Community (EAC): http://www.eac.int/ COMESA ICT Policy and model legislation: http://www.comesa.int/ict/policy/view Please find ToR enclosed (dates of completion of assignment and deliverables to be revised) If you find the position of interest and your - or one of your proposed expert's - profile complies with the stated criteria, please contact us immediately and send us a short professional presentation of yourself and an updated CV with relevant similar experience (stating your age, nationality, languages spoken, education and exactly in what you are an expert). 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SA Govt to strong-arm Telkom
by A. Wanjira Munyua 29 Mar '07

29 Mar '07

more intriques Re; EASSy. ------- Original Message from Wakabi, Fibre for Africa List...... Telkom SA, champion of an EASSy run on the terms of telecos who will invest in it, but owned by a government that is dead-set to see the regional fibre undertaking built under the aegis of NEPAD, on stringent Open Access standards. Talk of a being caught between a rock and hard place. Wakabi Govt to strong-arm Telkom BY PAUL VECCHIATTO , ITWEB JOURNALIST ITWeb, 28 March 2007 - Government will use its board voting power to make Telkom toe the line in participating in the East African Submarine Cable System (Eassy), says Lyndall Shope-Mafole. The Department of Communications director-general made this statement after delivering her department's 2007-2010 strategy to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications yesterday afternoon. She also attacked the Eassy supplier contract signed on 9 March between Telkom, the network operators and equipment supplier Alcatel Lucent. She said it was outside the policy framework. Government would use its six seats on the Telkom 10-member board to ensure the telecommunications utility follows policy, Shope-Mafole noted. This is the most overt statement, by a senior government official, that the state will use the power its 38% stake gives it in Telkom. The entity listed on the Johannesburg and New York stock exchanges in 2002. The Public Investment Corporation, another state-owned entity, owns a further 7.1% of Telkom's shares. At odds The Eassy project has been marked by conflicting points of view between government and companies. The former wants open and non-discriminatory access, meaning one charge irrespective of whether the user is an investor. Companies, on the other hand, want it to be run along commercial lines. Telkom CEO Papi Molotsane previously said his company's participation in Eassy would be along commercial lines  a stand that has placed Telkom at odds with government's policy. On 9 March, Telkom, along with the cellular network operators, signed an Eassy supply contract with international equipment vendor Alcatel Lucent. This was a final legal step before the construction of the $300 million submarine cable. However, the South African government, under the auspices of the African Union, is still trying to get more of the original 23 countries that agreed to the Eassy project to sign the protocol. Only 12 countries have signed so far, and only one, Rwanda, has had the protocol ratified by its Parliament. The Eassy supplier contract is outside the project's policy framework, says communications department DG Lyndall Shope-Mafole.Responding to concerns that there seemed to be two Eassy processes, Shope-Mafole said the supply contract was not within the policy framework as developed for the project. I have indicated this to Telkom and have had discussions with their CEO, but have not discussed it with the other companies that signed it. That is why Sentech did not sign, because Sentech understands it can't sign outside a policy framework, and I suppose the others will learn. Eassy is not two processes. What we at the Department of Communications have to make businesses understand is that ICT is not just a business, it is far more important than that. Our policy is that it must be an open, non-discriminatory access model. Shope-Mafole said all the governments that had signed the Eassy protocol were determined the cable would not be dominated by one consortium, as had happened with the SAT-3 west coast submarine cable. Limit investment Shope-Mafole said the framework was based on that of non-discriminatory access, whereby investors would benefit from the number of users and not through owning the infrastructure. At the next Eassy Intergovernmental Assembly in Zimbabwe, on 30 March, government would propose investor participation in the Eassy project would be limited to $2 million (R14.5 million), so that large companies do not dominate the cable, she noted. Shope-Mafole pointed out there was no adversarial relationship between government and Telkom, as the telecoms utility had been involved in the Eassy project since the beginning. But they are just like any other company and will try their luck. Telkom declined to comment. In mid-morning trade, Telkom's share price was down 100c, at R163. Eassy is also known as the Nepad Broadband Infrastructure Network, because it comprises the submarine cable and a terrestrial component running through land-locked African countries. _______________________________________________ Fibre-for-africa mailing list Fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa

1 0

Govt to strong-arm Telkom
by A. Wanjira Munyua 29 Mar '07

29 Mar '07

more intriques Re; EASSy. ------- Original Message from Wakabi, Fibre for Africa List...... Telkom SA, champion of an EASSy run on the terms of telecos who will invest in it, but owned by a government that is dead-set to see the regional fibre undertaking built under the aegis of NEPAD, on stringent Open Access standards. Talk of a being caught between a rock and hard place. Wakabi Govt to strong-arm Telkom BY PAUL VECCHIATTO , ITWEB JOURNALIST ITWeb, 28 March 2007 - Government will use its board voting power to make Telkom toe the line in participating in the East African Submarine Cable System (Eassy), says Lyndall Shope-Mafole. The Department of Communications director-general made this statement after delivering her department's 2007-2010 strategy to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications yesterday afternoon. She also attacked the Eassy supplier contract signed on 9 March between Telkom, the network operators and equipment supplier Alcatel Lucent. She said it was outside the policy framework. Government would use its six seats on the Telkom 10-member board to ensure the telecommunications utility follows policy, Shope-Mafole noted. This is the most overt statement, by a senior government official, that the state will use the power its 38% stake gives it in Telkom. The entity listed on the Johannesburg and New York stock exchanges in 2002. The Public Investment Corporation, another state-owned entity, owns a further 7.1% of Telkom's shares. At odds The Eassy project has been marked by conflicting points of view between government and companies. The former wants open and non-discriminatory access, meaning one charge irrespective of whether the user is an investor. Companies, on the other hand, want it to be run along commercial lines. Telkom CEO Papi Molotsane previously said his company's participation in Eassy would be along commercial lines  a stand that has placed Telkom at odds with government's policy. On 9 March, Telkom, along with the cellular network operators, signed an Eassy supply contract with international equipment vendor Alcatel Lucent. This was a final legal step before the construction of the $300 million submarine cable. However, the South African government, under the auspices of the African Union, is still trying to get more of the original 23 countries that agreed to the Eassy project to sign the protocol. Only 12 countries have signed so far, and only one, Rwanda, has had the protocol ratified by its Parliament. The Eassy supplier contract is outside the project's policy framework, says communications department DG Lyndall Shope-Mafole.Responding to concerns that there seemed to be two Eassy processes, Shope-Mafole said the supply contract was not within the policy framework as developed for the project. I have indicated this to Telkom and have had discussions with their CEO, but have not discussed it with the other companies that signed it. That is why Sentech did not sign, because Sentech understands it can't sign outside a policy framework, and I suppose the others will learn. Eassy is not two processes. What we at the Department of Communications have to make businesses understand is that ICT is not just a business, it is far more important than that. Our policy is that it must be an open, non-discriminatory access model. Shope-Mafole said all the governments that had signed the Eassy protocol were determined the cable would not be dominated by one consortium, as had happened with the SAT-3 west coast submarine cable. Limit investment Shope-Mafole said the framework was based on that of non-discriminatory access, whereby investors would benefit from the number of users and not through owning the infrastructure. At the next Eassy Intergovernmental Assembly in Zimbabwe, on 30 March, government would propose investor participation in the Eassy project would be limited to $2 million (R14.5 million), so that large companies do not dominate the cable, she noted. Shope-Mafole pointed out there was no adversarial relationship between government and Telkom, as the telecoms utility had been involved in the Eassy project since the beginning. But they are just like any other company and will try their luck. Telkom declined to comment. In mid-morning trade, Telkom's share price was down 100c, at R163. Eassy is also known as the Nepad Broadband Infrastructure Network, because it comprises the submarine cable and a terrestrial component running through land-locked African countries. _______________________________________________ Fibre-for-africa mailing list Fibre-for-africa(a)lists.apc.org http://lists.apc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibre-for-africa

1 0

Fibre optic project shifts gear
by A. Wanjira Munyua 29 Mar '07

29 Mar '07

Fibre optic project shifts gear By Philip Mwakio The fibre optic sub-marine cable project spearheaded by the Government has gone a notch higher following the completion of a route survey.The East Africa Marine Systems (Teams) undersea cable should be operational in three years, Information and Communications Permanent Secretary, Dr Bitange Ndemo has said. "This occasion marks a momentous milestone for Telkom Kenya and the country at large as it takes us nearer to our cherished dream of commissioning a fibre optic backbone network in the next three years," he said. Ndemo spoke on Thursday when he received a route survey report presented to him by the project scientists, whose ship docked at the port of Mombasa. The survey started in Fujaira in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and ended in Mombasa, covering a distance of 4,726 km, said project manager, Mr Boris Shirokozhukhov. Cruising at a speed of eight knots, the ship took three months to complete the route. Ndemo added that the deployment of a high bandwidth fibre optic backbone network under the Teams initiative was an achievable feat. Tendering to start Following the route survey completion, the Government is now on course to establishing a separate company special purpose vehicle to manage laying of the cable, linking Fujaira and East Africa. RV Gelendzhik, operated by Tyco Telecom Company of the US undertook the survey and mapping services to facilitate laying the cable to link the three East African countries. On board was a crew of 30, including 22 scientists and two Telkom Kenya officers. The PS termed the survey completion as a milestone that would further advance local telecommunication standards. The survey project costed $2.7 million (Sh191 million). Immediately the report was received, concerned authorities announced they would work on the modalities for tendering. Team's chairperson in charge of the Technical Committee, Projects and Contracts, Ms Atieno Ochola, said they are now working on the design of request for proposals. "The survey forms portion of the project and what we are awaiting is the actual construction or laying of the cable under the seabed," she said. A landing base has been identified near the historical Fort Jesus Museum, overlooking the Indian Ocean. Alongside other investors, the Government is expected to own 40 per cent of the project. Standard Chartered Bank is the project's financial adviser and was represented at the ceremony to welcome the ship by Mr Fred Michuki, a senior lender, public sector. Last year, the Government, through Telkom Kenya and the UAE, through its telecommunication service provider Etisalat, entered into a memorandum of understanding for implementing Teams. Other top officials at the function included Communications Commission of Kenya Director General, Mr John Waweru, Mombasa District Commissioner, Mr Raphael Letimalo, Telkom Kenya Coast Regional Manager, Mr David Molel and Kenya Ports Authority Harbour master, Mr Twalib Khamis.

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Up date on CS participation in ITU activities
by A. Wanjira Munyua 28 Mar '07

28 Mar '07

For all those interested in ITU processes, below is an update from CONGO - the WSIS Civil Society Secretariat re: consultation process with civil society groups for participation in ITU following the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference of Resolution 141. best regards alice --------------------------------------------------------------- Dear all, This is to inform you that, in the follow adoption by the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference of Resolution 141 up to the - Study on the participation of all relevant stakeholders in the activities of the Union related to the World Summit on the Information Society (also here attached), we have been approached by the ITU Secretariat to kick-start a process of consultation with civil society entities. This resolution, recognising the need to enhance the participation of WSIS stakeholders in the ITU, provided: - the conduct of a study on the participation of all relevant stakeholders in the activities of the ITU related to WSIS - the creation of a Working Group of the ITU Council to perform this study and to propose some reform on the basis of that study. The terms of reference and the mandate of this working group are included in the annex to resolution 141. This Working Group will be composed of ITU member states with mention that their delegations may include appropriate legal, technical and regulatory experts and will conduct open consultations. This Working Group is expected to start meeting on 15 June 2007. In implementing ITU Resolution 141, the ITU Secretariat took up the following steps: Establishing the webpage of the Working Group of the Council on Resolution 141: http://www.itu.int/council/groups/stakeholders/ On line call for written contributions for all stakeholders, as indicated on the previous page: all contributions will be made public. There is no deadline for submission at the moment. Written contributions should be sent to: ITU-Stakeholders(a)itu.int. Establishing a webpage on the ITU sources on civil society: http://www.itu.int/council/groups/stakeholders/resources.html Organisation on 18 May 2007 (10:00-13:00) at the ITU, in the framework of the WSIS related cluster of events, of an Informal consultation between ITU and civil society in which the ITU SG Hamadoun Touré will participate, as well as probably delegations of the two countries in charge of facilitating the work of the Working Group. More information will be circulated soon on this meeting. All the best, Philippe Dam Philippe Dam CONGO - WSIS CS Secretariat 11, Avenue de la Paix CH-1202 Geneva Tel: +41 22 301 1000 Fax: +41 22 301 2000 E-mail: wsis(a)ngocongo.org Website: www.ngocongo.org The Conference of NGOs (CONGO) is an international, membership association that facilitates the participation of NGOs in United Nations debates and decisions. Founded in 1948, CONGO's major objective is to ensure the presence of NGOs in exchanges among the world's governments and United Nations agencies on issues of global concern. For more information see our website at www.ngocongo.org

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in the news
by Rebecca Wanjiku 28 Mar '07

28 Mar '07

this interview was during the monthly forum, hope you will not miss the next one on April 26 at Jacaranda at 3pm..... Door opens for new non-profit telecom firms Written by Okuttah Mark http://bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=363&Itemid=25… Licence-free band spectrum, courtesy of the airwaves’ regulator, could allow non-profit organisations to own and operate telecom companies. The Communication Commission of Kenya’s offer of the ISM Band 2.4 and 5.8 spectrum to registered community groups is on a first-come-first-served basis, and already organisations from Mukurweini, Khwisero, Limuru and Rangwe have expressed interest. Countries like Tanzania, Namibia, Bangladesh and India have used the concept of free frequencies in efforts to bridge the ‘digital divide’ with the West. Alex Gakuru, of the ICT Consumers Association of Kenya (ICAK) , hailed the move by the CCK. He said it will enable those in far flung areas to manage their information systems without waiting for operators who might not see a good business case for moving into those areas. “Telecommunication companies have failed consumers on liberalisation promises of cheaper, better and widespread services,” said Mr Gakuru. In 1999, placing a one minute call through Telkom Kenya network was just Sh1, while now after sector liberalisation it stands at seven shillings, he said. Through his association, Mr Gakuru is advocating for the cause of community owned telecoms. He said now most customers have little input into the products and services being offered by the telecommunication companies. As demand for ICT services rise so does price. Consumers are bombarded with products and services that don’t fit their communication needs. For example, the wireless data transfer service known as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), which failed to take off despite promising speeds of up to 115Kbits per second. “In the current situation ICTs cause more poverty than prosperity. It is cheaper to board a matatu, take a 10megabits file than attempt to upload via email at 32 kilobits per second,” he said. To Mr Gakuru, the best way to protect consumers is to allow them to own their own telecom companies. In Khwisero, the constituents have placed communications at the top of their needs and through the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), they have put a proposal to spare between Sh3 million-Sh5 million for connecting the area with fibre and deploying wireless networks. The community intends to use Wifi enabled mobile phones to access both voice and data communication. In Rangwe, there are plans by the constituents to connect the area with fibre over electric cables. Although ICTs future is still bright, only companies who have user centric models will survive, points Gakuru. Rebecca Wanjiku, journalist, p.o box 33515, Nairobi.00600 Kenya. Tel. 254 720 318 925 blog:http://beckyit.blogspot.com/ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection. Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/features_spam.html

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Privatisation the only way to keep Telkom afloat
by A. Wanjira Munyua 28 Mar '07

28 Mar '07

Privatisation the only way to keep Telkom afloat Story by JAINDI KISERO Publication Date: 3/28/2007 Finally, the Government has made the first step towards selling Telkom Kenya to a strategic equity partner. Last week, it circulated "a preliminary information memorandum" in which it invited potential investors to put in indicative bids for a 26 per cent stake in the State-owned company. I don't understand why this significant development was not announced formally. I only came across the information from contacts in South Africa. Potential investors have been asked to respond by writing a brief note to the Government confirming interest in buying Telkom. The memorandum also contains indicative pre-qualification criteria for the tender. For instance, the Government will only look in your direction if you have an annual ICT turnover of $200 million. YOU MUST ALSO DEMONSTRATE good financial standing, capacity to invest, and a clear vision for a future Telkom Kenya. In this initial stages, the Government is merely teasing the market by collecting the feedback it will need when designing the actual transaction. According to the plan, an additional 34 per cent shares of the company will be sold once the strategic investor comes in. Where is interest most likely to come from? It is too early to predict. Suffice to note, however, that these days, the biggest players in privatisation deals in the telecommunications sector, or infrastructure in general, have tended to be South Africans, Chinese or companies from the Middle East. For inexplicable reasons, the big European Telcoms have tended to give the region a wide berth when it comes to such transactions. Privatisation is a very painful thing. Indeed, many Kenyans will be sent to the streets to pave the way for this transaction. The plan is to bring down Telkom's 17,000-strong workforce to 3,200 ahead of the transaction. In an economy that has been losing formal jobs faster than it is creating, where automatic graduate employment by the Government was discontinued several years ago, the privatisation transaction is coming at a high social cost indeed for the country. Yet the case for privatising Telkom remains strong. If we choose to protect jobs at the expense of restructuring, then the company itself will not survive in future, let alone keeping the jobs. Despite the fact that Kenya has experienced phenomenal growth in the telecommunications sector, and that mobile companies have become the most profitable companies in the country, Telkom is in dire financial straits. While the number of mobile lines have been increasing exponentially, fixed line connections have fallen from a peak of 320,000 in 2002 to under 280,000 currently. Between 2003 and 2006, turnover has declined by an annual rate of 10.5 per cent. In 2003, the corporation returned a net loss of $27 million with the figure growing to $36 million in 2005. The point is this. If we postpone painful decisions now merely because we want to protect jobs, we will be left with a wobbly company that will sooner or later find it hard to survive competitive pressure from the more leaner and nimbler players. Predictably, there will be voices who will oppose the deal on the grounds that we should not sell what Harold Macmillan once described as the "family silver" to foreigners. I fail to understand why we tend to be obsessed with "owning" and controlling parastatals while ignoring the fact that at the end of the day, it is the quality and the prices of the services which these utilities offer that matters to the ordinary Kenyan. To the majority of citizens, the mere fact that the Government owns 100 per cent of of a parastatal matters little. In fact, our own experience has shown that state ownership of these parastatals only serves the interests of the political elite and their cronies, providing them with the means of rewarding political loyalty and allowing them to appoint their relatives to boards of these organisations. Privatisation is not popular in Africa because it removes parastatals from the control of the ruling elite. We all know how they make money from these institutions. There is, for example, the award of lucrative contracts at inflated prices to well connected merchants. And there is also the transfer of assets belonging to paratatals (especially land and residential property) to individuals. IN SOME CASES, MINISTERS AND managing directors have committed parastatals into massive investment into big capital projects of doubtful economic viability such as sports complexes, staff housing schemes, complete with nursery schools, games facilities and swimming pools. Ostensibly, this is to assist workers but, in reality, it is to create kickback opportunities for well-connected contractors. Left in the hands of ministers and politically-appointed directors and CEOs, Telkom Kenya will not be able to raise money to finance new investment or buy new equipment. If privatisation and restructuring is implemented well, the large and sick parastatals we see today can be broken up into several small successful enterprises operating in a competitive environment and providing wananchi with competitively priced services. Mr Kisero is the managing editor of The EastAfrican. http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp? category_id=25&newsid=94670 __

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Request for information: Offshore software development in Africa
by A. Wanjira Munyua 28 Mar '07

28 Mar '07

Dear all A Kenyan IT masters student requesting for information on offshore software development. Anyone with info please respond to her directly to her @: Leah.Riungu(a)lut.fi best alice -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Offshore software development in Africa Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:01:30 +0300 From: Leah Riungu <Leah.Riungu(a)lut.fi> To: <alice(a)apc.org> Dear Alice, I am a master's in IT student at Lappeenranta University of Technology in Lappeenranta, Finland. I am writing my master's thesis titled "Outsourcing and Offshore Software Development in Africa." The aim is to investigate the history, the current state and the expected future of offshore software development practices in Africa. I read an article you wrote about New Generation of Policy Development. I would like to request you for any information that you might have regarding offshore outsourcing of software development in Africa. Anything ranging from written reports, articles or contacts to companies that are providing offshore software development services will be gladly appreciated. If you are interested in my findings, I can send you a pdf version of the thesis upon completion. Looking forward to your response, Best Regards Leah Riungu Leah Riungu International Master's Programme in Information Technology(IMPIT) Student Lappeenranta University of Techonology P O Box 20 53851 LAPPEENRANTA FINLAND tel(mobile) +358 4 6840 8744

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Re: [kictanet] Sasanet not working?
by Jose' 28 Mar '07

28 Mar '07

Eh!! Alex,I didn't know such figures existed thats interesting.I will visit there offices and ask.Tomorrow I should have an answer. Best Regards, Jose' Njuki-Imwe Ngunjiri || +254 722 336754 || ----- Original Message ---- From: Alex Gakuru <alex.gakuru(a)yahoo.com> To: ngunjirijnr(a)yahoo.com Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 4:07:50 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Sasanet not working? There were 400 million sms sent were from Safaricom and Celtel in (NOTE) 2005 when we had about half the current 8 GSM million subscribers. At 5/= per sms this amounts to shs 2 billion additional revenue to the networks. Assuming per user texting levels remained in 2006 when the subscribers doubled then the number of sms could have also doubled, implying shillings 4 billion to the two (Telkom CDMA sms of shillings 2.5 may not have had a big impact). SMS traffic usually increases wherever affordability lessens...... but I am looking for the actual data. Considering a company such as Kenya Breweries' annual profits last year were 1 billion, I am convinced it would not be unreasonable nor unfair to ascertain the real reasons why *little* sasanet is down? We only want to ascertain that no extraneous forces are at play here than we are all happy to have this piece of information. Regards, Alex Judy Okite <judyokite(a)gmail.com> wrote: In simpler English, Sasanet gives its subscribers an opportunity to send 10 sms's free to the local network(celtel or safcom)a total of 90 characters...then an advert takes up the rest of the characters,to make 160(a norm sms). For this service to be provided..sasanet fully depends on the sposnsors(adverts),like any other business definately you cannot give your clients the real reason as to why the services are not available.........but there are no sponsors...as per now to support the free sms......if any one one has been using this services,frequently,then you can agree that it has been an ON/OFF...kind of service...but since its free why make noise? just keep checking till it works......So there's no need to panic, it has nothing to with AT&T or something fishy,reading between the lines..... Kind Regards, On 2/21/07, Jose' <ngunjirijnr(a)yahoo.com> wrote: Hi Walu, What Alex is expressing is the free sms service that sasanet gives.Everything else is up and running except the free sms service thats why we use it. I copied and pasted this from the site FYI "Due to a system upgrade that is currently in progress, the Sasanet Free sms service and purchase of sms credits are temporarily unavailable. Please check back again later." We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused, but strive to continually improve our service to you. Best Regards, Njuki-Imwe ----- Original Message ---- From: John Walubengo <jwalu(a)yahoo.com> To: ngunjirijnr(a)yahoo.com Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 7:45:48 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Sasanet not working? well, am not a subscriber to them - i got jittery when their registration form had too many of what I thought were personal questions without equivalent demonstration of how they would secure my data... Nway, I just checked their website and it is up and running...so what do you mean when you say they are no longer working? walu. --- Alex Gakuru <alex.gakuru(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > Wouldn't you be curious to find out a very popular free > internet-based www.sasanet.co.ke is now no longer > working? I wonder why? > > /Alex > > Mike Theuri <mike.theuri(a)gmail.com> wrote: Alex, > > Thank you for sharing the blog on the anti-consumer > setting in the country. The blog has very useful > information that is not being shared with Kenyan > consumers and it is key that consumer rights are upheld. > Your blog out to be brought to more attention of key > stakeholders in ICT and to consumers alike. > > Yes, the Ministry and CCK are best placed to > authoritatively comment on such an issue. However I > believe that what AT&T is discontinuing is the ability to > use a "call back" number from Kenya to the US. It is very > likely that the call back numbers which are 0800 numbers > are no longer profitable for AT&T especially given that > they cost as high as $3/min. Technically they are > supposed to be cheaper to use than if one was to "call > back" the US direct from any other country be it Kenya or > the UK. However with AT&T's rate to call the US from > Kenya as high as it is and with local providers beating > their tariffs they may have opted to drop this service. > What this might do, is it might leave AT&T US based > customers unable to call the US using their AT&T calling > cards for what would otherwise be exorbitant prices. > > The wording of the AT&T notice on the lack of no future > support for calls originating from Kenya wasn't very > clear and after some digging around it appears that it > referred to users of AT&T who utilize call back services > while traveling overseas, it might just be due to stiff > competition now that VOIP has been deregulated and > tariffs have fallen (though not low enough) and that no > one in their right mind would be willing to pay $3+ per > minute for a call to the US when for a extremely small > fraction one could make the same phone call at a lower > rate. > > Even then the tariffs in general are not fair enough for > Kenyan consumers and it is an uphill battle to enforce > changes when some of the largest tax payers happen to be > communication providers. It is unthinkable that the > government would do much to jeopardize a large and steady > tax revenue stream to save the honorable consumer. > Increasingly huge profits in a formerly depressed and now > recovering economy like ours raise the question whether > the consumer is getting a fair deal. It is akin to oil > companies making several times over some nations GDP in > profits and claiming that they are struggling themselves > and offering the best prices possible. Price regulation > in the industry is something that should be looked into > to further to try and strike a fair balance between > consumers needs and investors return on equity. > > Mike > > On 2/18/07, Alex Gakuru <alex.gakuru(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > Mike: > > Although this is a consumer issue, you may notice we have > quite some domestic wars with the prevailing > anti-consumer setting, http://ictconsumer.blogspot.com/ > for example. > > By engaging foreign networks, I am afraid the ICT > Consumers Association of Kenya could be considered acting > ultra vires thus the Ministry of Information and > Communications, CCK, and perhaps also Foreign Affairs are > best suited to comment. > > Would a provocative question, like "why has a private US > telco unilaterally cut-off communication from Kenya to > the US jeopardizing both a basic human right and the > national outsourcing strategy" earn a quick response from > government? > > rgds, > > Alex > > Mike Theuri <mike.theuri(a)gmail.com > wrote: As an after > thought, this may mean calls dialed through this number > which by itself is a very expensive option and which may > reflect the effects of voip and lowered costs of > international calls: > > Kenya 0-800-2201-15 (608) > > On 2/18/07, Mike Theuri <mike.theuri(a)gmail.com > wrote: > Does anyone know why the below might be the case ? AT&T > printed this in small print on bills sent to customer in > January. Considering > that AT&T is the largest telco in the US this is a > serious issue : > > International Call Origination: > Effective March 1, 2007, our International Call > Origination service will change. Current access > numbers for calls originating internationally > will change. Please visit att.com/dialing-guide > to print the new dialing-guide for your reference; > or call the number on your bill to order a new > dialing guide. Calls from Kenya to US will > no longer be supported. International to > international calling from St. Martin will no > longer be supported. Also, International > service will be expanded to over 60 additional > countries. To find out rates and countries where > we provide service, please visit > att.com/intl-rates. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > Please unsubscribe or change your options at > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/alex.gakuru%40yahoo.com > > > --------------------------------- > The fish are biting. > Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search > Marketing. > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > Please unsubscribe or change your options at > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/mike.theuri%40gmail.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > Please unsubscribe or change your options at > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/alex.gakuru%40yahoo.com > > > --------------------------------- > Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection. > Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta.> _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > Please unsubscribe or change your options at http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/jwalu%40yahoo.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ Finding fabulous fares is fun. Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097 _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Please unsubscribe or change your options at http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/ngunjirijnr%40yahoo.com TV dinner still cooling? Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Please unsubscribe or change your options at http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/judyokite%40gmail.com -- Judy Ann Okite, +254-721237507 P.O. BOX 2228 00100, NAIROBI,KENYA. "Even if you are on the right track, you'll still get run over if you just sit there." _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Please unsubscribe or change your options at http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/alex.gakuru%40yahoo.com Get your own web address. Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business._______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Please unsubscribe or change your options at http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/ngunjirijnr%40yahoo.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545367

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Fwd: [Chix] Chris Nichol FOSS Prize - Reminder
by Judy Okite 28 Mar '07

28 Mar '07

FYI ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jennifer Radloff <jenny(a)apcwomen.org> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:08:14 +0200 Subject: [Chix] Chris Nichol FOSS Prize - Reminder To: chix(a)africalinuxchix.org Cc: femme(a)africalinuxchix.org Please circulate ==================================================== APC CHRIS NICOL FOSS PRIZE 2007 - Last days to apply! The nominations for the prize will be collected until the end of March 2007. ==================================================== The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize recognises initiatives that are making it easy for people to start using free and open source software (FOSS). The prize will be awarded to a person or group doing extraordinary work to make FOSS accessible to ordinary computer users. The APC FOSS Prize has been established to honor Chris Nicol, a long time FOSS advocate and activist who for many years worked with APC. We are looking for initiatives that: * improve the accessibility to, knowledge of and/or usability of FOSS * are user-oriented * are documented so that others can learn from and replicate the model * have demonstrable impact and have increased the number of people using FOSS on a day-to-day basis THE PRIZE IS OPEN TO: Any person or group anywhere in the world who supports or promotes user-oriented free and open source software. The application form must be completed in either English or Spanish however there are no language restrictions regarding the language of the project. Small-scale activities are encouraged to apply. THE PRIZE: US$ 4,000.00 may be shared by up to two initiatives at the jury's discretion. DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: March 30, 2007 MORE ABOUT THE APC CHRIS NICOL FOSS PRIZE: http://www.apc.org/english/chrisnicol http://www.apc.org/espanol/chrisnicol or write to fossprize(a)apc.org ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION FOR PROGRESSIVE COMMUNICATIONS (APC) http://www.apc.org The Association for Progressive Communications is an international network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and supporting groups and individuals through the strategic use of information and communication technologies, especially internet-technologies. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: chix-unsubscribe(a)africalinuxchix.org For additional commands, e-mail: chix-help(a)africalinuxchix.org -- Judy Ann Okite, +254-721237507,+254-734252336 P.O. BOX 2228 00100, NAIROBI,KENYA. "Even if you are on the right track, you'll still get run over if you just sit there."

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CHAKULA: Opening access to Africa: Interviews and analyses
by A. Wanjira Munyua 27 Mar '07

27 Mar '07

CHAKULA Issue No. 16, February 2007: Opening access to Africa: Interviews and analyses CONTENTS 1. EASSy: MAPPING THE PLAYERS - EASSy stakeholder analysis by Abiodun Jagun - Interview with Edmund Katiti, the policy and regulatory advisor to NEPADs e-Africa Commission - Interview with Isidoro Pedro da Silva, CRASAs executive secretary - CIPESA speaks to Uganda Telecoms Donald Nyakairu - Whats in a name? The controversy over the EASSy name change 2. A CREDIBLE THREAT: Kenya in the drivers seat - Interview with Bitange Ndemo, Kenyas Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication - Wairagala Wakabi asks if too much competition is a bad thing - Its like waiting for a Matatu, says Russell Southwood - KICTANeT reports back on its online discussion and workshop - Rebecca Wanjiku spices up the debate 3. APC/UNDP WORKSHOP FOCUS - Interview with Ben Akoh, OSIWAs ICT programmme officer - Interview with Polly Gaster, head of the Centre for Information and Communication at the University Eduardo Mondlane (CIUEM) in Maputo, Mozambique - Links to workshop reports and presentations 4. LATEST ANALYSES - Satellite failure shows Africas underbelly, argues Russell Southwood - CIPESAs Vincent Bagiire questions whether open access will bear much fruit if universal access does not begin to create effective demand - Eric Osiakwan gets back to EASSy basics - Telkom SA under pressure from consumer activists 5. BACKGROUND READING - A selection of introductory content from www.fibreforafrica.net to get you going //\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\ INTRODUCTION: THE FIBRE RUSH FOR AFRICA If Kenya is anything to go by, the rush for cheap, effective broadband in Africa is moving fast: everyone from multinationals, to governments, to individual investors, both local and foreign, are involved, and they all seem to want a piece of the opportunity. A centrepiece of all the action is the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), a much-maligned and delayed attempt to link up several coastal countries in Eastern and Southern Africa to other global submarine cables systems in the North (See: http:// fibreforafrica.net) The US$300 million plus project, which will result in about 9900km of fibre-optic cable being laid, is struggling, and a number of countries, like Kenya, have decided to go it alone. The project has the misfortune of raising several key issues about the fibre rush for Africa. Such as: Who is going to own and run the cable? Who is going to pay for it? And who will benefit and who will lose out? This issue of CHAKULA tries to offer some sense of direction. It maps out some of the players in the EASSy project, provides a taste of some of the recent controversies, asks questions about open access, and offers links to analyses, as well as background reading for beginners. Two useful links for those who need to orientate themselves to the discussions in this newsletter: In Saturating the marketplace (See: http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5057717) Wairagala Wakabi from Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) outlines some recent fibre-optic plans for the continent, and asks: Is too much competition a bad thing? It is a good place to get an overview of whats happening and some of the political and economic challenges involved. Some of these challenges are detailed, and technical in nature. Recently the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANeT) held an online discussion to talk about the various regulatory and institutional challenges to fibre-optic cables in Kenya. John Walubengo produced an excellent explanatory document on the ownership options to get the discussions going. (See: http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5058919) This issue of Chakula has been compiled by Abiodun Jagun, Ory Okolloh and Alan Finlay. //\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\ 1. EASSy: MAPPING THE PLAYERS STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS This paper by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) ICT policy researcher for the African region, Abiodun Jagun, adopts a stakeholder approach to analysing EASSy. It provides a graphical illustration of the hierarchy of power and interest among the different stakeholder groups engaged in the EASSy process. The paper highlights how different stakeholder groups are able - through forming coalitions to influence the proposed ownership structure of the fibre-optic cable. The paper provides a graphical illustration of the current impasse within the EASSy project, which has been described as a disconnect between the commercial and political ends of the cable. The analysis of this impasse shows two competing groups; one the NEPAD Protocol coalition, and the other the Submarine Fibre Consortium. The analysis identifies that the powerful position initially held by the consortium has been diluted, and that the impasse has created high levels of uncertainty about the viability of the EASSy project. Download the stakeholder analysis: http://fibreforafrica.net/ main.shtml?x=5057715 WERE NOT TELLING ANYONE WHAT TO DO Edmund Katiti is the policy and regulatory advisor to the New Partnership for Africas Developments (NEPADs) e-Africa Commission. The e-Africa Commission is charged with the coordinated development of NEPADs ICT policies, programmes and projects. A top priority is to ensure that all African countries will be connected to one another by broadband fibre-optic cable systems that will, in turn, link them to global telecommunications networks through existing or planned submarine cable systems. CHAKULA asked Katiti some easy, and more difficult questions [Interview took place in January 2007] ************************************* The NEPAD process of conducting business does not permit any country to dominate the process or behave undemocratically. -- Edmund Katiti, policy and regulatory advisor to NEPADs e- Africa Commission ************************************* CHAKULA: What exactly is NEPAD's role in the EASSy project? EDMUND KATITI [EK]: On the 9th March, 2003, the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee adopted the development of a broadband ICT network linking all countries in Africa to one another and, in turn, to the rest of the world as a top priority NEPAD project. As a result, the NEPAD e-Africa Commission has been working towards the development of two regional networks, and a continent- wide satellite network. The first network is what we call the NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network for Eastern and Southern Africa. This comprises a submarine (Eastern Africa Submarine Cable) segment, and a terrestrial segment. This network was agreed at a workshop of stakeholders (including telecom operators) held in Johannesburg in July 2004. The second regional network is the NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network for Central, West and North Africa. Then theres the NEPAD e-Schools satellite network. As you can see from this, the submarine project is just part of a bigger ICT infrastructure programme for the African continent, and its the NEPAD e-Africa Commissions mandate to coordinate the structured developed of the ICT sector on the continent. CHAKULA: Youve also being working on regulatory barriers? EK: Yes. With a view to resolving policy and regulatory issues that may impede or prevent the realization of the rationalised network, the e-Africa Commission has worked with government ICT experts, ICT policy advisors, regulators, civil society, legal experts, executives of telecom companies, and development funding institutes to develop a policy and regulatory framework within which the network could be developed. The experts and policy advisors agreed that the integrated ICT broadband backbone should be based on several principles. These are: non-discriminatory open access; equitable joint ownership of the backbone infrastructure across the region; the separation of ownership of the infrastructure from its use; the use of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to build, own and operate the broadband ICT network; and that the infrastructure should be viewed as a public good and operated on a cost-recovery basis. CHAKULA: Do these principles apply to EASSy? EK: The experts and policy advisors agreed that these principles would cover the submarine cable as well as the terrestrial network. In addition, they recommended that a Protocol should be signed between the countries of the region in order to underpin their collaboration in developing this network. A Protocol that encapsulates these principles in a policy and regulatory framework, as well as the details of the SPVs that will own, operate and maintain the NEPAD network, was developed and accepted by a number of governments in Eastern and Southern Africa. This Protocol has been signed under the auspices of the African Union, by 12 countries: Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe [As of January 2007]. The countries that have not yet signed the Protocol may accede to it in the future. The NEPAD e-Africa Commission is the implementing agency of the Protocol, and is also the Secretariat of the Inter- Governmental Assembly (IGA). CHAKULA: Of the countries that haven't signed, the sticking point seems to be differences over the IGA. I understand the IGA to be a government-run structure for the ownership and management of the cable's inter-connection points between countries. How flexible is this issue, if countries continue to refuse to sign the protocol because of it? Could the requirements for an IGA be dropped from the protocol or changed? EK: The IGA is not an issue with most of the countries that are yet to sign the Protocol. Most countries were unable to sign because of the internal procedures for approving the signing of a regional treaty. In some of the countries the Protocol has to be approved by Parliament before the Minister responsible for the sector can sign the Protocol, and this takes longer than the three months the countries had from the date the Protocol was finalized to the deadline for signing. The countries that did not sign the Protocol by November 30, 2006, will be able to accede to the Protocol when it comes into effect sometime in the first half of 2007, when it has been ratified by seven signatory countries. The IGA is not a government-run structure for the ownership and management of the cables interconnection points between countries. The IGA will ensure that the policy and regulatory aspects of the Protocol are upheld by the SPVs. The SPVs will have a Board of Directors and a Management Team and these are the structures that will be responsible for the ownership and management of the SPVs. There is therefore no need for the IGA to be dropped from the Protocol. CHAKULA: Some role-players say that NEPAD is asserting ownership of the project. Is this true? EK: As you can see from the above, NEPAD was created before the submarine project was started, and the NEPAD e-Africa Commission has been involved in the project right from the beginning. CHAKULA: Kenya recently said South Africa was behaving undemocratically. One can't help the feeling that some tensions around NEPAD more generally (and South Africa's role on the continent) are being reflected in this specific issue. Do you feel this may be true? EK: The inability of some countries to sign the Protocol within the three months window was due to legislative procedures within those countries and not resistance to the Protocol. Only one country has expressed reservations about a few aspects of the Protocol. The NEPAD process of conducting business does not permit any country to dominate the process or behave undemocratically. ************************************* WE ARE NOT GIVING UP ON NEPAD Kenyas sudden exit from the EASSy project has set tongues wagging and the controversy has not been helped by South Africa apparently unilaterally changing the projects name to The Nepad Broadband Infrastructure Network (NBIN). CIPESA recently spoke to Uganda Telecoms Donald Nyakairu. Katiti is also canvassed by CIPESA for his views. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5058257 WHATS IN A NAME? The recent announcement by South Africas communications minister that the EASSy had been renamed the NEPAD Broadband Infrastructure Network (NBIN) was as astounding as her assertion, during the same function, that the original model developed for the cable is not what international financial institutions such as the World Bank would have liked, writes Anthony Mugeere. http://www.cipesa.org/246 See also: NOTHINGS FIXED, SAYS NEPAD NEPADs e-Africa Commission issued a statement saying that the projects shareholders can chose any name they want at an up-coming meeting in April/May. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5058917 OPEN ACCESS IS NO LONGER JUST A CONCEPT The Communications Regulators Association of Southern Africa (CRASA) is a forum of communications regulators and other ICT services stakeholders in Southern Africa. CRASAs objectives include introducing effective competition through liberalization, and promoting an effective and efficient regulatory environment. CHAKULA spoke to its executive secretary, Isidoro Pedro da Silva. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5058892 //\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\ 2. A CREDIBLE THREAT: Kenya in the drivers seat Kenya has become a vocal player in the drive for faster and cheaper connectivity in Africa, and the country is fast emerging as a spirited leader on the issue. It recently announced that it is pursuing no fewer than three major access initiatives in the country: The East African Marine System (TEAMS), a Kenya Data Network (KDN)/ Flag Telecom initiative, and EASSy. The countrys spiritedness has caused some controversy, with a representative from the World Bank adding fuel to the fire by stating that the Kenyan plans are a credible threat to the EASSy project. Indeed: it withdrew from EASSy a few months later. But, backed up by an open and inclusive policy development process, that involves a range of stakeholders and sectors through the countrys multi-stakeholder network KICTANeT, it looks like the countrys take no prisoners approach may yield results. Bitange Ndemo is Kenyas Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication which means, effectively, that hes the person who gets things done. CHAKULA asked him about TEAMS. ************************************* Bottom line we have real opportunity to change our country irreversibly. -- Bitange Ndemo, Kenyas Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication ************************************* CHAKULA: The Kenyan government is stepping up efforts to address the high cost of internet access in the country. Why has infrastructure become a priority for the government and your ministry, and what impact do you see these efforts having on the average Kenyan citizen? BITANGE NDEMO [BN]: Our national ICT Policy objectives include lowering cost of access to emerging technologies, including internet. Besides, unemployment in this country has reached chronic levels. To curb the problem the Government realized that we had an opportunity to utilize the highly educated youth in the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) industry. We had the first conference in February this year [2006] and by then there was only one 200- seat call centre. We then started to market our country as a BPO destination. It became apparent that in spite of the human resource capacity that we have, bandwidth, with acceptable levels of latency in the BPO sector, was the bottleneck. Nevertheless, we now have 4,000 Kenyans working in this new sector. The cost of accessing internet continues to hurt the growth of ICT in the country. Thus the frustration with the delays in the implementation of EASSy. CHAKULA: The government recently announced the launch of TEAMS. Can you tell us a bit more about the project and how it will be financed? BN: Kenya is a regional gateway and as such cannot wait to be guided on what to do in the region. Although TEAMS is being driven by the Government of Kenya, the aim of the project is to fast track connectivity to the East African region. The ultimate ownership of TEAMS would not be entirely Government, but by willing investors and Governments in the region. This project is like a road whose objectives are to open up the region and on this road you can have many buses competing. Therefore on TEAMS shall be many operators and other investors from the region. We consider TEAMS as a means to an end that would enable us compete with India and other parts of the world. CHAKULA: Will non-governmental actors have a role in the project and how will you ensure that access to the fibre will be truly open? BN: The Government will have a minimum role; probably not beyond regulation. The initial seed money will come from the Government and as more operators/users join, the Government would maintain minimum shareholding but leave the running of a special purpose vehicle to the private sector that will be eventually be listed on the stock exchange through an IPO. The Government, as well as other public institutions (e.g. universities), would buy their capacity requirement like all other users. Our model is more like the Swedish one that is probably the Gold Standard of open access with minimal impact on the environment. Whether you are Telkom Kenya Limited (TKL) or a newly registered operator, you will buy your capacity requirement at the same price as TKL CHAKULA: How do you see EASSy co-existing with efforts like TEAMS? BN: Africas problems emanate from monopolies (read National Telecoms; and note the problems being experienced with SAT-3). We must avoid these problems by encouraging a competitive environment in all infrastructure projects. Therefore EASSy or TEAMS have a role in maintaining low prices that would make the continent competitive. Kenya also has another fibre project being undertaken by the private sector, and we as a government welcome all these developments as they truly become a means to economic and social development. Fujairah, for example, has four cables that are benefiting the region enormously [Interview by Ory Okolloh] ************************************* SATURATING THE MARKETPLACE Marine cables could flood the east coast of Africa, but how viable will the competing cables be? asks Wairagala Wakabi. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5057717 THE FINAL FRONTIER The East African coast remains the only seabed in Africa yet to be covered by international submarine fibre-optic cable. An online discussion and face-to-face workshop hosted by KICTANeT charted the best way forward. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5058762 ITS LIKE WAITING FOR A MATATU Its like waiting for a matatu. You wait for ages and none come along. But just when youre about to give up hope, three come along at the same time, all trying to come to a screaming halt in front of you. Balancing Acts Russell Southwood discusses Kenyas options. [Source: Balancing Act, www.balancingact-africa.com] http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5045073 SPICING UP THE DEBATE When Kai Wulff, CEO of KDN and Bitange Ndemo are in one room discussing issues of internet connectivity, you can be assured of fireworks. But the common denominator is that they are concerned about reducing internet connectivity charges, writes Rebecca Wanjiku. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5058921 //\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\ 3. APC/UNDP WORKSHOP FOCUS OPENING UP ACCESS FOR ALL Open access, what it means, and how best to get communities connected came under the spotlight at a three-day workshop held in Johannesburg late last year. The workshop was billed a dialogue and exchange on promising options and critical issues and was organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and APC. It aimed to share project success stories and innovations, and explore ways of supporting policy and capacity development initiatives that promote open access on the continent. Participants include community ICT practitioners, researchers, policy advocates, regulators, academics and donors from across Africa. http://africa.rights.apc.org/index.shtml?apc=n30084e_1&x=504386 3 WORKSHOP REPORT AND PRESENTATIONS For a run down of the workshop proceedings and links to presentations visit: http://www.propoor-ict.net/content/view/21/1/ WE CANT STOP AND WAIT FOR MEGA-PROJECTS LIKE EASSy Polly Gaster is the head of the Centre for Information and Communication at the University Eduardo Mondlane (CIUEM) in Maputo, Mozambique. She has been involved in telecentre development in Mozambique for many years, and attended the Johannesburg workshop. CHAKULA asked her what she expected from the EASSy project. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5058916 GETTING POLITICAL Ben Akoh is the ICT programmme officer at Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA). OSIWA supports the creation of open societies in West Africa: societies marked by a functioning democracy, good governance, the rule of law, basic freedoms, and widespread civic participation. OSIWA is based in Dakar, Senegal. CHAKULA caught up with Akoh at the Johannesburg workshop. ************************************* Its about people talking to people for next to nothing, and its about encouraging my African brothers and sisters living outside the continent to return home and contribute in the building of our crumbled societies because there is cheap, affordable means of communication. --- Ben Akoh, ICT programme officer, OSIWA ************************************* CHAKULA: There were a number of definitions of open access put forward at the workshop. Yours struck me as having a distinctly political aspect to it, because it included the idea of media freedoms. What is open access to you? BEN AKOH [BA]: The concept of open access has been a tug-of- war within development circles. I have seen (or heard) definitions from 'open source' to 'open content' and then 'open access'. Pre- pending the word 'open' to any other word seems to automatically qualify that word to be included in what I will call the general 'open concept' framework or parlance. It becomes difficult to then define, and in turn accept as final, any one or the other definition of open access. I will also not attempt to define it, though at the workshop I managed to 'say' what it meant to me. And these are purely my thoughts on open access until it is subjected to scientific and social discuss, theorized and then proven - in scientific parlance. Russell Southwood and Eric Osiakwan [see below], in their open access infoDev paper say (carefully choosing my words) that open access is the separation of services from infrastructure and that the base infrastructure (which I will call the medium - and not to be confused with media) is the responsibility of those that have the means and power to build this. So in telecommunications it is the copper cable, fibre; in broadcasting it is the airwaves (frequency allocation, spectrum management and the associated speak - 'open spectrum') and the attendant last mile exchanges; in electricity it is the poles, transformers, substations; in mobile technology, the base stations, etc. And government usually has the means to build this type of capital-intensive infrastructure and should stick to it; although in recent years the private sector has entered into this space. The second component of the open access framework is the services which run on these mediums. The definition of open access has therefore been firstly the separation of this spectrum and secondly the advocacy for unrestricted access to any of the components of the spectrum (re: infrastructure - or mediums - and the services that run on these mediums). I have added the broadcast sector to this definition because of the sooner rather than later shift towards the convergence of technologies. It will become 'difficult' to separate what runs on the medium - difficult but not impossible to distinguish the type of traffic. And if convergence will 'force' all technologies towards a converged media then the broadcast sector should be included in the open' speak. Broadcast can be further subdivided into various little components - the content, the broadcaster, the human resource within the broadcast sector (re: journalists and his editor/publisher), the spectrum, base stations, policies that surround broadcast, public/private broadcasters, etc. This is a sector that is often held captive and tightly controlled by the state and/or ruling party in most countries of Africa, if not the world. Hence its political undertone. Advocating for open access in this sector (not known as that) has been a long-time struggle. Indeed media advocates have fought for some form of open access right back in the day with 'freedom of information' and 'freedom of expression' struggles. We should as well include the broadcast struggle in this fight. CHAKULA: How do you understand open access in the context of West Africa: Do you think West Africa is ahead of East Africa in the access stakes, so to speak? BA: One thing for sure is that SAT-3 had greatly improved connectivity in West Africa in spite of its high cost of connectivity induced by the closed consortium model of its ownership. This sets West Africa far ahead - in communication terms - of East Africa. Although the individual cost of connectivity per country still impacts heavily on the consumer, it may have improved the social life and living standards of West Africans in terms of their ability and the ease of communication and access to information. Also, SAT- 3 has spurred or incentivized the growth of other regional inland, terrestrial fibre or submarine cables. While it is important to build terrestrial networks, it is unclear, especially amongst investors in East Africa, how much value such 'internal infrastructure' would have without a regional submarine cable that carries the generated internal content to other parts of the world. I believe this is the underlying, hidden issue that has negatively impacted the rapid development and deployment of regional terrestrial and regional submarine infrastructure in that part of the continent. While no-one would say it this directly, it is the reason why the interest in EASSy and its open access debate has led to no cable being laid up until the present moment. I however postulate that regions in Africa should not be compared against themselves. Its not a question of how far the West exceeds the East in regional infrastructure development terms. But rather, it is how Africa as a whole sees itself in the connectivity debate - perhaps against the rest of the world. It is about how much capital flight happens annually and how that could be curbed. Its about how Africans should encourage internal communication, which will, of course, lead to the development of our continent as a whole and not a certain part of it while the other suffers. (Indeed while technology growth is evident in West Africa, there are other aspects of development in which West Africa lags far behind its East African counterparts). Its about continental economics versus the poverty picture that the continent portrays to the rest of the world. Its about people talking to people for next to nothing, and its about encouraging my African brothers and sisters living outside the continent to return home and contribute in the building of our crumbled societies because there is cheap, affordable means of communication. Which, in my opinion, contributes greatly to the underlying reasons why the diaspora refuses to return and invest in the continent. Lets look at the fibre issue as a continental issue, from a holistic point of view rather than the sectored, fractured spectacles we have used up until now - of EASSy for East Africa and SAT-3 for West Africa. Then perhaps 'open access' would lose its meaning and become just 'affordable access.' Then we would have achieved our objective. CHAKULA: What are the key challenges in West Africa, as far as open access is concerned? BA: Firstly, the availability of SAT-3 gives us an illusion that all our communication needs have been met and hence we do not need to further research or invest into alternative or more available means of connectivity. Although there has been private sector activity in this area (for example, the GlobalCom fibre link to London, the Festoon cable, etc.) it may be insufficient to meet the future needs of communication especially, as I have already mentioned, that all services, including broadcast signals, would run on some of these channels. This is one amongst many reasons why this medium may not be sufficient in the near future. Secondly, the open access debate has not been an issue on the table of most West African connectivity discussions, because of - you got it right - SAT-3. "It ain't broke, don't fix it." Hence the struggle by civil society has been to lower the cost and improve connectivity as opposed to directly challenging the rather 'political' status quo and structure of the closed consortium; political in the sense that incumbents are tied to governments and, believe it or not, governments have closely guarded interests in the revenue generated by their cash cows - the telcoms. While we also advocate for the opening up of the 'governing' structure held tightly by the agreements countries (and their telcos) may have signed binding them to secrecy, we also advocate for the ease of accessing this infrastructure from whatever landing station one chooses. Could this be open access in another form? Or perhaps from a West African perspective? CHAKULA: During the workshop you suggested that technology can have a detrimental affect, and that in some instances customs and cultural habits may be lost. In this way, a different kind of 'access' is under threat - access to culture as it is being practiced. Could you elaborate on this? BA: I will put the discuss in context here, as the workshop focused on access at the rural community level. I believe it is very important that our rural folks should be reachable and should be within either fixed or mobile coverage areas, fall within the electricity grid, have running water, and information (either via broadcast channels - TV, radio or the internet), etc. Our specific debate focused on the use and proliferation of 'free networks' in the rural community. This is clearly useful as I would be able to reach my grandmother from across the world and she me if that network is connected to the larger national backbone. But should my grand mum use that tool to speak to her neighbor in the next commune of huts - 10 meters away, just like we are used to doing in the urban areas? (Research shows that more 'neighborhood' calls amount for a larger percentage of the entire household phone bill). We happen to always drop into a friend's place as we find ourselves 'in the neighborhood' without making any prior calls or appointments. This social dynamic, though unpleasant in some ways, is often appreciated. I may be myopic in my thinking here and perhaps be looking at this using the eye of my village, the rural community that shaped my being. 'In the neighborhood' is not the unlikely, but rather the norm, in the rural context. Does the introduction of technology and rural communication affect this very fabric of rural culture? I believe so. When my grandmother would rather speak to her neighbor on the phone than visit her seems to me to negatively affect communication within the rural community - communication being the basis by which African communities exist. Ours is an oral culture. CHAKULA: As a donor, what sorts of initiatives do you think need to be supported in the context of open access in West Africa? BA: Clearly, the price of access needs to drop. Not just become affordable, but way below the disposable income of the rural person. Secondly, barter trade still subsists in must parts of African communities. I would like to see, putting it plainly, the ability to exchange a basket of tomatoes for x hours of airtime for the rural community farmer. I would also like to see the government, private sector, etc. putting rural access on the forefront of connectivity discuss and not just talking about it, but ensuring that something is done - enough of the talk now. And finally, I would like to see empowered and organised consumers and their interests cutting across rural and urban communities in the open access debate; and subsequent implementation. While I believe that regulation may be 'evil' in some form, a structured regulatory framework for both rural and urban infrastructure should exist as self-regulation may be totally impossible in connectivity issues. There are too many interests at stake. Background reading: Anders Comstedt, Eric Osiakwan and Russell Southwood (Spintrack AB): Open Access Model, Options for Improving Backbone Access in Developing Countries (with a Focus on Sub- Saharan Africa), 2005. http://www.infodev.org/files/ 2569_file_OPEN_ACCESS_REPORT.pdf //\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\ 4. LATEST ANALYSES SATELLITE FAILURE SHOWS AFRICAS UNDERBELLY The cost of satellite bandwidth has rocketed as much as 50% following the failed launch of a satellite last January. The story shows just how vulnerable Africa is. Russell Southwood explores the issue. [Source: Balancing Act, www.balancingact-africa.com] http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5058882 ENABLING OPEN ACCESS THROUGH UNIVERSAL ACCESS In this paper, CIPESAs Vincent Bagiire questions whether open access will bear much fruit if universal access does not begin to create effective demand. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5056029 OPENING UP EASSy In the wake of what he calls the EASSy fallout", Eric Osiakwan goes back to the basics of open access to get the project's engines started again. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5042385 BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON TELKOM SA The Telecoms Action Group (TAG) has been making waves in South Africa. That's after it took out a full-page advert in two South African newspapers slamming Telkom SA for its higher-than-fair connectivity costs. CHAKULA spoke to Alastair Otter, founding editor of Tectonic, who is part of the TAG initiative. http://africa.rights.apc.org/index.shtml?apc=he_1&x=5052971 See also: CONSUMERS SHOULDNT SUBSIDISE TELKOM argues APC Director Anriette Esterhuysen http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5057602 //\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\ 5. BACKGROUND READING WHY AFFORDABLE INTERNATIONAL BANDWIDTH MATTERS Currently Africa has amongst the highest international bandwidth costs anywhere in the world. Although it varies, the international element of the cost to the consumer is significant proportion of the overall cost he or she pays. The same is true for institutional users like governments or for companies in the private sector. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=4051584 FINANCING INFRASTRUCTURE Before markets were liberalised, telephone companies were in the main government-owned institutions. When they wanted to build undersea cables, governments financed this activity and the project was carried out by the government-owned telephone company. In the age of liberalisation, things get a bit more tricky. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=4051585 HOW FAR DOES DEMAND FOR LOW-COST CALLS GO? Up until relatively recently, making international calls from Africa has been expensive. People were less inclined or unable to afford to make an international call and the majority of international calling was either corporate or government. A number of factors have fundamentally changed this position. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=4051587 SATELLITE vs FIBRE: DIFFERENT COSTS FOR DIFFERENT THINGS Satellite is extremely effective in reaching places where the volume of traffic would not justify a fibre connection. However satellite connectivity is often costly. On the other hand, the comparatively low price of fibre connectivity for the consumer may not be sustainable over the long-term in some instances. http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=4051583 FLATTENING THE WORLD WITH FIBRE This paper aims to define fibre optic technology, how fibre-optic networks function, and explains how different this technology is from other communication infrastructures. The paper further outlines the prospects for fibre-optic technology in Africa, looks at some fibre- optic networks on the continent, as well as at how fibre-optic applications are being used to enhance technological and economic development. http://www.comminit.com/africa/strategicthinking/st2006/ thinking-1897.html //\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\ CHAKULA is a newsletter produced by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)s Africa ICT Policy Monitor <http:// africa.rights.apc.org> which aims to mobilise African civil society around ICT policy for sustainable development and social justice issues. We welcome your opinions about this newsletter. Send your comments, feedback or contributions to chakula(a)apc.org. To subscribe or unsubscribe e-mail chakula(a)apc.org or go to: http://lists.apc.org/cgi- bin/mailman/listinfo/chakula _______________________________________________ Grace mailing list Grace(a)apcafricawomen.org http://lists.apcwomen.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/grace

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articles
by Rebecca Wanjiku 27 Mar '07

27 Mar '07

hi, we are in the process of finalising the Kictanet newsletter, i had earlier asked for articles and updates but got no response, if you would like us to feature your organisation or any updates, please send them directly to me, not to the list, just cut and paste my email, dont hit the reply button, regards becky ____________________________________________________________________________________ Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check. Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_tools.html

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{Disarmed} FW: Rwanda's Knowledge Revolution
by Harry Hare 27 Mar '07

27 Mar '07

Fyi.. _____ From: Harry Hare [mailto:harry@africanedevelopment.org] Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 9:11 AM To: 'KICTanet Committee' Subject: Rwanda's Knowledge Revolution Very interesting reading, I think a lot of African countries can borrow a leaf from this. But what is probably evident in this article is the seriousness that leadership of the country has placed on ICT as an enabler to its development effort. It is the leadership that has facilitated the "from rags to riches" ICT development. Read on Harry (http://www.businessinafrica.net/tech_telecoms/633087.htm) <javascript:self.close()> <javascript:window.print()> Rwanda's knowledge revolution Andrew Mack and Jeremy Goldberg '28-FEB-07 23:00' There was again, the same look - a combination of concern and disbelief - when I told a colleague that I'd been working in Rwanda. After all, what do we in the outside world know about Rwanda? A small country with a history of unspeakable violence and ethnic division, perhaps, but a place of opportunity? A leader of Africa's march into the 21st century? Rwanda? For all its challenges, Rwanda is by nearly all accounts making tremendous strides, working to re-build into a modern, knowledge-based economy. In fact, a number of Rwanda-watchers these days see the country on track to become the hottest IT spot between Cairo and Durban, a kind of "Silicon Valley of East-Central Africa." But it certainly did not have to be this way. In a region where so much has gone wrong, what went right in Rwanda? Everything started with vision. While much of the development of IT and the Internet around the continent has historically been ad hoc, Rwanda decided early on to build IT into its strategic plans for the future - in tangible, not just rhetorical ways. Since coming to power, President Kagame had stressed his eagerness to move the country from an agriculturally-based economy to a creative, competitive and more knowledge-based system. So following extensive consultations with different groups across Government and society at large in and around the year 2000, Rwanda launched its Vision 2020, the country's roadmap for development, with a focus on IT as a crucial cornerstone. It was an unusual vision, one that looked over the horizon with a confidence rarely shown by developing nations. In a country that needed so much, it was easy to ask the question "Why Internet? Why tech?" But consider Rwanda's position: landlocked, with long distances to the sea, troublesome infrastructure in neighbouring countries, instability in bordering Congo and Burundi. Add to this crushingly expensive air rates - the Nairobi-Kigali route is believed to be the second most expensive flight per kilometre in the world - one can see how traditional, goods-focused export trade would be challenging to say the least. Building a knowledge economy was and remains more than a logical choice. It is an enlightened necessity. So to make this vision work, the Government decided to invest in people - especially teachers and the tools they needed. After the genocide in 1994, Rwanda needed to rebuild the country's tech infrastructure, but had a shortage of trained local people to get the job done. To address the issue, in 1997 the Government opened the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). Since then, KIST has graduated thousands of Rwandan tech experts and is now recognised as a leader in the development of biogas technology and renewable energy. And the investment wasn't just limited to the capital, or to university-level students. As part of its IT outreach Rwanda focused on bringing computers and Internet access to young people across the country. Josh Kron, a Kigali-based journalist, recently recounted to me the story of a Danish IT consultant who came to Rwanda in 2002 with a container full of 57 computers to donate to schools. At that time it was one of the largest (if not the largest) shipments of its kind. Today over 1200 primary schools (not to mention secondary and university classrooms) have computers available. It's currently estimated that some 10 percent of all Rwanda's secondary schools already have wireless internet access, and plans are underway to expand this substantially. According to Musabayezu Narcisse, Secretary General in the country's Ministry of Education, "As of today (December 2006) [the Government has] given out 4 000 computers to secondary schools around the country." This combined with a proliferation of private access points - Kigali is home to literally dozens of internet cafes - has put Rwanda on a steep path to integrating IT into everyday life and development. Quite a change from 2002. At the same time, the country also set high goals for spending and investment in infrastructure to match the focus on training. In March of 2006 Rwanda committed to spend some $1bn to build and promote telecentres, specifically aimed at bringing rural areas online and promoting broader-based use of technology for business. This spending was part of an overall concentration in science. In January of this year Kagame reminded his fellow heads of state at an African Union summit that the country had set its science and technology spending at 1,6 percent of GDP, bringing it in line with typical OECD nations (as opposed to other African nations, which average less than 0.5%). He compared the IT future of Rwanda to that of Australia, as opposed to Kenya. Of course to make the kinds of big investments the country needed, Rwanda would need big support from the international donor community. And they got it, focusing a significant part of its donor-funded work on IT-related projects, among them a $20mn Public Sector Capacity Building project and in 2006, a $10mn e-Government project - both funded by the World Bank. The goal was to use technology to reach out over the head of logistics challenges, streamlining communications, and using video conferencing to facilitate work with district leaders in different parts of the country. As Albert Butare, Minister of State in Charge of Energy and Communications, explained simply, Rwanda wanted to use IT solutions to enable local government leaders to function "without them having to come to Kigali all the time". After all, e-government should be able to save time, promote accountability, efficiency and transparency and lower cost in Rwanda - if it can in Washington. Rwanda has also worked hard to re-design its business environment, promoting a new openness to investment and a series of reforms to create a business-friendly climate. The country was described as a top regional reformer in the recent World Bank Doing Business survey, noting some big changes in 2006. To ease company start-up, a presidential decree dramatically increased the number of authorised notaries, shrinking the time it takes to register a new business from 21 days to 16 days. Rwanda also decreased its corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 30 percent in 2005. The process of reform is far from complete, but international investors began to take notice. In fact, it didn't take long to attract telecommunications and software companies. Terracom brought wireless broadband internet to Kigali. Microsoft is bringing e-learning classrooms. Nokia set up a village phone programme, and just last month, a partnership was announced with the One Laptop per Child programme (the $100 laptop scheme). And these days Rwanda is saying the proof is in the fibre. Yes, fibre. Rwanda has become one of the most wired countries in the region. Terracom has laid more than 220 miles of fibre-optic cable. According to Christopher Lundh, Terracom's CEO, "Rwanda, through fibre-optic and CDMA technology, enjoys without question, the most advanced communications technology in Africa." And as a testament to this expertise, last year African countries unanimously voted Rwanda the headquarters of the East Africa Submarine Cable Project (EASSy). This $280mn project will serve Botswana, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, and Lesotho. A Rwandan will serve as the Chair of its Working Committee. Finally, Rwanda is taking steps to build its reputation - its brand - as an information hub for the long term. Just days ago Rwanda made public its offer to provide up to 100 ICT scholarships for students from East and Central African nations, starting in 2009. If East Africa were an IT village, Rwanda might now be seen as one of the village elders. So Rwanda is getting it right. But does that really matter for Africa as a whole, or for other emerging markets? Perhaps the most encouraging thing about this entire story is that the reasons for Rwanda's success are no mystery. Rwanda's IT-focused approaches work and can work elsewhere. If you don't yet believe me, believe The Economist - they recently reported that Rwanda is well on its way to achieving several of the Millennium Development Goals. And, Rwanda is not the only example of IT turning around an emerging market country. I could easily wave the Mauritian flag. Mauritius, a small island nation in the Indian Ocean, is now an IT powerhouse attracting growing numbers of foreign investors. Why shouldn't these new technologies be used to help modernise the government and infrastructure in Sierra Leone? Freetown is already looking to Rwanda as an example of the possibilities, with IT as one of the central objectives in their own Vision 2025. Could IT help trade for landlocked countries like Burundi and Uganda as they work to enhance exports through Tanzania and Kenya? The answer is of course yes. IT could help improve supply chain management, expedite port clearance delays, and increase the reliability of customs operations. all things that experts touched on at a recent World Bank Government seminar. In a region where so much has gone wrong, Rwanda is an example of how much can be accomplished with a focus on IT. Investment in people, clarity of vision and a focus on technology infrastructure have given the country new, entrepreneurial options for the future. Especially given the challenges of its past, we should recognise a country so focused on its potential, one that is looking over the horizon, beyond simple rebuilding. So, three cheers for Rwanda, the 'Singapore of Central Africa' - a model for post-conflict nations on the continent and beyond. Andrew Mack is a former World Bank official and the Principal of AMGlobal -Business <http://www.businessinafrica.net> in Africa Magazine _____

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2-Day eHealth Workshop closes with a suprise
by Jose' 27 Mar '07

27 Mar '07

Reality check, We all have to start from the grass roots.The only way Kenya can be seen implementing what they have policy made is for the government especially the ministry of Info and technology to work with E-learning centres,equip them with internet connectivity and fund them to implement what they(Government) have policy made. Thereafter its the duty of the E-learning centre(e.g Kimathi information cente),to train the communities on a certain level then another higher institution picks them up and takes them to a much higher level. The government has the capacity.All it needs is to slot in E-learning centres on the grassroots level.We are doing it in our Kimathi community.It surely works!! Best Regards, Jose' Njuki-Imwe Ngunjiri ----- Original Message ---- From: Pauline Muthigani <pauline(a)nordic.co.ke> To: ngunjirijnr(a)yahoo.com Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 9:20:29 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] 2-Day eHealth Workshop closes with a suprise Hello, I too had a chance to attend the same workshop .And relate to what Walu is saying.I have studied many African countries and I can simply state that the difference between Kenya and the likes of Rwanda and Namibia is that Kenya we are GREAT In policy making BUT not as GREAT when it comes to implementation! Kenya got GREAT plans/policies but challenged when it comes to fast implementation. SA ,Namibia Morocco,Egypt, Tunisia and the Rwandas of Africa have their govt supporting ICT fully, same here our government does , but then why is the implementation speed so low. What must we do to expedite implementing of these.. WE NEED ACTION ACTION ACTION!! albest, Pauline > Last week on Wed 21st/Thrs 22nd, I had the opportunity to > attend the above regional (East African) meeting on eHealth > at the Nairobi Safari Club. Member states (Ke, Ug, Tz, Rw, > & Burundi) were showcasing their eHealth projects and > sharing experiences. > > As usual, Rwanda's experience was way ahead of the pack. > The chaps are pretty focused and have established eHealth > Task forces that have been on the ground for over five > years. The have a comprehensive (Vision, Mission, > Objective, Activities, etc) eHealth Strategy that is well > integrated into their National Health Plan (Solved their > Budget/Funding Wars that way). > > Amongst some of the acitivities they have implemented was > to link up their three National Referral Hospitals with > fiber and are running Telemedicine & Other applications > such as: Doctor-to-Doctor Consultations, Doctor-to-patient > consultations(e.g. sharing digitized X-rays), Drug > Inventory Control & Monitoring, Blood Bank Control & > Monitoring, Epidemic Surveillance amongst others. > > They are currently looking forward to mapping their Health > Information Systems (HIMS) onto a Geographical Information > Systems (GIS) in order to extract 'Health-Intelligence' > from their data. For example, using the two systems, they > would be able to 'see' why consumption of Malaria drugs is > higher in some locations as compared to the other - > probably due to the surrounding swampy conditions. This > would get their Health managers to intervene by way of > treating the swampy conditions rather than just increasing > the stock levels of Malaria drugs for that region. {I think > that is clever} > > It always beats me:- How comes we are having to learn from > Rwanda every now and then and yet we are supposedly the > 'big brother'? > > walu. > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Don't get soaked. Take a quick peek at the forecast > with the Yahoo! Search weather shortcut. > http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#loc_weather > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > Please unsubscribe or change your options at > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/pauline%40nordic.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" > > -- Pauline Muthigani Telecom/ ICT Strategy Analyst Nordic Consulting P.O Box 61191, 00200 Nairobi-Kenya Tel: 254 20 2736633 Cell: 254 7222614771 Fax: 254 202731194 ---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world" _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing listc kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Please unsubscribe or change your options at http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/ngunjirijnr%40yahoo.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love (and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list. http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/265

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Re: [kictanet] 2-Day eHealth Workshop closes with a suprise
by A. Wanjira Munyua 27 Mar '07

27 Mar '07

Okay Soberly now, having shared my frustrations, we need to seriously consider re-framing the way we advocate for ICTs for development. Perhaps linking them to concrete livelihood issues could be a start making it easier for policy makers to place ICTS within the broader development/poverty reduction frameworks. We could then lobby to ensure that ICTs as tools and the sector in general is taken seriously. Lobbying parliamentarians to remind them of the pending communications/ICT related bills/policies would not hurt. Luckily for us in Kenya we have a government that listens and accomodates! best alice A. Wanjira Munyua wrote: > Agree we talk a lot, write a lot of papers, develop many policies, form > committees that develop and submit comprehensive recommendations, etc but > never seem to have the drive/will or is it resources to implement. Look at > the IC bill, our impressive E-government strategy and many others. > Did you all note that none of the bills that affect the communications > sector were mentioned as priorities for parliamentary discussions. > well, I am sorry I am not offering any constructive suggestions just > sharing frustration here. > > best > alice > > > > Michuki Mwangi wrote: >> Walu, >> >> John Walubengo wrote: >>> It always beats me:- How comes we are having to learn from >>> Rwanda every now and then and yet we are supposedly the >>> 'big brother'? >>> >> Maybe we talk too much? ;) >> >> I first heard of tele-medicine back in 2001 - 2002, its been 5yrs since >> not sure how much has been done as a result of the forums and >> discussions held back then. >> >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke > http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > > Please unsubscribe or change your options at http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/alice%40apc.org >

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Re: [kictanet] 2-Day eHealth Workshop closes with a suprise
by A. Wanjira Munyua 26 Mar '07

26 Mar '07

Agree we talk a lot, write a lot of papers, develop many policies, form committees that develop and submit comprehensive recommendations, etc but never seem to have the drive/will or is it resources to implement. Look at the IC bill, our impressive E-government strategy and many others. Did you all note that none of the bills that affect the communications sector were mentioned as priorities for parliamentary discussions. well, I am sorry I am not offering any constructive suggestions just sharing frustration here. best alice Michuki Mwangi wrote: > Walu, > > John Walubengo wrote: >> It always beats me:- How comes we are having to learn from >> Rwanda every now and then and yet we are supposedly the >> 'big brother'? >> > > Maybe we talk too much? ;) > > I first heard of tele-medicine back in 2001 - 2002, its been 5yrs since > not sure how much has been done as a result of the forums and > discussions held back then. > >

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[Fwd: PROJECT OFFICER: KNOWLEDGE COMMUNICATIONS position with IISD]
by A. Wanjira Munyua 26 Mar '07

26 Mar '07

---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: PROJECT OFFICER: KNOWLEDGE COMMUNICATIONS position with IISD From: "A. Wanjira Munyua" <alice(a)apc.org> Date: Mon, March 26, 2007 12:16 pm To: kictanet(a)kictanet.or.ke -------------------------------------------------------------------------- KICTANet Listers, Interesting position with International Institute for Sustainable Development. Please respond to the e-mail address listed at the end of this notice not to KICTANet list. best alice --------------------------------------------------------- PROJECT OFFICER KNOWLEDGE COMMUNICATIONS IISD is seeking a Project Officer to support the initiatives of its Knowledge Communications program. This position is located in Ottawa. Specific duties and responsibilities with respect to the Knowledge Communications program: Research policy linkages between the information society and sustainable development. o Develop a program of work on Internet Governance and its impact on sustainable development: monitor the Internet governance debates, within the IGF, ICANN, and other relevant arenas; prepare information briefs, research papers and organize workshops that contribute to an understanding of the importance of the Internet Governance debate to sustainable development practitioners and policy makers. o Liaise between the key actors (IGF, ICANN, ITU, IDRC, and others) and IISD. o Analyze ICT4D policies in developing countries and develop recommendations for policy coherence with sustainable development strategies, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, Millennium Development Goals and other development frameworks and agendas. o Develop new projects and funding proposals to advance this work. Support capacity building initiatives with young people as leaders in using information and communications technologies to achieve more sustainable development. Contribute to the Knowledge Communications program of work on the operation, management and assessment of networks and other models for individual and inter-organization collaboration o Support evaluations of networks (interviews, surveys, etc.) as assigned o Conduct research on knowledge management and communications topics, as assigned. Other duties as assigned General The Project Officer supports all initiatives of IISD as assigned. General responsibilities include: managing assigned projects, controlling budgets, and supervising IISD or external staff associated with those projects; maintaining contacts with domestic and international project partners; identifying and initiating new projects through IISDs project planning and review mechanism; developing proposals and raising funds for new project initiatives; contributing to IISD projects under various strategic objectives; representing IISD at local, national and international fora; organizing meetings and holding discussions with appropriate persons/groups according to the needs of IISDs initiatives; participating on IISDs Planning and Review Committee as requested; other duties as assigned. The Project Officer reports to the Director, Knowledge Communications. Travel within and outside Canada may be required. Qualifications and Skills The Project Officer should hold a Masters degree in an appropriate field (such as international affairs, environmental studies or ICT policy), with two years relevant experience. S/he should be familiar with the literature and organizations within the fields of Internet governance, ICT for development, knowledge for development, communications for development and institutional collaboration. In particular, s/he should have knowledge of institutions involved in the WSIS (including WSIS follow-up processes) and IGF. S/he should also have a broad knowledge of sustainable development issues. S/he should understand accountability and transparency issues in governance processes and how they relate to sustainable development, be aware of issues related to security and stability of the Internet and their potential implications for the global South, and be able to draw on linkages between ICT and PRSPs. The Project Officer will have demonstrated capacity for managing projects and budgets, and for working with minimal supervision. S/he should be a team player with good interpersonal skills. Excellent writing skills, the ability to work virtually with distributed teams and the capacity to research and communicate via the Internet are essential. Fluency in English is required; knowledge of other languages is desirable. Candidates must be Canadian citizens or landed immigrants. Closing Date: April 6, 2007 Reply in confidence to: Director, Human Resources & Administration International Institute for Sustainable Development 6th Floor, 161 Portage Avenue East Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0Y4 Fax: +1 (204) 958-7710 E-mail: info(a)iisd.ca

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PROJECT OFFICER: KNOWLEDGE COMMUNICATIONS position with IISD
by A. Wanjira Munyua 26 Mar '07

26 Mar '07

KICTANet Listers, Interesting position with International Institute for Sustainable Development. Please respond to the e-mail address listed at the end of this notice not to KICTANet list. best alice --------------------------------------------------------- PROJECT OFFICER KNOWLEDGE COMMUNICATIONS IISD is seeking a Project Officer to support the initiatives of its Knowledge Communications program. This position is located in Ottawa. Specific duties and responsibilities with respect to the Knowledge Communications program: Research policy linkages between the information society and sustainable development. o Develop a program of work on Internet Governance and its impact on sustainable development: monitor the Internet governance debates, within the IGF, ICANN, and other relevant arenas; prepare information briefs, research papers and organize workshops that contribute to an understanding of the importance of the Internet Governance debate to sustainable development practitioners and policy makers. o Liaise between the key actors (IGF, ICANN, ITU, IDRC, and others) and IISD. o Analyze ICT4D policies in developing countries and develop recommendations for policy coherence with sustainable development strategies, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, Millennium Development Goals and other development frameworks and agendas. o Develop new projects and funding proposals to advance this work. Support capacity building initiatives with young people as leaders in using information and communications technologies to achieve more sustainable development. Contribute to the Knowledge Communications program of work on the operation, management and assessment of networks and other models for individual and inter-organization collaboration o Support evaluations of networks (interviews, surveys, etc.) as assigned o Conduct research on knowledge management and communications topics, as assigned. Other duties as assigned General The Project Officer supports all initiatives of IISD as assigned. General responsibilities include: managing assigned projects, controlling budgets, and supervising IISD or external staff associated with those projects; maintaining contacts with domestic and international project partners; identifying and initiating new projects through IISDs project planning and review mechanism; developing proposals and raising funds for new project initiatives; contributing to IISD projects under various strategic objectives; representing IISD at local, national and international fora; organizing meetings and holding discussions with appropriate persons/groups according to the needs of IISDs initiatives; participating on IISDs Planning and Review Committee as requested; other duties as assigned. The Project Officer reports to the Director, Knowledge Communications. Travel within and outside Canada may be required. Qualifications and Skills The Project Officer should hold a Masters degree in an appropriate field (such as international affairs, environmental studies or ICT policy), with two years relevant experience. S/he should be familiar with the literature and organizations within the fields of Internet governance, ICT for development, knowledge for development, communications for development and institutional collaboration. In particular, s/he should have knowledge of institutions involved in the WSIS (including WSIS follow-up processes) and IGF. S/he should also have a broad knowledge of sustainable development issues. S/he should understand accountability and transparency issues in governance processes and how they relate to sustainable development, be aware of issues related to security and stability of the Internet and their potential implications for the global South, and be able to draw on linkages between ICT and PRSPs. The Project Officer will have demonstrated capacity for managing projects and budgets, and for working with minimal supervision. S/he should be a team player with good interpersonal skills. Excellent writing skills, the ability to work virtually with distributed teams and the capacity to research and communicate via the Internet are essential. Fluency in English is required; knowledge of other languages is desirable. Candidates must be Canadian citizens or landed immigrants. Closing Date: April 6, 2007 Reply in confidence to: Director, Human Resources & Administration International Institute for Sustainable Development 6th Floor, 161 Portage Avenue East Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0Y4 Fax: +1 (204) 958-7710 E-mail: info(a)iisd.ca

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PRESIDENTS ADDRESS AT THE INAUGURATION OF COMMONWEALTH CONNECTS: INTERNATIONAL E-PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT, 23RD MARCH 2007, NEW DELHI
by Harry Hare 26 Mar '07

26 Mar '07

Dear Colleagues, Below is President Dr Abdul Kalami's speech when inaugurating the first commonwealth connects International ePartnership Summit in New Delhi India last Friday. It is important to note that the President did not just read his speech, but he used a PowerPoint presentation to visualize his ideas. It was quite a trip for those who were there. Kindest Regards Harry PRESIDENTS ADDRESS AT THE INAUGURATION OF COMMONWEALTH CONNECTS: INTERNATIONAL E-PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT, NEW DELHI _____ Following is the text of the President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalami's Address at the Inauguration of Commonwealth Connects: International E-Partnership Summit here today: Evolution of Commonwealth Knowledge Grid "Connectivity enriches the societies" I am indeed delighted to participate in the inauguration of Commonwealth Connects: International e-Partnership Summit. I am happy that the summit is aiming to promote effective global partnerships between public and private sectors in developing and implementing strategies which will bridge the digital divide across the 53 countries of the Commonwealth. My greetings to the ICT Ministers of the Commonwealth, CEOs, Managing Directors, Government Officials and Senior Representatives from Civil Society. Today when I am with you, I would like to share with you some of the Indian experience in connectivity for achieving the societal transformation. This along with the experiences of other participating Commonwealth countries can lead to evolution of a multi-lateral connectivity between and among nations. Hence, I would like to discuss with you on the topic "Evolution of Commonwealth Knowledge Grid". Broadband economy for prosperity The telecom revolution in India has opened multiple windows of opportunities and the benefits of this revolution are in the process of percolating to the vast majority of our villages. It is through this network that people living in the villages would be able to access modern education, healthcare services and employment opportunities. And I believe, this would be true for many countries in the Commonwealth spectrum. Broadband connectivity is key to realizing the stated socio-economic goals. Large scale utilization of local languages would enable people of the Commonwealth to create content with ease and authenticity which, when shared, would have a positive effect in the growth of economy of all the countries of Commonwealth through the benefits of telecom revolution and related Internet and multimedia tools. Bandwidth is demolisher of imbalance: The bandwidth is the demolisher of imbalances and a great leveler in the knowledge society. Making the bandwidth available is like the Government laying the roads. Movement of materials through these roads creates wealth in the industrial economy and the government recovers more than the investment on the roads by way of taxes and enhanced prosperity to its people. In the modern digital economy driven by knowledge products, bits and bytes traverse the network and create wealth and this will recover the cost of investments in the bandwidth. Thus, a singular action of making the bandwidth available to all our people will bridge the perceived divide. The free bandwidth will make economic sense if we appropriately cost the services offered using the bandwidth. We have the fiber infrastructure ready up to block level, last mile wireless technologies are being implemented and the VSAT technologies for the unreachable are in place in the form of Satellite services. Hence, we are well on course to bridge the digital gap. We are in the midst of convergence of digital technologies. The total installed bandwidth capacity in India, is in the range of 19-20 Terra bytes and lit-up capacity is progressively increasing with enhanced economic activity. Empowerment through Connectivity The total land area of India is around 3.3 million square kilometers with 7000 kilometers of coast line. The entire area is spread into deserts, hilltops, mountains, sea shores, islands, valleys and plains. Out of the billion plus population in the country 70% live in six hundred thousand villages. We are in the process of a societal transformation towards sustainable development for our growth. This we propose to realize in a time bound manner through a knowledge society for empowering the entire nation. Electronic and knowledge connectivity is the key to realize this goal. Connecting a billion people gives multiple challenges. Now, I would like to discuss about societal transformation. In the proposed model, the inter-connectivity among the three sectors of the economy is brought about by four grids: namely, Knowledge Grid, Health Grid, e-Governance Grid and the Rural Grid,. Each grid is a system of multiple portals. This system of grid will bring prosperity to 700 million people in the rural areas and 300 million plus people in the urban areas. In the process, it will ensure that the lives of 220 million people are transformed from below the poverty line. First let me discuss about knowledge grid. Knowledge Grid The endeavor is indeed to build and transform an information society into a knowledge society. The knowledge society will be a society producing, marketing and using products and services that are rich in both explicit and tacit knowledge, thus creating value-added products for national and international consumption. In the knowledge economy, the objective of a society changes from fulfilling the basic needs of all-round development to empowerment. The education system instead of going by textbook teaching will be promoted by creative, interactive self learning ? formal and informal with focus on values, merit and quality. The workers instead of being skilled or semi-skilled will be knowledgeable, self- empowered and flexibly skilled. We have rich knowledge institutions but what we have to add is connectivity. This connectivity today is technologically possible but would need creation of high bandwidth reliable network infrastructure to the extent of minimum 10 Gigabits per second all through the country to provide uniform access of knowledge in different regions leading to the creation of Knowledge GRID. Now, I would like to discuss on establishing the next network in the system of GRIDs across the country, namely Health Grid. Health Grid The mission of telemedicine with healthcare Grid is gaining momentum and it will spread to all the equipped Primary Health Centres in the country, medical colleges and research institutions. Connectivity between 35 urban super-specialty hospitals with 165 remotely located Healthcare Centres has been established through Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) telemedicine grid. This will enable unique case studies and experiences to be exchanged between the super specialists through this health grid. It will also be possible to conduct Conferences of specialist doctors from multi centers to discuss the critical disease patterns and provide treatment. Now I would like to take up e-Governance Grid. Connectivity for E-Governance Good governance is being recognized as an important goal by many countries across the world. They have taken up specific initiatives for open and transparent governance. Freedom of information is being redefined and supported by detailed guidelines. The internet revolution has proved to be a powerful tool for good governance initiatives. An important dimension of the internet potential is the possibility of providing services any time anywhere. Along with this there is a conscious effort to put the citizen as the centre of focus of the governance. Citizens are being perceived as customers and clients. E-governance has to be citizen friendly. Delivery of services to citizens is considered as a primary function of the government. Particularly in a democratic nation of a billion people like India, e-Governance should enable seamless access to information and seamless flow of information across the state and central government in the federal setup crossing the inter-departmental barriers. Typical scenario: I visualize an election scenario, where a candidate files his nomination from a particular constituency. Immediately the election officer verifies his/her authenticity from the national citizen ID database through multifactor authentication, through a multipurpose Citizen ID card. The education credentials of the candidate come from the university records. Candidate's track record of employment comes from various employers with whom the candidate had worked. His or her income and wealth resources come from the income-tax department, and other sources. Candidate's property record comes from the registration of land authority across the country. Candidate's credit history comes form various credit institutions like banks. Candidate's civic consciousness and citizenship behaviour comes from the police crime record. Candidate's legal track records come from the judicial system. All the details arrive at the computer terminal of the election officer within few seconds automatically by the act of e-Governance software agents which crawls across the various state and central government web services directories through the network GRID and collects the information automatically and presents the facts in real-time without any bias. Artificial intelligence software analyses the credentials of the candidate and gives a rating on how successful he or she will be as a politician. Election officer sitting at the remote block of the country decides on the spot and the election process starts. All the voters vote from their home through virtual polling booths. If we consider the breakthroughs and expansion in telecommunication and internet in the last five years, this visualization is no longer a dream and is possible to be achieved by many nations. To establish a system what I have visualized, we need a high bandwidth broadband connectivity across the many Government departments such as State and District Administration, Election commission, Universities, Banks, Home/Police Departments, Insurance companies etc., This scenario requires vertical and horizontal e-Governance grid established across various institutions and the Government. Hence, we can draw information and feed information from these GRIDs for seamless flow of data to achieve the goal of good governance. Now let me discuss the significance of the sustainable development through establishing Rural Grid. Rural Grid India with six hundred thousand villages and seven hundred million people living in the rural areas needs an unique rural development model called PURA. PURA envisages provision of three connectivities namely physical connectivity, electronic connectivity and knowledge connectivity leading to economic connectivity. For providing the knowledge connectivity to the PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) complexes, Village Knowledge Centers will act as frontline delivery system. The Village Knowledge Centre should provide the essential data required for the targeted population such as farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, traders, businessmen, entrepreneurs, unemployed youth and the students. Now the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is in the process of establishing 100,000 Common Service Centre (CSC?s) across the country through public-private partnership model. We have so far discussed all the four connectivities at the national level required for the societal transformation leading to empowerment. Now, I would like to share with you the experience of establishing a Pan African e-Network for providing connectivity among 53 African nations. Pan African e-Network During the year 2003-04, I visited African countries such as Sudan, Tanzania, Zanzibar and South Africa. I addressed the Pan African Parliament on 16 Sept 2004, at Johannesburg, South Africa which was attended by Heads of 53 member countries of the African Union. Based on my study of the communication, healthcare and education needs of the African countries, I proposed the concept of Pan African e-Network for providing seamless and integrated satellite, fiber optics and wireless network connecting 53 African countries. The Pan-African e-Network project is estimated to cost around US$100 million. As part of the project 12 universities (7 from India and 5 from Africa), 17 Super Specialty Hospitals (12 from India and 5 from Africa), 53 tele-medicine centers and 53 tele-education centres in Africa will be connected. The pilot project on tele-education and tele-medicine in Ethiopia has already been commissioned. One of our Indian Universities has taken up the MBA Course for 34 Ethiopian students of Addis Ababa and Harmaya Universities. As regards, tele-medicine, the specialists from CARE Hospital, Hyderabad are providing one-hour live tele-consultation to doctors in Black Lion Hospital, Addis Ababa in Cardiology and Radiology since November 2006. The Pan African e-Network will primarily provide Tele-Education, Tele-Medicine, Internet, videoconferencing and VOIP services. It also supports e-Governance, e-Commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological services. Each remote location will be able to access the Internet through the network by linking the HUB to Internet backbone. Using this network the Heads of the State in all the 53 countries will be connected for instant communication. The network is designed to have 169 terminals and a central hub to deliver tele-education and tele-medicine services. The proposed network will utilize state-of-the-art technology and can be integrated with the latest broadband technologies like Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. The network is scalable to support different applications catering to increased number of users. I am happy to inform you that 22 countries will be connected in the first half of 2007 and the rest will be operationalized by early 2008. RB Multimedia Studio Now, I would like to share with you another experience when I delivered 2006 Phillip Tobias Lecture on 27th September 2006 from Rashtrapati Bhavan Multimedia studio using Multimedia tele-conferencing. After the lecture, I was interacting with Prof Tobias and his team at Durban, Johannesburg in South Africa and Sanfrancisco in USA. This experience made me realize the power of technology as an integrator of minds leading to a borderless world without geographical barriers ? a symbol of universalisation. Based on these interactions, I have suggested one of our leading scientific institutions to collaborate with specialists in South Africa in Anthropology for promoting conservation of certain types of endangered species. I am sure many Commonwealth countries participating in today?s summit have several experiences to share and Commonwealth connects programme can formulate a plan to integrate the core-competence of nations for mutual benefit. This power of networking can definitely be used by Commonwealth countries for sharing their core competencies and building a knowledge platform for serving the development aspirations of the individual nations through collective wisdom. Suggestions I would like to give few suggestions for the consideration of the Commonwealth Connects 2007: International e-Partnership Summit. 1. Evolving guidelines for common telecommunication policy to share resources, network, infrastructure, without any barrier and facilitate implementation through a Commonwealth co-ordination centre. 2. Evolving guidelines for Common Information Security policy in IT. 3. Modernizing education through state of the art skill development programmes among the Commonwealth nations leading to skill certification and acceptance among the countries for global employment opportunities. 4. Undertaking study of e-governance implementations across the Commonwealth nations and suggest the best practices for the G2G and G2C implementations. 5. Creating a mechanism which will facilitate pooling of core competence of nations for developing knowledge products and systems for serving the global market in education, healthcare and e- governance. 6. Identifying gaps in educational standards of IT professionals in the Global business scenario in IT, ITES and BPO services and creating institutional mechanisms for training, accreditation and grading based on performance. Creating a common web portal for sharing information and knowledge among Commonwealth countries. 7. Creating a Commonwealth Connects Fund and Institute a Commonwealth committee to address the above mentioned suggestions. Conclusion The 53 countries of Commonwealth constitute a population of 2 billion i.e. one third of the population of the Planet. This network of independent nations in the past has taken up many initiatives for interconnecting their heritage in art, culture, science and technology, history, sports and way of living. Such a strong base of relationship and the core competence of the countries can be further integrated into a very useful partnership by providing connectivity through the Evolution of a Commonwealth Knowledge Grid. This can address many common challenges for development such as developing a knowledge society through quality education, providing affordable quality healthcare to all, sustainable rural development through cluster approach, providing transparent people-friendly-governance and above all evolution of an enlightened society for improving the National Prosperity Index of all the partner countries. The model developed by the Commonwealth Nations will have the potential to be extended to the entire Planet. With these words, I inaugurate the Commonwealth Connects: International e-Partnership Summit. My best wishes to all the participants of the Summit for success in their mission of creating a productive e-Partnership between and amongst all the Commonwealth countries. May God bless you.

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